It helped that Andre Braugher was a Chicagoan through and through, able to capture both a deep intellectualism and a street smarts that carried life experience in his bones. Braugher. He was the youngest of four children of two parents who worked hard for a living – a postal worker mother and an equipment operator father – and it looks like that Austin neighborhood upbringing influenced an actor who understood the hard work and physicality on stage. He went to esteemed St. Ignace on the city’s west side and won a scholarship to Stanford University, where he majored in theater before transferring to Julliard.
Just one year after leaving this prestigious academy, Andre Braugher starred in an Oscar-winning film. Its impact was also immediate, appearing in “Glory» in 1989. His breakthrough came shortly after in a show that simply transformed the entire television landscape. Any list of the most important television characters of all time that doesn’t include Detective Frank Pembleton is incomplete. Paul Attanasio“Homicide: Life on the Street” wasn’t like other cop shows when it premiered in 1993 on NBC. Based on David Simonabout the Baltimore Police Department, and often using cases taken directly from it,”Homicide“There was a grit and truth to it that was nothing like the whitewashed, sterile shows on other networks. It wasn’t afraid to be dangerous, unpredictable and aimed only at adults.” Homicide ” is an essential element in the cutting-edge era of television. “The Sopranos,” “The Wire” and many others might not exist without them. It became the first drama to win three Peabody Awards.
“Homicide” was an ensemble drama, but Braugher’s turn as Pembleton was at its center. He not only became the face of the show, he became the changing face of network television, an actor who proved that rich character work could be done within a case structure. per case. In 1996, he was nominated for two Emmy Awards in the same year for “Homicide” and “The Tuskegee Airmen”, and he won his only award for “Homicide” in 1998.
He worked constantly until his death, alternating with ease between television, theater and cinema. He seemed equally comfortable in all three forms, across all genres. It could slip from a blockbuster like “Poseidon” Or “Mist» to a Shakespeare in the Park production of Henry V which earned him an Obie Award for television series like “Gideon’s Crossing”, “Men of a Certain Age” and “Thief”, which earned him a second Emmy.
