Casting director remembers the late actor Andre Braugher, star of Baltimore-based series 'Homicide'

BALTIMORE - Emmy Award-winning actor Andre Braugher was known for his many roles, including in the TV series Brooklyn Nine-Nine as Police Capt. Raymond Holt and Air Force General Benjamin O. Davis, commander of the Tuskegee Airmen.

He also played Det. Frank Pembleton, the lead role in "Homicide: Life on the Street," a police drama that was filmed in Baltimore.

Braugher died on Tuesday at the age of 61 following a brief illness.

Emmy Award-winning casting director Pat Moran spoke with WJZ about the beloved actor.

"He was a great man, a wonderful actor, and more than that, he was a great husband and father and beyond decency," Moran said.  

Braugher's best-known role for Baltimoreans was his hit series "Homicide: Life on the Street," which was filmed in Charm City and came with lots of local fanfare.

"You can buy these souvenirs around the corner from Fells Point, but here at the real homicide set, you can get the real deal," former WJZ reporter Ron Matz once reported. 

"It was the job of a lifetime, the best job you'll have in your career," Moran said in the 1990s as the TV series was coming to an end.

Even today, Moran maintains that it was one of her best moments getting to work with Braugher. She highlighted his level of professionalism as an actor.

"I always think of Andre as sitting in the back room of the old daily grind, working his script," Moran said. "He was always prepared."

That level of preparation led to more roles for the late actor.

But it was who he was as a father, husband and person that stood out most to those who knew him, including writer David Simon, who acknowledged Braugher's death in a social media post.

"I've worked with a lot of wonderful actors. I'll never work with one better," Simon said. "Stunned and thinking of him and his sons and so many memories of this good man that are now a blessing."

"Nobody, I don't think, in this business could say one bad word about this man," Moran added. "He was a genuinely talented guy, and beyond that, a decent human being."