Andre Braugher, a two-time Emmy-winning actor and father of three, has died at 61.
The Chicago native passed on Monday after a brief illness, his rep told the Hollywood Reporter. He's survived by his wife Ami Brabson and sons Michael, Isaiah, and John Wesley, per Deadline.
Braugher grew up in the crime-ravaged West Side of Chicago, according to a 2014 profile by the New York Times. “We lived in a ghetto,” Braugher is quoted as saying matter-of-factly. “I could have pretended I was hard or tough and not a square. I wound up not getting in trouble. I don’t consider myself to be especially wise, but I will say that it’s pretty clear that some people want to get out and some people don’t. I wanted out.”
He initially planned on studying engineering, per his father’s wishes, until a friend told him about a student production of Hamlet that was looking for another person to round out the cast. Braugher told the Times he became hooked on the experience, skipping classes to hang out with his new theater friends, to the detriment of his grades and his father.
Citing greats like James Earl Jones and Sidney Poitier, Braugher eventually got his father on board with his major switch and secured a scholarship to Juilliard.
The actor went on to appear in 1989’s Glory, where co-starred with Denzel Washington and Morgan Freeman. Further into his career, he was known for his roles in a number of hit series including Homicide: Life on the Street (for which he won an Emmy in 1998), Men of a Certain Age, and Brooklyn Nine-Nine, the cop comedy where he starred alongside Andy Samberg.
“Andre has such a fluency in the world of cop drama, and that works to his advantage,” Samberg told the Times in 2014. “Applying the polish and dramatics that you would to something very serious to something very silly is a classic move that I always love.”
Among Andre Braugher's last credits are 2022’s She Said in the role of Dean Baquet, a New York Times executive editor who oversaw journalists Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohy, whose reporting led to Harvey Weinstein’s prosecution and launched the #MeToo movement.
The beloved actor was tapped to star in the Netflix series Residence as his next project. It was set to begin filming early next year.
RIP.
