There Was No ‘Brooklyn Nine-Nine’ Without Andre Braugher

Just a couple days before Andre Braugher’s untimely passing at the age of 61, I was thinking about the actor’s performance on “Brooklyn Nine-Nine.”

Mike Schur and Dan Goor’s eight-season comedy (which premiered on Fox and then moved to NBC) was full of dazzling performances and hysterical one-liners, but out of nowhere I found myself thinking about Braugher’s mic-drop from Season 1’s Thanksgiving episode: “My wife was killed by a man in a yellow sweater.” Aside from being exactly the kind of jarringly memorable line that one might recall at random with no context, it’s a critical moment that shows his character, the seemingly by-the-book and buttoned up Raymond Holt, is not opposed to some light shenanigans when the situation calls for it — and crash course in Braugher’s masterclass of impeccable timing.

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Braugher’s filmography kicks off in the late-1980s, where he proved himself a fixture of television right away with a series of “Kojak” films. He starred and guest starred in dozens of titles, but he spent the most time playing Raymond Holt — 153 episodes — and set an enviable standard. It’s worth watching “Nine-Nine” with the real-world context of police brutality and budgets in the modern era, but it was a show that from its outset demanded more of law enforcement officers; inclusion, empathy, and that die-hard desire to seek truth and deliver justice which seems to exist disproportionately on-screen compared to real life.

Raymond Holt was at the center of that; a queer, Black, high-ranking officer, with respect for rules but a keen knowledge of when and how to break them. He quickly becomes a de facto father figure for Jake (Andy Samberg) and explicit mentor to Amy (Melissa Fumero) while forming bonds with every other officer in the precinct. Braugher’s innate charisma pours through as he shares mesmerizing chemistry with every single costar, from the regular ensemble to guests like Kyra Sedgwick, Marc Evan Jackson, and many more. His Obie and Emmy-Award winning acting chops were honed on the drama beat giving Holt a magnificently deadpan seriousness that is all the more satisfying to pop with a punchline.

Bafflingly, Braugher never won any Emmys for “Brooklyn Nine-Nine,” (despite four nominations and two Critics Choice Awards), for what was easily one of the most indelible sitcom leads of the 2010s, and a performance that relied as heavily on the actor playing it as the writing behind it. Trusting Braugher to embody Holt’s deadpan stoicism and strategically puncture it was an undeniable creative win for the creative team, his costars, and an adoring global audience.

As the most senior member of the main cast, Braugher’s role off-screen mirrored what the show depicted, of an impressive figure who knows his industry and has the power to teach and uplift newer talent around him. As cast members mourned Braugher’s passing on social media, they recalled his advice and wisdom, the time he would take to better know and guide them, and how he cherished his wife and three sons, setting an example by putting family first. In a 2020 interview with Variety, he observed that his career could probably have been more prolific and expansive, but that he never wanted to sacrifice his personal life while achieving those milestones. He credited “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” as a team effort, including his Emmy recognition. “It’s not so much a personal affirmation as really an affirmation that I’m working with some wonderful people, and we’ve managed to pull off something really, really great,” he said.

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