Andre Braugher made intelligent, forceful men worth watching most closely when they seemed sure of themselves. We rate him for the precision that made Pembleton unsettling and gave Captain Holt his dry comic timing.
Fi1m perspective
Listen to Andre Braugher in an interrogation in Homicide: Life on the Street (1993). As Frank Pembleton, his delivery lets us hear the thinking, and his resonant voice makes the conclusions persuasive. We were unsettled by how readily we trusted him, because the programme gives us ample reason to doubt the police work. Braugher makes it possible to enjoy Pembleton's company even when his confidence becomes a problem. He is the chief reason we recommend this demanding drama.
His film debut came as Cpl. Thomas Searles in Edward Zwick's Glory (1989), a war film we recommend for actors who give its soldiers more than the writing does. Homicide became his breakthrough, followed by leading television roles in Gideon's Crossing (2000–2001) and Thief (2006). The later turn to comedy as Captain Raymond Holt in Brooklyn Nine-Nine (2013–2021) put that precise delivery to a different use. There is a clear link between the detective and the captain: Braugher understands how much an audience will read into a carefully spoken sentence.
In Homicide, the restless editing sometimes distracts from performances that deserve to be watched without assistance. Braugher's interrogation scenes are a particular case: the precise delivery is already doing the work of directing our attention. Pembleton's intelligence and confidence make him absorbing company, so the programme's doubts about police work have someone we want to believe at their centre. A less persuasive performance would make it easier to keep our distance, and leave us with less to think about.
Alongside co-star Andy Samberg in Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Braugher's deadpan timing found comedy in the seriousness he brought to Holt. He did not need to become broad to be funny, or advertise that he was enjoying the joke. It is a welcome second route into his work, though Pembleton remains the performance we would send people to first. Start with Homicide, and pay particular attention whenever he seems to have made up his mind.
Biography
Andre Braugher was an American actor. He graduated from Stanford University with a BA in theatre in 1984 and from the Juilliard School with a graduate diploma in drama in 1988.
Braugher made his film debut as Cpl. Thomas Searles in Glory (1989). He was best known for playing Detective Frank Pembleton in the series Homicide: Life on the Street (1993–1999), for which he won two Primetime Emmy Awards, and Captain Raymond Holt in Brooklyn Nine-Nine (2013–2021). His other notable film roles include Primal Fear (1996), City of Angels (1998), The Mist (2007) and Salt (2010). He also appeared in House (2004) as Dr. Darryl Nolan.
Braugher began his career in stage productions with the New York Shakespeare Festival and other companies.
