Lance Reddick Dies

Tall, with a shaved head and a flair for portraying low-key but imposing authority figures.

The 6 foot, 3 inch actor, musician, singer, and film producer Lance Solomon Reddick was born December 31, 1962 in Baltimore, Maryland. He attended Friends School of Baltimore. As a teenager, he studied music at the Peabody Preparatory Institute and a summer program teaching music theory and composition at the Walden School

Reddick studied classical music composition at University of Rochester’s Eastman School of Music, earning a Bachelor of Music degree. He moved to Boston, Massachusetts in the 1980s. Reddick attended the Yale School of Drama in the early 1990s, receiving a Master of Fine Arts degree in 1994. In 1996 he got his first television role on “New York Undercover” and “Swift Justice”. The next year he appeared in “The Nanny” and a television film “What the Deaf Man Heard”.

It’s funny, because in drama school, my greatest strength was my range. So my early career was like that: I played all kinds of different characters.

Lance Reddick

In 1998 he was in two more television films “The Fixer” and “Witness to the Mob”. He appeared in an episode of “The West Wing” in 1999. In the year 2000 he was in 3 episodes of “Falcone” and 2 episodes of “The Corner”. From 2000 – 2001 he played Johnny Basil in the HBO series OZ and Dr. Taylor in “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit”. Also in 2001 (and 2004) he was in an episode of “Law & Order”. In 2002 he was in an episode of “100 Centre Street” anf the television film “Keep the Faith, Baby”. He was best known for playing Cedric Daniels in “The Wire”[1] (2002–2008)

In 2003 he was in an episode of, one of favorite shows, “Law & Order: Criminal Intent”. In 2005 and 6 he appeared in an episode of “Independent Lens” and 3 episodes of “CSI: Miami”. In 2007, he was in another of my favorites, “Numb3rs“. From 2008 to 2013 he played Matthew Abaddon in 4 episodes of “Lost” and Phillip Broyles, the head of an FBI department investigating paranormal activities, in “Fringe”, co-created and produced by J. J. Abrams.

In 2010 and 11 he was in an episode of “Svetlana”, “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” and a voice in “Aqua Teen Hunger Force” (Freedom Cobra). From 2012-2013 he was in episodes of “Wilfred”, “NTSF:SD:SUV::”, “Comedy Bang! Bang!”, “The Eric Andre Show”, and voices in “The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes” (Falcon), and “Tron: Uprising” (Cutler). In 2014 has was the voice of Ra’s al Ghul in 3 episodes of “Beware the Batman”, 3 episodes of “American Horror Story: Coven”,

5 episodes of “Intelligence”, 2 episodes of “The Blacklist”, and an episode of “Key & Peele”. From 2014-21 Lance played Deputy Chief Irvin Irving in the Amazon Studios TV series “Bosch”. In 2015-16 he was in epsodes of “Castle”, “Tim & Eric’s Bedtime Stories” and “Mary + Jane”. He was the voice of Alan Rails in “Rick and Morty” in 2017. From 2018-20, Reddick played Christian DeVille ina recurring role on “Corporate”, reprised his role of Papa Legba on “American Horror Story: Apocalypse”, and voiced roles on “DuckTales” (General Lunaris) and “Castlevania” (The Captain).

He had a recurring role as the voice of Agent Clappers on “Paradise PD” from 2020-22. In 2021 Lance was the host of the documentary series “America’s Book of Secrets”. From 2021-23 he was in an episode of “Young Sheldon”, played Albert Wesker in the series “Resident Evil”, and was voices in “Farzar” and “The Legend of Vox Machina”. He will appear posthumously in the 2024 release of “Percy Jackson and the Olympians” as Zeus.

Movies

In 1998 Lance Reddick appeared in “Great Expectations” (with Ethan Hawke, and Gwyneth Paltrow), “Godzilla” (with Matthew Broderick), and “The Siege” (with Denzel Washington). From 2000 -09 he was in “I Dreamed of Africa” (with Kim Basinger), “Don’t Say a Word” (with Michael Douglas and Brittany Murphy), “Bridget”,

“Brother to Brother”, “Dirty Work”, “Tennessee”, and “The Way of War” (with Cuba Gooding Jr.). In 2010 he palyed Smith in the DC Comics, “Jonah Hex”. From 2011-13 he appeared in the horror film “Remains”, “Won’t Back Down”, “White House Down” (with Channing Tatum, Jamie Foxx, and Maggie Gyllenhaal) and Spike Lee’s “Oldboy”.

