 Cratty died, at the age of 47, of liver cancer at his home in London on September 9, 1998.Since his death, each year the Ohio University School of Dance presents the Bill Cratty Award, a scholarship in Cratty's honor, to a male undergraduate dance major.Cratty's work was considered traditional, mainstream, modern dance by critics and was unique in the 1980s when postmodern, minimal, abstract dance was becoming popular.