Lance Reddick, a prolific actor who received repute enjoying a police commander at the Baltimore crime drama “The Wire” and later had distinguished roles within the “John Wick” film franchise and the Amazon sequence “Bosch,” died on Friday. He used to be 60.
His dying used to be showed by way of his publicist, Mia Hansen. She didn’t say the place he died or cite a purpose.
Mr. Reddick used to be having some luck as a degree actor when, in 1996, he started touchdown small roles on “New York Undercover,” “The West Wing” and different tv sequence, in addition to some TV motion pictures.
Even then he used to be steadily enjoying regulation enforcement figures, and he could be doing so when his step forward got here in 2002: He used to be forged as Lt. Cedric Daniels, the principled head of the investigation unit, on “The Wire,” the sprawling HBO sequence that used to be praised for its sensible and steadily downbeat depiction of policing, crime, schooling and different facets of existence in Baltimore.
The sequence ran for 5 seasons and is broadly considered having introduced a brand new degree of sophistication to police dramas and tv usually.
“Ever since ‘The Wire,’” Mr. Reddick instructed “The IMDB Show” in a video interview, “I’ve played a lot of intimidating authority figures that talk a lot.”
On the Fox science fiction drama “Fringe,” which made its debut in 2008, he used to be Phillip Broyles, a Homeland Security agent. In the crime drama “Bosch,” which ran from 2014 to 2021, he used to be a police reliable. In the film “White House Down” (2013), about an attack at the White House, he used to be vp of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
“Intensity is not something I try to do,” he instructed The Queensland Times of Australia in 2010. “It’s just kind of the way that I am.”
He were given clear of law-enforcement roles within the “John Wick” motion pictures, the motion franchise that stars Keanu Reeves within the identify position. He performed Charon, a lodge supervisor, in all 4 movies, the primary of which used to be launched in 2014. The newest is being launched this month.
In all the ones roles, and in others, Mr. Reddick used to be a particular, straight away recognizable presence, although he used to be no longer rather a family title. His voice used to be unique, too, as avid gamers of Horizon Zero Dawn, Destiny 2 and different video video games on which he may well be heard know.
“Range is always what I’m striving for,” Mr. Reddick instructed The Los Angeles Times in 2019. “I never want anybody to say, ‘Oh, this is who he is.’ Although the characters I play, even in all their diversity, tend to be fairly intense. But they’re all very different guys.”
Beginning in 2008 he used to be in a couple of episodes of the ABC sequence “Lost,” enjoying a personality named Matthew Abaddon. The display had a large following, and even though the nature wasn’t round lengthy, Mr. Reddick mentioned it boosted his visibility much more than “The Wire” had.
“I was living in New York at the time, and it seemed like everybody was stopping me to talk about ‘Lost,’” he instructed The Baltimore Sun in 2019. “I went from small, niche notoriety to being completely recognizable.”
Lance Solomon Reddick used to be born on June 7, 1962, in Baltimore. His mom taught instrumental tune, and his father used to be an educator and later a public defender.
Mr. Reddick attended the Eastman School of Music in (*60*), N.Y., the place he studied classical composition. He used to be a talented pianist and in 2010 launched an album of his personal works, “Contemplations & Remembrances.”
By the early Nineteen Nineties Mr. Reddick used to be in Boston and exploring appearing. He quickly enrolled at the Yale School of Drama, the place he gained a grasp’s stage. He carried out at Yale Repertory Theater with Liev Schreiber and different long term stars.
“When I went to drama school,” he instructed The Los Angeles Times in 2009, “I knew I was at least as talented as other students, but because I was a Black man and I wasn’t pretty, I knew I would have to work my butt off to be the best that I would be, and to be noticed.”
In 1995, at Manhattan Theater Club in New York, he gave the impression in “After-Play,” Anne Meara’s play about two {couples} who settle in for dinner after attending the theater; Mr. Reddick portrayed their mysterious waiter. The play had a long term in New York, and in 1997 he reprised the position at the Westport Country Playhouse in Connecticut.
By then his tv paintings used to be starting to select up, even if he didn’t abandon the degree totally. In 2006 he used to be in Signature Theater Company’s New York revival of August Wilson’s “Seven Guitars,” striking his musical background to excellent use portraying a blues musician named Floyd.
“Floyd’s charisma and his anger are all the more impressive for the quietness with which Mr. Reddick renders them,” Ben Brantley wrote in his overview in The New York Times.
To get ready for his position in “The Wire,” Mr. Reddick instructed the Australian newspaper, he did a couple of ride-alongs with cops within the South Bronx.
“They had been announcing, ‘This section is OK, that section is bad,” he said. “What we were seeing was block and block and block of abandoned houses and drug addicts wandering around. It was almost surreal.”
Mr. Reddick was working on several projects at his death, including a new version of “The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial.”
He is survived by his wife, Stephanie Reddick; a daughter, Yvonne Nicole Reddick; and a son, Christopher Reddick.
In a 2010 interview with The Miami Herald, Mr. Reddick said the role that particularly stood out for him was one of his smaller ones: a guest appearance on “Law & Order.”
“I played an army captain from Sierra Leone in 2001 before I was cast in ‘The Wire,’” he mentioned, “and I had to learn the Sierra Leone accent. To this day, that’s my favorite character, the character I’m most proud of.”
Kwame Opam and McKenna Oxenden contributed reporting.