André Braugher, an Emmy Award-winning dramatic actor, died at age 61 after a brief illness.

Braugher spent 100 episodes playing Det. Frank Pembleton on Homicide: Life on the Street, where he won a primetime Emmy for outstanding lead actor in the Baltimore-based drama series. He won his second Emmy for the FX miniseries Thief, in which he played the leader of a heist crew. Braugher also acted in memorable movies like Glory, Spike Lee’s Get on The Bus, Primal Fear and City of Angels.

According to Wikipedia, Homicide: Life on the Street is an American police drama television series chronicling the work of a fictional version of the Baltimore Police Department‘s Homicide Unit. It ran for seven seasons (122 episodes) on NBC from January 31, 1993, to May 21, 1999, and was succeeded by Homicide: The Movie (2000), which served as the series finale. The series was created by Paul Attanasio and based on David Simon‘s book Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets (1991). Many of the characters and stories used throughout the show were based on events depicted in the book.  The show was adapted from the non-fiction book by Simon, a Baltimore Sun reporter, and based on his experience following a Baltimore Police Department homicide unit in 1988.

Wikipedia adds that the show’s purpose was to provide its viewers with a no-nonsense, police procedural-type glimpse into the lives of a squad of inner-city detectives. As opposed to many television shows and movies involving cops, Homicide initially opted for a bleak sort of realism in its depiction of “The Job”, portraying it as repetitive, spiritually draining, an existential threat to one’s psyche, often glamour- and glory-free—but, nonetheless, a social necessity. In its attempt to do so, Homicide developed a trademark feel and look that distinguished itself from its contemporaries. For example, the series was filmed with hand-held 16 mm cameras almost entirely on-location in Baltimore (making the idiosyncratic city something of a character itself).

Image: Chris Haston / NBC