Seriously think he was one of the greatest actors of all time. I hate that he never got the right role after Homicide to be as famous as he deserved to be. He was so damn good.
There was a very short lived series around 2010 called “Last Resort” where he played the main character of a Nuclear missile sub captain who goes rogue. I thought it was a really good show and Braugher was fantastic in it. While tiles like Brooklyn Nine nine were great it never got him the exposure or gravitas that he could’ve had.
Glory really helped to launch Denzel Washington’s career and he is very iconic in that move and commands the screen with charisma and sex appeal. Andre Braugher had a much harder role playing a weak character who has to find himself. Unfortunately Braugher can’t compete with Denzel in that regard but as an actor I think he was far more versatile. It’s too bad he never got a role that really elevated him to a leading man.
Another clip from Glory. While so much of this scene is for Matthew Broderick Braugher reallly captures the mood and message of the whole movie simply. Even from him flinching to stepping forward.
Yes I loved that show! I always thought he just needed that one role where he could be the amazing actor with gravitas to hold it together. Just never got it. Brooklyn 99 is a fun show it's just not big enough exposure wise. It's a niche comedy. He was good in it too!
I agree with you. At a minimum one of the 5 best active actors in the world when he died. Frank Pempleton is possibly the best acted character in a drama in television history. The only other performance I would put on equal footing would be Ian McShane as Al Swerengen.
I loved him on a small show on ABC called Last resort. It was submarine show. only 1 season dude would pop off and had one speech telling one of the bad guys that "he was going to pop his eye balls like Jelly." wish i could find the clip dude was such a good actor. rip
finally: ‘Homicide’ Is One of the Best TV Shows Ever. And It Is Finally Streaming For years, the foundational cop drama, based on the book by David Simon (“The Wire”), languished in DVD-only purgatory. No longer. Pop the champagne, ring the bells, dance the jigs, cancel all other plans: A time of great rejoicing is here. “Homicide: Life on the Street,” one of the greatest shows in TV history, is finally streaming (on Peacock). So long we wandered in darkness, begging for its return. How we lamented its absence while the years rolled by, our cries growing louder and more sorrowful. But now at last we feast. “Homicide” debuted in 1993 with a tense, inventive nine-episode first season. Executive produced by Tom Fontana, Barry Levinson and Paul Attanasio, and based on the book by David Simon, the show often has a jangly, jumpy feel. Its instantly recognizable bloopy phones ring-ring in the background, and quick and distinctive edits keep the rhythm unpredictable — as if scenes were following the cadence of thoughts, not the cadence of shows. The series blends gallows humor and cynicism with operatic emotion and soaring monologues, and the signature interrogation scenes play out like seductions, like battles, like debates, like dances. The show is set in Baltimore and feels true to time and space in a way network cop shows no longer do. Everything is kind of grimy, yellowing before our eyes from the omnipresent cigarette smoke and general neglect, and you can hear how deflated the cushions on the chairs are at the precinct house. Characters remark often on the heat or the cold or the way a place smells, and the costuming is both naturalistic and specific, as if the characters really picked out their outfits themselves. This rewatch in particular, I was struck by how much touching there is on the show — how often the characters touch one another but also how often they interact physically with the set or props, knocking on tables and thumbing folders. That sense of contact anchors us, giving us a sense of solid-wood realism. The term “cop show” is frequently synonymous with “formulaic,” but “Homicide” is anything but. Some crimes stay with the show for its entire run, others for only an episode, and the depth and detail of all the one-off characters is unflagging, even when the show meanders a bit in later seasons. Andre Braugher’s performance as Frank Pembleton, the brilliant detective wrestling with his faith and purpose, is often the highlight, but all the acting here is top-notch. A symphony requires many instruments. If you want to watch one episode to get a taste for the show, watch Season 1, Episode 6, “Three Men and Adena,” in which Pembleton and his partner, Bayliss (Kyle Secor, also fantastic), interrogate a suspect (Moses Gunn, superb) for hours on end. If you want to watch five episodes and don’t care as much about self-spoiling, watch the first block of Season 3: “Nearer My God to Thee,” “Fits Like a Glove” and “Extreme Unction” follow the investigation into a serial killer, one who gets under Pembleton’s skin to an unusual degree; then “Crosetti” tells a more searing and intimate story, followed by “The Last of the Waterman,” which sends Melissa Leo’s guarded, thoughtful Kay Howard to her hometown on the Chesapeake Bay. “Homicide” feels as fresh, jarring and original now as it did 30 years ago — maybe even more special because we’ve endured so many of its imitators.
