Source: Bob Riha Jr / Getty
Andre Braugher, Emmy Award-winner and star of Brooklyn Nine-Nine has passed away suddenly, surprising the entertainment industry.
On Tuesday night (December 12), it was confirmed that Andre Braugher had passed away. His publicist, Jennifer Allen, stated that Braugher had died after undergoing a brief illness. She did not elaborate on what that illness was. Braugher was 61 years old. His passing was met with grief by David Simon, who remembered the Homicide: Life On The Street actor in a post on X, formerly Twitter: “I’ve worked with a lot of wonderful actors. I’ll never work with one better.”
Braugher rose to fame after a breakthrough role in the acclaimed 1989 film Glory, starring as Corporal Thomas Searles of the Union Army’s all-Black 54th Regiment of Massachusetts during the Civil War. The actor would build upon that success as the intense Baltimore Detective Frank Pembleton in Homicide: Life On The Street. Braugher would win the first of his two Emmy Awards for his role, earning him a reputation as an actor with tremendous presence. He would go on to star in numerous films including Spike Lee’s Get On The Bus and HBO’s The Tuskegee Airmen. Braugher also made his mark in television series including House, The Good Fight, Men Of A Certain Age starring opposite Ray Romano, and Thief. That FX crime miniseries gave him his second Emmy.
The actor gained a whole new audience when he turned to comedy, starring as Captain Raymond Holt, the stern but hilarious precinct commander in the sitcom Brooklyn Nine-Nine. Co-star Terry Crews offered his heartfelt condolences in an Instagram post. “Can’t believe you’re gone so soon. I’m honored to have known you, laughed with you, worked with you and shared 8 glorious years watching your irreplaceable talent. This hurts. You left us too soon,” he wrote.
Born in Chicago’s West Side on July 1st, 1962, Braugher attended St. Ignatius Prep and earned a scholarship to Stanford University. Noting that he could’ve been a bigger success, Braugher remarked on it with perspective noting his choice to focus on his family life. “It’s been an interesting career, but I think it could have been larger,” he said to HuffPost. “I think it could have spanned more disciplines: directing, producing, all these other different things. But it would have been at the expense of my own life.”
