André Braugher Dies: Star Of ‘Homicide: Life On The Street’, ‘Brooklyn Nine-Nine’ & Other Series And Films Was 61
André Braugher has died. The two-time Emmy-winning star of series including Homicide: Life on the Street, Men of a Certain Age and Brooklyn Nine-Nine was 61.
Braugher, whose first film role came alongside Matthew Broderick and Denzel Washington in the Ed Zwick-directed Glory, died Monday after a brief illness.
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While Braugher peppered his résumé with comedies, many will remember him for his ferocious portrayal of Detective Frank Pembleton in the NBC drama Homicide: Life on the Street. Put him in “the box,” sweating out and outsmarting crime suspects in the interrogation room, and you were looking at a weekly dose of tour de force acting, as good as it got on television during that time. He won an Emmy for that show he starred in from 1992-98. His wife, Ami Brabson, recurred as Pembleton’s wife on Homicide.
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He won the Emmy in 1998, as well as two Television Critics Association Awards in 1997 and 1998. Watch Homicide executive producer Barry Levinson talk about casting Braugher below, from a 2016 interview for the Television Academy Foundation.
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Born and raised in Chicago — he earned a B.A. from Stanford University and an M.F.A. from Juilliard — Braugher most recently co-starred in She Said, the drama film retelling of New York Times journalists Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey, whose reporting led to the prosecution of Harvey Weinstein and sparked the #MeToo movement. He starred as Dean Baquet, the Times‘ Executive Editor who oversaw the two reporters.
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Braugher was going to star in the Netflix show Residence as his next project. He also starred in the sixth and final season of Paramount+’s legal drama The Good Fight, playing showman lawyer and rainmaker Ri’Chard Lane alongside Christine Baranski and Audra McDonald.
For eight seasons, Braugher starred alongside Andy Samberg in the hit comedy series Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and he won two Critics Choice Awards for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series and received four Emmy Award nominations for his role as Captain Ray Holt in the series that began on Fox and later moved to NBC.
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Braugher before that starred on the two seasons of acclaimed TNT series Men of a Certain Age alongside Ray Romano and Scott Bakula. He received two Emmy nominations for his role as an anxiety-stricken diabetic dad on the show. He also starred in the 2008 sci-fi miniseries The Andromeda Strain alongside Benjamin Bratt and Eric McCormack for A&E.
He won an Emmy for Outstanding Performance by a Lead Actor in a Mini-Series and a Golden Globe Award nomination for his starring role in the miniseries Thief, which aired on FX. He also starred in the TNT original four-hour miniseries Salem’s Lot, based on the bestselling novel by Stephen King. Prior to that, he starred in the Showtime Original Film A Soldier’s Girl.
Braugher starred in the acclaimed CBS series Hack opposite David Morse and in the Showtime Original Film 10,000 Black Men Named George with Charles Dutton and Mario Van Peebles for director Robert Townsend. He served as executive producer on the latter film, and he received an NAACP Award nomination for his role as A. Philip Randolph.
He also starred in the ABC drama series Gideon’s Crossing, getting Emmy and Golden Globe noms for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series for his role as Dr. Ben Gideon.
Braugher made his directorial debut with one vignette of the Showtime trilogy Love Songs, in which he also starred, and he starred in the TNT telefilm Passing Glory (1999) for director Steve James (Hoop Dreams).
Braugher received a second Emmy nomination in 1996 for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Mini-Series for his work in the Peabody-winning HBO production The Tuskeegee Airmen.
His other television credits include the ABC drama Last Resort; reprising his Emmy-winning role of Detective Frank Pembleton in the two-hour NBC telefilm Homicide: The Movie (2000); the title role in The Court-Martial of Jackie Robinson (1990); HBO’s Somebody Has to Shoot the Picture (1990); and NBC’s Murder in Mississippi (1990). He began his television career as the late Telly Savalas’ sidekick in television movies based on the original Kojak series.
In addition to Braugher’s success on the small screen, audiences have seen him star in a variety of feature film roles. He voiced a role in the animated feature Spirit Untamed (2021); he co-starred in the feature film Baytown Outlaws (2012); co-starred in Salt (2010) opposite Angelina Jolie for director Phillip Noyce; co-starred in Passengers (2008) opposite Anne Hathaway; in the Frank Darabont The Mist (2007) based on the novel by King; in Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007); in the thriller Poseidon (2006); in Duets (2000) opposite Gwyneth Paltrow for director Bruce Paltrow; in the independent feature A Better Way to Die (2000); and alongside Dennis Quaid in the critically praised film Frequency (2000).
Before that he starred with Alec Baldwin in the independent film Thick as Thieves (1999), which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and later aired on HBO. He was was a part of an ensemble cast that included Jeff Daniels, Gary Sinise, Joan Allen and Anna Paquin in director Jim Stern’s All the Rage (1999), and starred in City of Angels (1998) with Nicolas Cage, Meg Ryan and Dennis Franz.
Other feature turns included Primal Fear (1996) with Richard Gere, which marked his first collaboration with Frequency director Gregory Hoblit; Spike Lee’s Get on the Bus (1996); and Glory (1989), the Oscar-winning story of America’s first unit of Black soldiers during the Civil War.
On the live stage, Braugher appeared at the New York Shakespeare Festival in Measure for Measure; Twelfth Night; in the title role of Henry V, which earned him an Obie Award; and in As You Like It.
At Joseph Papp’s Public Theater, he performed in The Way of the World and Shakespeare’s Richard II and Coriolanus. He played Iago in the Folger Shakespeare Festival production of Othello and performed the title role in Macbeth for the Philadelphia Drama Guild.
He also starred in the Manhattan Theatre Club’s New York premiere of Matthew Lopez’s The Whipping Man.
Braugher presented the New York premiere of Oni Faida Lampley’s Tough Titty along with his wife Brabson, who starred in the lead role in the play. Inspired by Lampley’s own experiences, Tough Titty follows a woman whose breast cancer diagnosis sends her on a journey of self-discovery as she learns to face the disease, her family and her community.
He also starred in the world premiere of Tell Them I’m Still Young by Julia Doolittle at the South Orange Performing Arts Center.
Along with Brabson, his wife of 32 years, Braugher is survived by sons Michael, Isaiah and John Wesley; his brother Charles Jennings; and their mother Sally Braugher. He also leaves behind WME agent Brandt Joel, attorney Keith Klevan and his publicist Jennifer Allen of Viewpoint, his rep team for the past 25 years.
In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Classical Theatre of Harlem, where Braugher served on the board.
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