Chicago actor Guy Adkins dies at age 41

Local actor Guy Adkins died at age 41 after a battle with colon cancer, according to his longtime partner and fellow actor Sean Allan Krill.

Adkins, who died Wednesday in Chicago, openly documented his physical struggles via Facebook and a blog he titled "Notes from a Candyman" on his website at guyadkins.com.

Adkins was equally at home on stage in big, brassy musicals and more introspective roles ranging from Shakespeare's "Hamlet" to Tom Stoppard's young poet A.E. Houseman in "The Invention of Love" (both for the Court Theatre).

The Michigan native moved to Chicago in the early 1990s and regularly appeared on Chicago-area stages including the Marriott Theatre, Steppenwolf, Drury Lane Oak Brook and Chicago Shakespeare Theater. Adkins was nominated multiple times for Jeff Awards, winning supporting actor awards in 1999 for the Goodman Theatre's "Floyd Collins" and in 2002 for Writers' Theatre's "Misalliance."

In recent years, Adkins co-starred alongside both film star Molly Ringwald and "Trading Spaces" reality TV star Paige Davis in a national tour of "Sweet Charity." Adkins also won much acclaim in leading roles in the Marriott Theatre's "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" in 2005 and "The Producers" in 2007. He is set to be featured in the forthcoming independent film "The David Dance."

Adkins is survived by Krill, his parents and three sisters. Funeral services are to be private, but a memorial is in the planning stages.