By Danielle Broadway
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Actor Lance Reddick, best known for his role as a no-nonsense police chief on the acclaimed television series “The Wire” and for his work in the “John Wick” action-film series, died on Friday at age 60, his publicist said.
Reddick died “suddenly” on Friday morning of natural causes, according to a statement issued by the publicist, Mia Hansen.
No other details about the circumstances of his death were disclosed.
But celebrity news website TMZ.com, citing law enforcement sources, reported that the actor had been found dead at his home in the Studio City district of Los Angeles at around 9:30 a.m.
Reddick scored his first major screen role as police chief Cedric Daniels on the HBO series “The Wire,” set in his hometown of Baltimore and widely hailed as one of television’s greatest dramas for its gritty portrayal of urban struggle as told from the perspective of police, narcotics dealers and the people caught between them.
Reddick continued to make a name for himself in the ABC series “Lost,” in which he played Matthew Abaddon, an employee of Charles Widmore, and was cast in the popular Fox network show “Fringe,” for which he played the key role of Phillip Broyles, head of an FBI unit investigating the paranormal. He also played a police chief on the Los Angeles-based cop drama “Bosch.”
In the “John Wick” series, he played Charon, John Wick’s ally, who is the concierge at the New York City branch of the Continental Hotel.
A classically trained pianist, Reddick attended the Peabody Preparatory Institute to study music, worked in the Walden School’s summer music theory and composition program, and eventually obtained a bachelor’s degree in classical composition from the University of Rochester’s Eastman School of Music.
He released a jazz album, “Contemplations and Remembrances” in 2007.
(This story has been refiled to remove extraneous words in paragraph 4)
(Reporting by Danielle Broadway in Los Angeles; Editing by Steve Gorman and Sandra Maler)
