Lance Reddick, The Wire and John Wick Star, Dies at 60
Lance Reddick, the actor who broke out with a complex, powerful performance as Lt. Cedric Daniels in the seminal HBO show
The Wire, has died. He was 60.
The actor’s body was discovered in his Studio City home on Friday, TMZ reported. Reddick’s publicist Mia Hansen told The Hollywood Reporter that he died “suddenly … from natural causes” Friday morning.
Reddick had recently been promoting
John Wick: Chapter 4, the latest installment of the Keanu Reeves franchise in which he played Charon, the hotel concierge at New York’s criminal underground hub, The Continental Hotel.
The actor was also known for his TV work on
Fringe,
Bosch and
Lost. With a sonorous and memorable voice, Reddick also worked frequently as a voice actor on projects including
The Vindicators, DuckTales, Rick and Morty and
Castlevania.
Reddick had about a dozen credits under his belt when he went in to audition for
The Wire, most notably the HBO series
Oz. “I remember reading the script and thinking that I’d never read a pilot like this before. To this day, it’s the only pilot I’ve ever read that I thought, ‘I have to be on this show,’” he told
The Hollywood Reporter in 2019.
He
initially auditioned for Bunk Moreland, the character that ultimately went to Wendell Pierce, and was the runner-up to play Bubbles, who was portrayed by Andre Royo. Recalled the actor: “I didn’t even know what character I wanted to play because in the pilot script, the only character that’s obviously prominent is McNulty (Dominic West), and I knew that Bunk was his partner.”
After missing out on those two roles, he got another audition to read for Daniels, but the
Wire team initially passed on him. Reddick moved on with his life, wondering where his next job would be, when he got a surprise page from his agent. Plans had changed, and he had been cast as Daniels. Said the actor: “It was the first time where something happened in my life where I was hoping I wasn’t dreaming.”
Reddick was 39 when
The Wire premiered in June 2002. The drama from David Simon explored crime and corruption in Baltimore and though it was not a runaway hit while it aired, it is now considered one of the greatest television shows of all time.
The actor’s death comes ahead of the release of the fourth John Wick, which arrives March 24. Like others involved in the 2014 first film, Reddick had no idea it would be a runaway hit that would spawn multiple movies and spinoffs, including
The Continental, featuring a younger version of his character played by Ayomide Adegun.
Reddick had several other projects already completed, including the John Wick spinoff
The Ballerina, and 20th Century’s remake of
White Men Can’t Jump, which arrives May 19. He had also completed work on the Disney+ series
Percy Jackson and the Olympians.
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/lance-reddick-dead-wire-john-wick-1235355469/
