Actor Lance Reddick, who appeared in major TV series like ‘The Wire’, ‘Fringe’ and ‘Bosch’ and films like the ‘John Wick’ franchise, which is set to debut ‘John Wick: Chapter 4’ next week, died of natural causes aged 60. Variety has confirmed with his representative. He was found dead at his Studio City home in Los Angeles on Friday morning, according to TMZ, which first reported the news.
In the upcoming ‘John Wick: Chapter 4′, which is set to release in theatres on March 24, Reddick reprises his role as Charon, the concierge at the Continental Hotel in New York City who appeared in all four entries. Charon worked alongside Keanu Reeves’ un-retired hitman, notably looking after John’s new dog in the second installment and joining in on the gun-toting action in the third movie. Reddick was also slated to appear in the upcoming ‘Ballerina’ spinoff, starring Ana de Armas.
Known for playing hardened police chiefs and other men of authority, Reddick was born in Baltimore on June 7, 1962. He studied music composition and earned a Bachelor of Music from the University of Rochester. He moved to Boston in the ’80s and earned a Master of Fine Arts from Yale in 1994.
His first major TV role came during Season 4 of prison drama ‘Oz’ in 2000. He played Detective Johnny Basil, an undercover officer who tries to shut down the drug trade but soon becomes an addict himself and murders a corrupt cop by pushing him down an elevator shaft. After being sent to Oz, Basil gets stabbed to death by Seth Gilliam’s character Clayton Hughes.
He was later cast as Baltimore police lieutenant Cedric Daniels, one of the leads, on ‘The Wire’ in 2002. He had previously auditioned for the roles of Bubbles (which went to Andre Royo) and William ‘Bunk’ Moreland (Wendell Pierce). Daniels was in charge of the narcotics division and slowly rose through its ranks during the show’s five-season run, butting heads frequently with his superiors.
In the show’s finale, he resigned from his post as commissioner and became a criminal defence lawyer. After ‘The Wire’ ended in 2008, Reddick joined ‘Fringe’ later that year as Phillip Broyles, a special agent for Homeland Security and head of the Fringe division. The group investigated cases relating to fringe science, pseudoscience and alternate timelines.
In 2014, he was cast as another police chief, but this time on Amazon’s ‘Bosch’ series, which ended in 2021. He played deputy chief Irvin Irving and was nominated for a Saturn Award for the role, after earning two nods for ‘Fringe’.
More recently, Reddick starred as Albert Wesker last year on Netflix’s short-lived series ‘Resident Evil’, an adaptation of the popular zombie video game. He also provided voice work on Season 2 of Amazon’s ‘The Legend of Vox Machina’, which was released in January. His other voice roles included the villain Sylens in two popular PlayStation games, ‘Horizon: Zero Dawn’ and ‘Horizon: Forbidden West’, which released last year, plus voicing Commander Zavala in the long-running ‘Destiny’ franchise.
Reddick was cast as the Greek god Zeus in Disney+’s highly anticipated ‘Percy Jackson and the Olympians’ series, adapted from the popular tween books by Rick Riordan. His other upcoming roles include Hulu’s ‘White Men Can’t Jump’ remake, set to release May 19, Danny DeVito’s ‘St. Sebastian’, Netflix’s Shirley Chisholm biopic ‘Shirley’, ‘The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial’ and the space drama ‘Apteros’.
Throughout his nearly 30-year career, he also appeared in ‘Lost’, ‘CSI: Miami’, ‘American Horror Story: Coven’, ‘The Blacklist’, ‘One Night in Miami’, ‘Angel Has Fallen’ and ‘Godzilla vs. Kong’. Reddick is survived by his wife, Stephanie Reddick, and children Yvonne Nicole Reddick and Christopher Reddick.
(With IANS inputs)
