Nelsan Ellis

Nelsan Ellis
Ellis in 2009
Born(1977-11-30)November 30, 1977
Harvey, Illinois, U.S.
DiedJuly 8, 2017(2017-07-08) (aged 39)
New York City, U.S.
Education
OccupationActor
Years active2002–2017
Children2

Nelsan Ellis (November 30, 1977 – July 8, 2017)[1] was an American actor. He achieved critical acclaim for his portrayal of Lafayette Reynolds in the HBO television series True Blood (2008–2014), for which he won a Satellite Award from the International Press Academy, among other accolades.[2] He also starred as Shinwell Johnson in Elementary from 2016 to 2017,[3] and played a variety of guest roles on television.[4]

In addition to his television work, Ellis appeared in several feature films throughout his career. He portrayed Eddie Sweat in the Disney sports drama Secretariat (2010), was Martin Luther King Jr. in Lee Daniels's The Butler (2013), and was Bobby Byrd in the 2014 James Brown biopic Get on Up. His final acting role was in True to the Game, which was released posthumously.[5]

  1. ^ "Nelsan Ellis". Yahoo! TV. Archived from the original on August 13, 2012. Retrieved March 14, 2012.
  2. ^ Hipes, Patrick (July 10, 2017). "Nelsan Ellis' Family Shares Circumstances Of 'True Blood' Actor's Death – Update". Deadline. Retrieved March 21, 2018.
  3. ^ "Why Elementary Went With That Shocking Death". CINEMABLEND. May 8, 2017. Retrieved March 21, 2018.
  4. ^ "'True Blood' Actor Nelsan Ellis Dies at 39". EW.com. Retrieved March 21, 2018.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference :2 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).