Isiah Whitlock Jr., the character actor best known for portraying The Wire‘s sheeeeeeeeet-talking State Senator Clay Davis, has died. Whitlock’s manager, Brian Liebman, confirmed his death to Deadline, saying he died peacefully after a short illness. He was 71.
Born in South Bend, Indiana, on September 13, 1954, he received a football scholarship to Southwest Minnesota State University, where he studied theater, before heading to San Francisco to join the American Conservatory Theater. After some television success, in 1990, he landed small parts on the big screen in both Gremlins 2: The New Batch and Goodfellas.
“I do remember I went to my day job—I was a waiter at a place on 10th Avenue—and I said, ‘I just got a part in Goodfellas!'” Whitlock told The A.V. Club for a 2021 Random Roles interview. “And they said, ‘No way! Get out!’ I said, ‘No, I met with Martin Scorsese, and they’re going to cast me as this doctor.’ And one of the guys said, ‘Oh, I’m going down there tomorrow, and I’m taking my stuff, because if you got a part, I know I’m going to get a part.’ [Laughs.] He was like, ‘They must just be handing out parts—they must need tons of people if they cast you—you just got here!’ So he went down there and he didn’t get a part. And here I am!”
Before long, Whitlock was a familiar face on Law & Order and its spin-offs, including SVU and Criminal Intent. “That show kept me afloat, to be quite honest!” he told The A.V. Club. “I mean, I love being on those shows, and doing all the different characters. But that was kind of like my bread and butter, my go-to. They just kept hiring me, and I kept showing up! And it would always be something different. But I think I’ve done more than anybody I’ve ever met.”
Though Whitlock appeared in dozens of film and television projects, he’s one of the few character actors of the modern era to coin a catchphrase that would follow him across projects. After dropping his first “sheeeeeeeeet” in Spike Lee’s The 25th Hour, the first of several collaborations with Lee, the earworm expletive became the actor’s signature, particularly on his breakout role on The Wire. Playing the corrupt State Senator Clay Davis, Whitlock had plenty of reason to utter the phrase as his plans went awry, and writers began creating opportunities for him to hit those emphasized vowels. Compilations of the actor saying the word became popular online and in person, as fans would repeat it to him wherever he went. In 2017, he successfully funded a sheeeeeeeeet-talking Bobblehead on Kickstarter. For his part, Whitlock credited his uncle Leon for the unique, elongated pronunciation.
After six years on The Wire, Whitlock continued a successful acting career throughout the next 20 years, appearing on The Good Wife, Veep, Atlanta, Your Honor, and in the comedy Cedar Rapids, playing a Wire superfan. Spike Lee kept Whitlock in mind after 25th Hour, casting him in She Hate Me, Chi-Raq, BlacKkKlansman, and Da 5 Bloods, which afforded him one of his meatiest and most prominent film roles. Most recently appeared in Elizabeth Banks’ Cocaine Bear, the Netflix mystery comedy The Residence, and voiced a character in the upcoming Pixar film, Hoppers.
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