Emmy® Award-winner André Braugher has passed away at the age of 61, according to reports. No other details other than he battled a “brief illness” have been revealed.
Braugher, who was born and raised in Chicago, earned a B.A. from Stanford University and an M.F.A. from Juilliard.
For eight seasons, Braugher starred alongside Andy Samberg in the hit comedy series “Brooklyn Nine-Nine.” Andre 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.
Braugher starred on the critically acclaimed TNT series “Men of a Certain Age” alongside Ray Romano and Scott Bakula. Braugher received two Emmy® Award nominations for his role on the show. He was also starred in the sci-fi mini-series The Andromeda Strain (2008) alongside Benjamin Bratt and Eric McCormack for A&E.
In 2006 Braugher won an Emmy® Award for Outstanding Performance by a Lead Actor in a Mini-Series and a Golden Globe Award nomination for his starring role in mini-series Thief, which aired on FX.
In 2004, Braugher starred in the TNT original four-hour mini-series Salem’s Lot based on the best-selling novel by Stephen King. Prior to that film, he starred in the Showtime Original Film A Soldier’s Girl.
In 2002, he starred in the critically 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. Braugher served as Executive Producer on this film, and he received an NAACP Award nomination for his role as A. Philip Randolph.
In 2000-2001, Braugher starred in the critically acclaimed ABC drama series Gideon’s Crossing. Braugher received an Emmy® Award nomination and a Golden Globe Award nomination for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series for his role as Dr. Ben Gideon in Gideon’s Crossing.
In 1999 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) garnering critical acclaim for his performance.
But it is his riveting portrayal of Detective Frank Pembleton on the NBC series “Homicide: Life on the Street” (1992-98) which brought Braugher breakout success and garnered him two Emmy® Award nominations and an Emmy® Award in 1998 and two Television Critics Association Awards in 1997 and 1998 for Best Actor in a Drama Series.
Braugher received a second Emmy® Award nomination in 1996 for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Mini-Series for his work in the Peabody Award-winning HBO production The Tuskeegee Airmen.
Braugher’s other television credits include the ABC drama “Last Resort,” reprising his Emmy® Award-winning role of Detective Frank Pembleton in the two-hour NBC Special 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 Stephen 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 a part of an ensemble cast, which 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.
Braugher’s other notable feature film credits include 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.
A most versatile performer, Braugher has appeared on stage with 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, Braugher preformed 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.
In 2011 Braugher starred in the Manhattan Theatre Club’s New York premiere of Matthew Lopez’s The Whipping Man.
In 2014 Braugher presented the New York premiere of Oni Faida Lampley’s “Tough Titty” along with his wife Ami 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.
In January 2019, Braugher starred in the World Premiere of “Tell Them I’m Still Young” by Julia Doolittle at the South Orange Performing Arts Center.
