Andre Braugher, the Emmy-winning actor best known for his roles on the series Homicide: Life on The Street and Brooklyn Nine-Nine, died on Monday (Dec 11) at age 61.
Braugher’s publicist Jennifer Allen confirmed his death to the trade publication Variety. Allen told CNN that Braugher’s death was due to a brief illness.
The Chicago-born actor had his breakthrough role in 1989’s Glory, starring alongside Morgan Freeman and Denzel Washington, who won an Oscar for the film about an all-black army regiment during the the Civil War.
Despite the part, he told The Associated Press in 2019 that he struggled to find work in a Hollywood where roles for African American actors were “few and far between. Period”.
But he would establish himself with the role of Det Frank Pembleton, which he would play for seven seasons in Homicide: Life On The Street, a gritty police drama on NBC based on a book by David Simon, who would go on to create The Wire.