Andre Braugher once joked to The New York Times that he had an “addiction” to working on critically acclaimed but little-watched shows. This may explain why lots of his work is not readily available — including, most surprisingly, the classic yet underappreciated cop show “Homicide: Life on the Street.”
Braugher, who died on Monday at age 61, became a breakout scene-stealer in this series as Frank Pembleton, a Baltimore detective who acted as the squad’s frustrated moral center. He was renowned for his ability to extract confessions from the guilty (and, to prove a point, sometimes the innocent) with his intense interrogation techniques. This was a role that earned Braugher his first Emmy, in 1998, but while the show is still available on DVD, and there is also a TV movie and a 2018 reunion panel (a snippet of which is available from the Paley Center’s YouTube channel), the original series has yet to arrive on streaming. Clearly, there is no justice.
Many of Braugher’s post-“Homicide” shows — “Gideon’s Crossing,” “Hack,” “Thief” (for which he won his second Emmy) — aren’t available in the streaming universe, but his more recent work is largely accessible. Here’s some of what you can stream right now:
‘Glory’ (1989)
Braugher’s first film role was in this exceptional Civil War movie, playing Thomas Searles, a free man who enlists in the Black 54th Massachusetts regiment. The actor was so green at the time, he said in interviews, that his co-stars Denzel Washington and Morgan Freeman had to teach him how to hit marks and match eyelines. But Braugher is nevertheless masterful playing what in the film is presented as a highly unusual character — a Black man who had always been free — yet is actually more representative of the real-life soldiers, since the regiment recruited mainly in the North. Watch the film with that in mind, as Searles — at first effete, bookish, utterly unequipped for war — breaks down during training before embarking on a most harrowing journey. Braugher’s portrayal signaled the arrival of an exciting new talent.
‘The Tuskegee Airmen’ (1995)
Black men in the U.S. military were still battling racism in World War II — especially the first Black fighter pilots. Here, playing the real-life Benjamin O. Davis Jr., Braugher delivers a great speech in his defining scene. Testifying at a congressional hearing of the House Armed Services Committee, with politicians asking whether this “experiment” should continue, he delivers salient counterarguments and points out the fallacy of theirs: “How do I feel about my country, and how does my country feel about me? Are we only to be Americans when the mood suits you?” It’s an impeccable performance — one which earned an Emmy nomination.
Stream it on Max.
‘Men of a Certain Age’ (2009-2011)
Braugher got his first chance to play against type when Ray Romano and Mike Royce recruited him to replace Wendell Pierce in this TNT dramedy. (Pierce had gone on to do “Treme.”) This series gave Braugher a chance to demonstrate both his comedy chops and his soliloquy skills. The show, which co-starred Romano and Scott Bakula, was a sort of male version of “And Just Like That …” long before it was trendy to examine midlife friendships. (Instead of menopause, these characters dished on colonoscopies.) As the car salesman Owen Thoreau Jr., Braugher gave us an intimate look at the disappointments of middle age — being humiliated by relatives, bosses and peers; being betrayed by his own body — and earned two more Emmy nominations for his work.