American actor Isiah Whitlock Jr., who performed a corrupt politician on HBO crime drama “The Wire” and had roles in quite a few movies directed by Oscar winner Spike Lee, died at age 71 on Tuesday, his supervisor stated.
“It is with tremendous sadness that I share the passing of my dear friend and client Isiah Whitlock Jr. If you knew him — you loved him. A brilliant actor and even better person,” supervisor Brian Liebman wrote on social media.
Whitlock delighted audiences as slimy politician Clay Davis on action-packed drama “The Wire,” primarily based on former journalist David Simon’s gritty tales from the seedy underbelly of drug-trafficking and legal politicking in Baltimore, Maryland.
Writers on the present leaned into his character’s catchphrase, a drawn-out pronunciation of the phrase “shit” that lasted a number of syllables — “sheeeee-it.”
On Tuesday, Simon posted a picture of Whitlock, smiling with mild eyes, in honor of the actor’s passing.
With greater than 125 appearing credit to his identify, Whitlock’s profession spanned a long time and consists of roles in lots of Spike Lee movies, together with “She Hate Me,” “25th Hour,” “Red Hook Summer,” “Chi-Raq,” “BlacKkKlansman” and “Da 5 Bloods.”
Lee took to social media to share a photograph of himself holding fingers with Whitlock, calling him “My Dear Beloved Brother.”
Whitlock’s different memorable turns embody his position because the U.S. Secretary of Defense on the satire TV comedy sequence “Veep,” which parodies the office atmosphere of politicians in Washington.
In considered one of his earliest movie roles, Whitlock appeared in Martin Scorsese’s “Goodfellas,” as a physician who supplied mobster Henry Hill with valium.
His deep baritone voice was in animated motion pictures and TV reveals, together with Pixar’s “Lightyear” and “Cars 3.”
Born within the midwestern state of Indiana as a center baby in a household of 10, Whitlock’s father was a metal mill employee.
A graduate of Southwest State University, he studied drama at San Francisco’s American Conservatory Theater.
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