“It is with great sadness that I announce the passing of my dear friend and client Isiah Whitlock Jr.”, explained manager Brian Liebman, saluting “a brilliant actor and an even more remarkable person”.
His most memorable role remains that of Clay Davis, a rotten politician he played in “The Wire“, the masterpiece broadcast on HBO in the 2000s, often considered one of the best series ever filmed.
His maneuvers in the city of Baltimore linked the dirty money of the drug trade to the upper echelons of power.
The character left his mark on the minds of a generation of viewers with his dark humor and his own exclamation, “sheeeeee-it”, an elongated pronunciation of the word “shit” – “shit” in English.
According to Variety, the actor was regularly stopped in the street by fans who asked him to repeat this interjection.
Indiana-born Isiah Whitlock Jr. also frequently worked with Spike Lee. He appears in several films by the African-American director, including “BlacKkKlansman“, “Da 5 Bloods”, “She Hate Me”, and “Chi-Raq”.
During a career that spanned more than three decades, the actor notably played a small role as a doctor in Martin Scorsese’s “Goodfellas” and a supporting role in Disney’s “Once Upon a Time.”
He also lent his voice to some Pixar cartoons, including “Buzz Lightyear” and “Cars 3.”
He also appeared in the series “Veep”, a satire on the office of vice-president of the United States, where he played the American Secretary of Defense.
© 2025 AFP
