By Danielle Broadway
LOS ANGELES – Actor Lance Reddick, best known for his commanding presence as a no-nonsense police chief on the acclaimed television drama “The Wire” and for his supporting work in the “John Wick” action-film series, died on Friday at age 60, his publicist said.
Reddick died suddenly on Friday morning of natural causes, according to a statement issued by the publicist, Mia Hansen. No further details about the circumstances of his death were immediately disclosed.
Celebrity news website TMZ.com, citing law enforcement sources, reported the performer had been found dead at his home in the Studio City district of Los Angeles at around 9:30 a.m.
His death came just days before the planned March 24 release of the fourth installment in the “John Wick” franchise, in which Reddick reprised his role as a hotel manager named Charon, an ally of the title character, a professional assassin forced out of retirement, played by Keanu Reeves.
Reddick scored his first major screen role as police chief Cedric Daniels on the HBO crime drama “The Wire,” set in his hometown of Baltimore. The show, which aired for five seasons beginning in 2002, was widely hailed as one of television’s greatest dramas for its gritty portrait of urban struggle as told from the perspective of police, narcotics dealers and the people caught between them.
Tall, with a shaved head and a flair for portraying low-key but imposing authority figures, Reddick later played a similar role as a big-city police chief on the Los Angeles-based cop drama “Bosch,” a show from the streaming service Amazon Prime.
A classically trained pianist, Reddick attended the Peabody Preparatory Institute to study music, worked in the Walden School’s summer music theory and composition program, and eventually obtained a bachelor’s degree in classical composition from the University of Rochester’s Eastman School of Music.
Reddick is survived by his wife, Stephanie, whom he married in 2011, and the couple’s son and daughter. — Reuters
