Actor Andre Braugher, known for his roles in the series Homicide and Brooklyn Nine-Nine, died Monday, December 11 at the age of 61, his press secretary, Jennifer Allen, confirmed to Variety on Tuesday, December 12.
The Chicago-born actor came to prominence in the 1989 film Glory, alongside Morgan Freeman and Denzel Washington, who won an Oscar for the feature film about an all-black army regiment. during the Civil War.Despite this role, he told the Associated Press in 2019 that he struggled to find work in a Hollywood where roles for African-American actors were “rare. And that’s all “.
But he established himself with the role of detective Frank Pembleton, which he played from 1993 to 1998 in Homicide, a detective series inspired by a book by Baltimore journalist David Simon, who would later launch into television , notably creating the cult series On Listening. Andre Braugher won his first Emmy for this role, for Outstanding Actor in a Drama Series, in 1998. He won his second Emmy in 2006 – Outstanding Actor in a Miniseries or Movie – for his role in Thief.
Nominated eleven times for the Emmy Awards
Years later, he remained in the police register, but in a very different style, comedy, playing Captain Ray Holt in the series Brooklyn Nine-Nine, with comic Andy Samberg. The series ran for eight seasons, from 2013 to 2021, and earned four Emmy nominations. In total, the actor has been nominated eleven times for American television awards.
Although he made his first steps in comedy in the series Men of a Certain Age (2009-2011), Brooklyn Nine-Nine represents a major change for Andre Braugher, until then better known for starring in dark dramas. “I felt like it was an opportunity to do something completely different from the rest of my career,” he said in 2019. “I like it because it opens my mind and forces me to think differently. I think I’ve become much more flexible as an actor and more open to the incredible number of possibilities in playing a scene. »
Andre Braugher was married for over thirty years to Ami Brabson, with whom he shared the screen in Homicide. They have three sons.