In 2014, he was in “Faults’, “The Guest”, “Search Party”, and the action thriller film, “John Wick” (with Keanu Reeves). In 2015, he was a voice in “Parallel Man: Infinite Pursuit” (Atlas), and in the short film “Fun Size Horror”. In 2017-18 Lance appeared in “John Wick: Chapter 2”, “Little Woods”, “Cana Street”, “Monster Party”, “The Domestics” (with Kate Bosworth). 2019 found Reddick once again in “John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum”, and “Angel Has Fallen” (with Gerard Butler).

In 2020-21, He was in “Faith Based”, “Sylvie’s Love”, “One Night in Miami…”, and “Godzilla vs. Kong”. He would play Charon a again in “John Wick: Chapter 4” in 2023. We will see him posthumously in the remake of “White Men Can’t Jump”, “Shirley”, a John Wick spin-off where he’ll play Charon a final time “Ballerina[2]“, and “The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial”

Video Games

Lance Reddick was a voice for the 2009 Swordfish Studios third person shooter, “50 Cent: Blood on the Sand”. From 2014-23 he has been the voice of Commander Zavala in the Bungie “Destiny” and “Destiny 2″series of video games. In 2016-17 he voiced “Quantum Break” (also did motion capture and full motion video footage), “Payday 2”, and “Horizon Zero Dawn”. In 2019 he voiced Charon for the role playing game “John Wick Hex”.

In 2022 Lance voiced “Horizon Forbidden West” (the Burning Shores expansion to be released posthumously in April 2023). Posthumously he’ll be the voice of Hellboy in the Upstream Arcade video game “Hellboy: Web of Wyrd”.

Musician

Reddick released his debut album Contemplations & Remembrances in 2007. It is a 41 minute EP with 9 Jazz songs all written by Lance.

A man of great strength and grace. As talented a musician as he was an actor. The epitome of class. An sudden unexpected sharp painful grief for our artistic family. An unimaginable suffering for his personal family and loved ones. Godspeed my friend. You made your mark here. RIP

Wendell Pierce – Lance’s “The Wire” co-star

Lance Reddick died suddenly on Friday morning, March 17, 2023, of natural causes, according to a statement issued by the publicist, Mia Hansen. Reddick is survived by his wife, Stephanie, whom he married in 2011, and the couple’s son and daughter.



Footnotes
  1. The Wire is an American crime drama television series created and primarily written by author and former police reporter David Simon. The series was broadcast by the cable network HBO in the United States. The Wire premiered on June 2, 2002, and ended on March 9, 2008, comprising 60 episodes over five seasons. The idea for the show started out as a police drama loosely based on the experiences of his writing partner Ed Burns, a former homicide detective and public school teacher. Set and produced in Baltimore, Maryland, The Wire introduces a different institution of the city and its relationship to law enforcement in each season, while retaining characters and advancing storylines from previous seasons. The five subjects are, in chronological order: the illegal drug trade, the port system, the city government and bureaucracy, education and schools, and the print news medium. Simon chose to set the show in Baltimore because of his familiarity with the city. [Back]
  2. Ballerina – Starring Ana de Armas as Rooney, a ballerina-assassin previously portrayed by Unity Phelan in John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum (2019), with Ian McShane, Keanu Reeves, Lance Reddick, and Anjelica Huston reprising their roles from previous films, filming began in November 2022, in Prague. [Back]

Further Reading

Sources

Instagram
Reuters
Wikipedia
Net Worth Post


Author: Doyle

I was born in Atlanta, moved to Alpharetta at 4, lived there for 53 years and moved to Decatur in 2016. I've worked at such places as Richway, North Fulton Medical Center, Management Science America (Computer Tech/Project Manager) and Stacy's Compounding Pharmacy (Pharmacy Tech).

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