Why Andre Braugher Mostly Left Hollywood Behind Before His Death
Despite being so well known in television, particularly in shows about law enforcement, Andre Braugher was backing away from constant work in Hollywood. The late actor was getting back into the groove of things in New Jersey, cutting back on the cross-country flights and spending more time with his family.
Braugher had a deep, profound love for the art of acting. So much so that the Chicago native went to Stanford for his undergraduate degree in acting and then to Juilliard for his master's degree. Braugher became an esteemed actor whose roles in shows like "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" and "Homicide: Life on the Street" catapulted him to fame. Braugher's work on the craft was far from unnoticed by his peers.
Executive Producer Barry Levinson reflected on Braugher's work on the show following the "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" actor's death at age 61 from lung cancer. "What [is] interesting is that as an actor, he almost invariably exceeded what you thought you might get," Levinson told People. "That's what was, I think, unique about him in his very simple way without a lot of to-do. He delivered and exceeded your expectations." Although he was successful in his career, it appeared he didn't favor being in the Hollywood limelight as much as he enjoyed spending time with his family.
Braugher was spending more time with his family
While Andre Braugher was tantalizing fans of "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" as the barrier-busting Captain Raymond Holt, he also returned home frequently to see his wife and kids. The New Jersey-based actor worked in Los Angeles filming the show on weekdays and returned home for the weekends, seeking a balance between the work he cherished and the people he loved.
In a 2020 interview with Variety during the COVID-19 pandemic, Braugher emphasized the importance of his wife, Ami Brabson, and their boys, saying, "I made a choice along the way that Ami and those boys were too important to not spend quantity time with." He added, "Both the health crisis and the democracy crisis that we're going through demonstrate to me that there's no substance in the bling. The focus on celebrity-ness — it's not real. So I just chose, in my own way, to sort of drop out." That should come as no surprise to those who knew Braugher's work, as his breakout role in "Homicide: Life on the Street" was alongside Brabson.
After "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" wrapped, Braugher worked on a few projects before he died. His final credit was as Ri'Chard Lane in "The Good Fight."
He was supposed to make his Broadway debut
For Andre Braugher, focusing on work closer to home, with a few exceptions of East Coast TV shows, meant a return to stage acting. As a New Jerseyan, the New York theater scene was a natural draw for Braugher. Before COVID-19 struck, the late actor was scheduled to debut in the award-winning Broadway play "Birthday Candles" with Debra Messing. The pandemic put Braugher's Broadway debut in jeopardy. Before that, he had been in an off-Broadway production of "The Whipping Man" in 2011. Stage acting was not unfamiliar territory for Braugher, so it was almost like going home for a stage-trained actor.
As the pandemic intensified, Braugher and his wife, Ami Brabson, jointly decided that he should withdraw from the show. "It was clear by that time that guys like me have bull's-eyes on our back," he told Variety in his September 2020 interview. "I'm 58, I'm overweight, I have high blood pressure, so it was just time to bow out. Which is unfortunate, but the wisdom of that became pretty apparent a couple of weeks later, when all of New York officially shut down." The play eventually opened with Messing in the starring role in 2022.