Two-time Emmy Award-winning actor Andre Braugher died after a brief illness on Monday. He was 61.
Before Braugher became one of his generation’s finest actors, he grew up in Chicago’s Austin community on the West Side. His mother worked for the Postal Service, and his father was a heavy equipment operator.
He grew up in a home that stressed academic excellence.
His dad would review his homework nightly and make him redo it if there were too many erasures or even smudges, the actor told The New York Times in a 2014 profile.
Braugher was reared in a tough Chicago neighborhood but didn’t succumb to the pressures that often befall young men in Austin.
“We lived in a ghetto,” Braugher said in The Times profile. “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.”
Braugher attended St. Ignatius College Prep, a Jesuit Catholic School on the Near West Side. It was at St. Ignatius that he distinguished himself as a student. From there, Braugher earned a scholarship to attend Stanford University, where his father hoped he would study engineering. Much to his dad’s chagrin, Braugher told him he wanted to become an actor.
Those ambitions won out.
Acting ‘Glory’
Braugher eventually earned his undergraduate degree in theater from Stanford and secured a scholarship to attend Julliard. After graduating from the prestigious performing arts conservatory, he found work, landing the role of Thomas Searles in “Glory.”
Incredibly, he got the opportunity to join a stellar cast that featured venerable actors Morgan Freeman, Matthew Broderick and a young Denzel Washington, who went on to win a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his portrayal of Silas Trip.
While Freeman, Washington and Broderick got the majority of plaudits in “Glory,” Braugher also garnered attention. A 1990 St. Louis Post-Dispatch review of the film named him as one of its “superlative Black actors” for portraying the bookish and Boston-bred Searles.
Along with his turn in “Glory,” he returned to the stage. He also played Det. Winston Blake in a handful of “Kojak” TV movies.
While Braugher’s Kojak character isn’t recognized as much as his work in “Glory” and other shows, his portrayal as a law officer would serve as a bellwether for the sort of roles he would define his career.
In ‘Homicide: Life on the Street,’ a Career-Defining Turn
The most notable was his turn as the eloquent yet forceful Det. Frank Pembleton in the TV series, “Homicide: Life on the Street,” which earned him a lead actor Emmy. The Times called him the “soul and conscience” of the show.
Tom Fontana, the showrunner of “Homicide,” added, “He could say so much with his eyes. We’d write these incredibly glorious speeches for him, and then you would see him just look at someone, and we’d sometimes go: ‘Drop the monologue. He’s already sold it.'”
When Braugher left the show to pursue film and stage opportunities, fellow co-star Kyle Secor said, “I’ll miss him terribly. He’s been a real teacher for me, as an actor and as a human being. He’s an amazing human being, with integrity out the kazoo, just like Pembleton.”
Braugher got those opportunities in spades during his post-” Homicide” run, including parts in films and shows such as “City of Angels,” “Frequency,” “The Mist” and “Men of a Certain Age,” among others.
He also won another lead actor Emmy for his role in the 2006 miniseries “Thief.”
Making His Mark on ‘Brooklyn Nine-Nine’
But in “Gideon’s Crossing,” which debuted in 2000, Braugher finally got a show centered around his considerable talent. However, the medical drama only lasted for one season. It got canceled for poor ratings despite critical praise.
That would also be a theme throughout Braugher’s career: an actor’s actor doing exceptional work for critically beloved shows that could not muster the ratings to survive on network TV.
“I’ve really been trying to break my addiction to critically acclaimed, poorly watched shows,” Braugher said to the Times.
But that changed in 2013 when he landed the role of the stern and humane Capt. Raymond Holt in the celebrated comedy “Brooklyn Nine-Nine.”
Though “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” was pitched as this star-making vehicle for Saturday Night Live alum Andy Samberg, Braugher would make an indelible mark on the show, earning four Emmy nominations for best-supporting actor.
A flood of his former castmates and directors took to social media to express their sadness and sympathy over Braugher’s death.
“I’m honored to have known you, laughed with you, worked with you and shared 8 glorious years watching your irreplaceable talent. This hurts,” wrote actor Terry Crews in an Instagram post, commemorating his “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” co-star. “You left us too soon. You taught me so much.
Crews added this, which could also sum up how fans, admirers and appreciators of Braugher’s immense skill feel after learning of his passing.
“I will be forever grateful for the experience of knowing you.”
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