Isiah Whitlock Jr., whose singular supply of a tagline in “The Wire” gave the world one of the crucial iconic phrases of the century, has died at the age of 71.
Whitlock “passed away today peacefully in NYC after a brave battle with a short illness,” his supervisor, Brian Liebman, advised NCS. “Isiah was a brilliant actor and even better person.”
Whitlock had a storied profession spanning greater than three a long time in each TV and movie. He appeared in various Spike Lee films, together with “Da 5 Bloods,” “BlacKkKlansman” and “The 25th Hour.”
He acquired his begin in TV on “Cagney & Lacey” within the Nineteen Eighties and went on to seem usually 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 shall be most remembered for his unforgettable function in “The Wire,” David Simon’s HBO crime drama, which is widely known as the most effective sequence of all time.
Whitlock appeared on all 5 seasons of the present as R. Clayton “Clay” Davis, a crooked (*71*) state senator. He shortly grew to become recognized 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 instructing folks how they, too, may completely say it. Whitlock said he acquired the phrase from his late uncle Leon, who delivered it in a means that will all the time make folks snicker.
“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 at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco earlier than transferring 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.”