Isaiah Whitlock Jr., an actor who frequently appeared on the HBO series “The Wire” and “Veep” and in Spike Lee films, died Tuesday. He was 71 years old.
Whitlock's manager Brian Liebman told The Associated Press in an email that the actor died in New York after a short illness.
Whitlock played blatantly corrupt city councilman Clay Davis in 25 episodes across five seasons of The Wire.
Davis, a fan-favorite character, was known for his foul-mouthed line—”damn it”—uttered by Whitlock in moments of triumph and raw honesty. The actor first used the phrase in his first film with Lee, 2002's The 25th Hour.
“The Wire” creator David Simon posted a photo of Whitlock on Bluesky as a tribute.
Whitlock is the second major star of the series to die in recent weeks, following the death of actor James Ransone.
A native of South Bend, Indiana, Whitlock attended Southwestern Minnesota State University, where he played football and studied theater. Injuries prompted him to study acting, and he moved to San Francisco to work in the theater.
In the late 1980s, he began appearing in small television guest roles on series such as Cagney & Lacey, and he also had very small roles in the 1990 films Goodfellas and Gremlins 2: The New Batch.
He then starred in five of Lee's films, including She Hate Me, Red Hook Summer, Chi-Raq, BlacKkKlansman and Da 5 Bloods.
He played Secretary of Defense George Maddox for three seasons on the political satire Veep. The character ran against Selina Meyer and Julia Louis-Dreyfus in the presidential primaries.
