The Glory of Andre Braugher

I will start at the start. 

Like many, my first contact with Andre Braugher was in 1989’s Glory, Edward Zwick’s fine telling of the 54th regiment —the first black unit of soldiers to take the battlefield in the Civil War. Braugher, in his film debut, played Corporal Thomas Searles, a free man who took up the cause of the Union to help free other men, women, and children from the bonds of slavery. While Matthew Broderick led the cast as Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, the infantry’s commanding officer, it was the black actors in supporting parts who stood out the most. 

Denzel Washington won his first Oscar as Private Trip, a former slave whose rebellion against authority provided the seething underbelly of anger that so many Black people must have felt at the time. Morgan Freeman also stood out as an older soldier, Sergeant Major John Rawlins, a man of deep faith and great oratory. 

And then there was Andre Braugher. His Cpl. Searles was a highly educated man who aspired to fight against slavery with the most noble of intentions. However, Searles did not know what he was getting into. As a free man, he could not relate to many of the other men in the infantry. He was also not a natural soldier, and early on appears to lack the toughness to ever become competent in his position. As well, despite having a friendship with Gould Shaw before the infantry is formed, Shaw refuses to give Searles any additional consideration. He must be one of the men in Shaw’s charge. Nothing more, nothing less. 

Over the course of the film, we see Searles struggle, breakdown, and cry. He appears to be the infantry’s weakest link. But after a particularly bloody battle where Searles steps up and meets the standard of his fellow men, we begin to see a new man form. Searles himself is badly injured during the fight, and it would have been reasonable to send him to the infirmary, thus suspending (if not ending) his time as a soldier. Searles will hear nothing of it, and when the time comes to head into what amounts to a suicide mission to take a sea-side camp back from the Confederates, it is Searles who offers to takes up “old glory” should the original flag-bearer fall. “I will,” he says when asked by Shaw. Just two short words, but a whole arc was spoken with each syllable.

And look, this is old school, inspirational, retro filmmaking, but I’ll be damned if it doesn’t work. And the biggest reason why it does work is because of what Andre Braugher brought to Searles: aspiration that turns into fear and doubt about his own capacity, and then a revelation of what lies within him. Sure, is it corny hero / Hollywood stuff? Certainly. But Braugher sells it like nobody’s business. 

In a film with much bigger names and working mostly with two actors at the top of their game (Washington and Freeman), Braugher held more than his own. In fact, I would argue that he may have given the finest performance in the film period. 

 While Braugher may not have received the accolades and awards that Washington did, he did not go unnoticed, and was soon in great demand. 

More than twenty years before Chadwick Bozeman played Jackie Robinson in 42, Braugher took on the role of the groundbreaking athlete in the excellent 1990 made-for-TV film, The Court-Martial of Jackie Robinson. The film itself may be a bit dated, but Braugher’s performance certainly isn’t. His take on Robinson was full of righteous indignation, even while facing a court-martial for insubordination regarding integration. 

Braugher went on to shine in the HBO film The Tuskegee Airmen alongside Laurence Fishburne, Cuba Gooding Jr., and John Lithgow in 1995. One year later he had a small but tasty role as an attorney supporting Richard Gere’s hotshot lawyer Martin Vail in Primal Fear. He was also terrific in Spike Lee’s Get on the Bus from later that year. 

Gideon’s Crossing, a show starring Braugher as an inventive and perhaps genius physician had a lovely pilot episode in 2000 and was solid throughout during its two-year run. I was also very fond of his far too short-lived series Thief from 2006, in which he played a master criminal trying to pull off a big score. I know many fans of Braugher have soft spots for two other shows that he starred in, Hack and Men of a Certain Age. 

But when speaking of Braugher’s work on television (where most of his best roles took place), it was his work on Tom Fontana and David Simon’s game changing  Homicide (1993-1997) and the incredibly funny Brooklyn Nine-Nine (2013-2021) that likely resonates with viewers most. Braugher played police officers in both, but could not have been more different in his two parts. 

I’ll never forget the first time I saw him on Homicide explaining to a fellow detective how he was going to extract something from a man that the man had “no use for” (a confession), and then goes into the interrogation room and masterfully showcases the skill of his Detective Frank Pembleton. It’s truly one of the most jaw-dropping scenes I’ve ever witnessed on television or anywhere else, and Braugher held the moment in his hand like a god.

On Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Braugher mined comedy gold as the stern Captain Raymond Holt. Every line reading of his was a treasure. The series may have arguably been built around Andy Samberg’s Detective Jake Peralta, but the show belonged to Braugher. 

It may be strange to think that a man who received eleven Emmy nominations (winning two) wasn’t as appreciated as he should have been during his time in front of the camera, but something in my gut tells me it’s so. Braugher was fortunate enough to score two (three if you count Glory, and I certainly do) signature roles in his career, but for a man with so many gifts, it always seemed to me that he should have been an even bigger star.

On this day, I suspect I may not be the only one sharing that sentiment. 

Andre Braugher died on December 11, 2023. He was 61 years old.