Reg E. Cathey, Emmy-winning actor from House of Cards and The Wire, has died. (He was reportedly battling lung cancer.)
In 2015, Cathey won an Emmy for his portrayal of Freddy Hayes, the owner of a BBQ joint who ends up with a job in the White House, on Netflix‘s House of Cards.
Most recently, Cathey was seen as Chief Byron Giles on the Cinemax series Outcast and was in HBO‘s The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.
Known for his commanding baritone voice, Cathey also portrayed Dr. Franklin Storm in the 2015 reboot of The Fantastic Four, and he appeared in other films like Born on the Fourth of July (1989), What About Bob? (1991), Clear and Present Danger (1994), Seven (1995), Tank Girl (1995), American Psycho (2000) and Pootie Tang (2001).
A native of Huntsville, Alabama, Cathey studied theater at the University of Michigan and the Yale School of Drama. In a 2016 interview with The Guardian, Cathey said his career took off after the 44th U.S. president was elected.
“What I did notice is that Barack Obama becomes president and suddenly black people who are well-spoken are working more. This new market for the well-spoken black actor is all due to Obama. He got inaugurated, and I started working like a fiend — hired by the same people who would previously ask: ‘Have you always spoken like that?’ It’s like, you know what, motherfuckers, yes, I have.“
Reg E. Cathey was 59.
(via THR)
