(NCS) — Isiah Whitlock Jr., whose singular supply of a tagline in “The Wire” gave the world one of the vital iconic phrases of the century, has died on the age of 71.
Whitlock “passed away today peacefully in NYC after a brave battle with a short illness,” his supervisor, Brian Liebman, informed NCS. “Isiah was a brilliant actor and even better person.”
Whitlock had a storied profession spanning greater than three many years in each TV and movie. He appeared in quite a lot of Spike Lee motion pictures, together with “Da 5 Bloods,” “BlacKkKlansman” and “The 25th Hour.”
He received his begin in TV on “Cagney & Lacey” within the Eighties and went on to seem typically in police procedurals, from “Law & Order” to “NYPD Blue.” Most just lately on TV, Whitlock performed a police chief on “The Residence,” a Netflix homicide thriller starring Uzo Aduba.
Whitlock might be most remembered for his unforgettable function in “The Wire,” David Simon’s HBO crime drama, which is well known as probably the greatest collection of all time.
Whitlock appeared on all 5 seasons of the present as R. Clayton “Clay” Davis, a crooked Maryland state senator. He shortly turned identified for his distinctive response to occasions, delivering an elongated “s**t” that catapulted straight into the American lexicon.
Whitlock reveled within the consideration that his supply obtained. “I was in, I think, Grand Central Station and far away I heard someone say it and they’d be kind of smiling,” he told an interviewer in 2008. “I’m glad people enjoy it.”
In 2014, he began a YouTube series educating folks how they, too, might completely say it. Whitlock said he received the phrase from his late uncle Leon, who delivered it in a manner that might all the time make folks giggle.
“Do I get tired of it? No,” he told the AP in 2020. “If it makes you feel good, so be it,” he stated with a smile.
Whitlock additionally had a recurring function on “Veep,” taking part in General George Maddox, a protection secretary who toys with a main run in opposition to Vice President Selina Meyer, performed by Julia Louis-Dreyfus.
Whitlock grew up in Indiana, the fifth of ten kids, and studied on the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco earlier than shifting to New York, the place he lived for many years.
“He was loved by all who had the pleasure to work with or know him,” his supervisor stated. “He will be greatly missed.”
The-NCS-Wire
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