Isiah Whitlock Jr., a veteran character actor known for memorable roles in such series as The Wire, Veep, Your Honor and The Residence and a number of Spike Lee movies, died Tuesday in New York. He was 71.
His manager Brian Liebman told Deadline that Whitlock died peacefully after battling a short illness,
Born in South Bend, Indiana, Whitlock started his acting career by joining San Francisco’s American Conservatory Theater after graduating from college.
His first notable screen role was a 1987 guest shot on CBS’ Cagney & Lacey. He worked steadily in television for the past three and a half decades doing dozens of guest appearances, including on the Law & Order franchise with multiple episodes each on the mothership series, Special Victims Unit and Criminal Intent.
Whitlock probably is best known for his role as corrupt State Sen. R. Clayton “Clay” Davis on HBO’s The Wire. He appeared on all five seasons of David Simon’s crime drama, recurring in Seasons 1-4 before joining the main cast in Season 5.
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He also recurred on HBO’s political comedy Veep as Secretary of Defense Gen. George Maddox and was a series regular on Showtime’s legal thriller drama Your Honor, playing a politician with connections to organized crime.
Whitlock’s last TV role was a series regular turn as the Chief of Police opposite Uzo Aduba on Netflix’s White House murder mystery The Residence, which was released earlier this year.
In features, Whitlock is known for his longstanding relationship with Spike Lee, appearing in six movies of the Oscar-winning filmmaker: 25th Hour (2002), She Hate Me (2004), Red Hook Summer (2012), Chi-Raq (2015), BlacKkKlansman (2018) and Da 5 Bloods (2020).
It was in The 25th Hour that Whitlock first introduced what would become his signature phrase, ‘Sheeeeeit,” his own interpretation of the word “sh*t,” a delivery he said in a 2008 interview that he had picked up from his uncle Leon.
“I did it there and I did it in She Hate Me. But then, when I got on to The Wire, I saw a couple of opportunities where I could do it, and I did. And they started writing it in,” Whitlock said in the same interview.
The phrase’s popularity grew, and it soon entered pop culture.
“I was in, I think, Grand Central Station and far away I heard someone say it and they’d be kind of smiling. I’m glad people enjoy it,” he said.
In another meta moment, Whitlock got to play a character in the 2011 movie Cedar Rapids who is a self-professed fan of The Wire.
On the big screen, he was most recently seen in Elizabeth Banks’ black comedy Cocaine Bear and will soon be heard as part of the voice cast of the Pixar/Disney animated feature Hoppers.
“Isiah was a brilliant actor and even better person. He was loved by all who had the pleasure to work with or know him,” Liebman told Deadline. “He will be greatly missed.”
