{"id":481546,"date":"2025-12-31T04:11:15","date_gmt":"2025-12-31T04:11:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/481546\/"},"modified":"2025-12-31T04:11:15","modified_gmt":"2025-12-31T04:11:15","slug":"the-wire-and-veep-actor-was-71","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/481546\/","title":{"rendered":"‘The Wire’ and ‘Veep’ Actor Was 71"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tIsiah Whitlock Jr.<\/a>, an actor best known for playing the corrupt state senator Clay Davis on \u201cThe Wire,\u201d died on Tuesday in New York, Variety has confirmed. He was 71.<\/p>\n

\n\tHis manager, Brian Liebman, shared the news on Instagram<\/a>, writing: \u201cIt is with tremendous sadness that I share the passing of my dear friend and client Isiah Whitlock Jr. If you knew him \u2014 you loved him. A brilliant actor and even better person. May his memory forever be a blessing. Our hearts are so broken. He will be very, very missed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIndiana-born Whitlock was a prolific character actor who was a frequent collaborator of Spike Lee, appearing in his films \u201cBlacKkKlansman,\u201d \u201cDa 5 Bloods,\u201d \u201cShe Hate Me,\u201d \u201c25th Hour,\u201d \u201cRed Hook Summer\u201d and \u201cChi-Raq.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tAcross many of his projects, he developed the catchphrase \u201csheeeeee-it,\u201d an elongated pronunciation of the word \u201cshit.\u201d It started in \u201cShe Hate Me\u201d and \u201c25th Hour,\u201d and then the writers of \u201cThe Wire\u201d began incorporating it into the HBO series. Whitlock said he could be stopped on the street two to three times per day by fans asking him to say the catchphrase. In a meta turn, Whitlock got to play a man obsessed with \u201cThe Wire\u201d in the 2011 comedy \u201cCedar Rapids.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWhitlock also played a doctor in Martin Scorsese\u2019s \u201cGoodfellas\u201d and had roles in \u201cChappelle\u2019s Show,\u201d \u201cPieces of April,\u201d \u201cEnchanted\u201d and Pixar\u2019s \u201cCars 3\u201d and \u201cLightyear.\u201d He also lent his voice to \u201cHoppers,\u201d Pixar\u2019s animated sci-fi comedy due in 2026.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn Seasons 2 through 4 of \u201cVeep,\u201d Whitlock played George Maddox, the U.S. Secretary of Defense who runs against Julia Louis-Dreyfus\u2019 character Selina Meyer in the 2016 primaries.<\/p>\n

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