It seems somehow absurd that Lance Reddick, who died Friday at 60, is gone. An impressively solid presence wherever he turned up, Reddick appeared invincible, immortal. That one of his last roles was Zeus in the upcoming Disney+ adaptation of “Percy Jackson and the Olympians” just seems like typecasting.
A marvelously centered performer, he could elevate any scene without breaking a sweat. Reddick, whose voice was well-trained, resonant and easy on the ear, didn’t have to get loud to put the fear of God into a character or viewer; you could sense well enough the roiling currents beneath a placid surface. He made an art of the low boil and the stern stare. When asked, he could deploy a toothy smile fit to charm birds from the trees.
Best known for crime dramas (“The Wire,” “Bosch”), genre exercises (“Lost,” last year’s “Resident Evil” series) or combinations of the two (“Fringe”), Reddick also had guest shots on sitcoms (“Young Sheldon,” “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia”) and alternative comedies (“Tim & Eric’s Bedtime Stories,” “Key & Peele,” “The Eric Andre Show” and “Comedy Bang! Bang!”). There was voice work in cartoons and video games. He appeared in Regina King’s historical drama “One Night in Miami …” and will be in an upcoming remake of “White Men Can’t Jump.” This is to say that any generalizations I make about his career are surely contradicted somewhere within it.
