(CNN) — Lance Reddick, an actor best remembered for his role as Cedric Daniels on “The Wire” and for his work on the “John Wick” franchise, has died at the age of 60, his representative, Mia Hansen, said.
Hansen said Reddick passed away suddenly Friday morning “of natural causes.”
“Lance will be sorely missed,” he said.
An actor whose captivating presence often led him to cast roles that required intensity and gravitas, Reddick began his career in the 1990s, with credits on shows like “New York Undercover” and “The West Wing.”
As a teenager in Baltimore, he intended to become a musician, he once told Guardian. She began acting as a way to support her young family and in hopes of laying the foundation for a musical career.
He began landing roles in regional theater, and at age 29, he applied — and was accepted — to Yale University to study theater, eventually graduating.
In New York, he first auditioned for “Wire” creator David Simon for his project “The Corner,” an HBO miniseries that ran two years before Simon’s “The Wire.”
While Reddick wasn’t on that project, he landed his first regular role on HBO’s “Oz,” in which he played an undercover detective posing as an inmate.
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Eventually, Simon cast him as Narcotics Unit Lieutenant Daniels, a prominent role for Reddick.
Although “The Wire” was never a huge success, its critical and industry acclaim was very high.
“I thought it would be a hit, but I didn’t anticipate that it would take so long to catch on or that it would become this phenomenon,” Reddick told Guardian. “Or that it would be so ignored by the industry. That really blew me away, because I knew how good we were; we all did it.”
Reddick worked almost non-stop afterward, with a memorable role in “Lost” and a series regular on Fox’s sci-fi series “Fringe,” Amazon’s “Bosch” and, most recently, Netflix’s version of “Resident Evil.”
Reddick told Los Angeles Times in 2019 that her “Lost” character was supposed to become a series regular, but plans changed when she booked a regular role on “Fringe.” However, he said, even his brief stint on one of the biggest shows on television at the time introduced him to a new kind of fame.
“That was the first time the fans were really weird. I was living in New York at the time, and it seemed like everyone would stop me to talk about “Lost.” I went from a small, niche notoriety to being fully recognizable,” he commented.
Lance Reddick as Charon in ‘John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum’. Lionsgate/Kobal/Shutterstock
In addition to the “John Wick” films, his supporting film work includes “One Night in Miami,” “Godzilla vs. Kong,” and the remake “White Men Can’t Jump.”
Despite his trademark intensity, Reddick also showed a lighter side, guest-starring on the sitcom “Young Sheldon” and the sketch show “Key and Peele.”
He also starred in the fourth “John Wick” movie, which opens in theaters next weekend.
Reddick is survived by his wife, Stephanie Reddick, and their children Yvonne Nicole Reddick and Christopher Reddick.
Memorial donations can be made to momcares.org in Baltimore, according to her representative.
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