Andre Braugher, star of Brooklyn Nine-Nine dies after short illness aged 61
American actor Andre Braugher, who starred in television series Brooklyn Nine-Nine and Homicide: Life on the Street, has died aged 61.
His publicist Jennifer Allen confirmed he died after a short illness.
Braugher is perhaps best known for his role as Captain Raymond Holt on the comedy series Brooklyn Nine-Nine, which ended in 2021.
His co-star Terry Crews posted a tribute to the actor on Instagram.
“Can’t believe you’re gone so soon,” it read.
“I’m honored to have known you, laughed with you, worked with you and shared 8 glorious years watching your irreplaceable talent.
“This hurts.”
Marc Evan Jackson, who plays Dr Kevin Cozner, Braugher’s on-screen husband posted a short tribute as well.
“O Captain. My Captain,” it said.
Joe Lo Truglio, who played Charles Boyle, shared his favourite stories from his time on the show with Braugher.
“”The man was so full of song and that’s why the world took notice,” he wrote.
“He was committed and passionate about the things he loved and that voice.
“It laid anchor to the roughest of dialogue.”
“Fiercely intelligent, remarkably kind, supportive, and generous and possessed a deep and extraordinary talent, and had even more to offer,” Dirk Blocker, who played Michael Hitchcock wrote on Instagram.
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 America’s 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 Detective Frank Pembleton, which he played 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.
Simon wrote on X that he was stunned.
“Adre Braugher. God,” he wrote.
“I’ve worked with lot of wonderful actors.
“I’ll never work with one better.”
Years later he then moved to play a very different kind of cop on a very different kind of show, shifting to comedy as Captain Holt on Andy Samberg’s Fox series, Brooklyn Nine-Nine.
Braugher won two career Emmys for the show from 11 nominations.
Though he’d dipped his toe into comedy in the TNT dramedy Men of a Certain Age, Brooklyn Nine-Nine still represented a major shift for Braugher, who was known for acting in dark and heavy dramas.
“I just felt as though it was an opportunity to do something strikingly different from the rest of my career,” Braugher told the AP.
“I like it because it just simply opens up my mind and forces me to think in a different way. So I think I’ve become much more sort of supple as an actor, and more open to the incredible number of possibilities of how to play a scene.”
He was married for more than 30 years to his Homicide co-star Ami Brabson.
They had three sons. (ABC News)
