“Homicide: Life on the Street” and “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” actor Andre Braugher’s cause of death has been revealed as lung cancer.
Braugher was diagnosed a few months before his death earlier this week at the age of 61, his publicist Jennifer Allen told The New York Times on Thursday.
Allen confirmed the news of Braugher’s death on Monday to TheWrap saying he died after a brief illness. According to a New York Times Magazine profile from 2014, Braugher had “stopped drinking alcohol and smoking years ago.”
Braugher was best known for his roles as a police officer on both the 1990s NBC series “Homicide: Life on the Street” and Fox sitcom “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” which later moved to NBC. His performance as Baltimore Detective Frank Pembleton, who eeked out confessions from some of the toughest criminals to crack on “Homicide,” garnered him the first of two Emmys in 1998.
Later on in his extensive career, Braugher brought stern Captain Raymond Holt to life on “Brooklyn Nine-Nine,” for which he received four Emmy nods and won two Critics Choice awards.
Most recently, he starred in the sixth and final season of Paramount+’s legal drama “The Good Fight” alongside Christine Baranski and Audra McDonald as showman lawyer and rainmaker Ri’Chard Lane. His first of 11 Emmy nominations acknowledged his role in HBO’s television film “Tuskegee Airman” (1995). In addition to “Homicide,” he netted nominations for his lead role on ABC medical drama “Gideon’s Crossing” from 2000 to 2001 as well as his appearance in 2006’s limited series “Thief.”
Braugher’s breakout role came about in 1989’s Civil War film “Glory” from director Edward Zwick. He appeared as Cpl. Thomas Searles alongside Denzel Washington, who won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for the movie.