N0 matter what kinds of shows or movies you’re into, Lance Reddick is probably a familiar face to you. He has been in the industry for nearly 30 years and he’s built up quite an impressive resume along the way. Throughout his career, he has appeared in a wide variety of projects on both the big and the small screen. He is best-known for his role as Cedric Daniels on The Wire as well as playing Deputy Chief Irvin Irving in Bosch. No matter what kind of role he’s playing, Lance has the ability to make any character believable and he brightens up the screen every time he steps in front of the camera. Continue reading for 10 things you didn’t know about Lance Reddick.
1. He Almost Didn’t Get The Role For The Wire
The Wire has been one of the biggest opportunities of Lance’s career, but he almost missed out on it all together. He had just minutes to prepare for the audition and he wasn’t feeling very confident but decided to go with it anyway. A few weeks later he received a call saying that he didn’t get the role. Fortunately, he got another called a few weeks after saying that he had, in fact, gotten the part.
2. He’s A Baltimore Naive
The Wire has been praised for a lot of things in the years since it’s been off the air, and one of those things has been its depiction of Baltimore and its culture. For Lance, being on the show was an extra special experience because he was actually born and raised in the city.
3. He Was In A Jay-Z Video
Jay-Z and Beyonce’s “03 Bonnie and Clyde” was one of the biggest songs of early 2000s and Lance Reddick has an interesting connection to it. He actually appeared as a police officer in the video for the song. Working with Beyonce and Jay-Z is something that not many of Lance’s contemporaries can say they’ve done.
4. He Has Done Voice Work For Video Games
In addition to his music video appearance, Lance has done some other cool things outside of his on screen work. He has voiced several video game characters including Commander Zavala in the Destiny franchise and Sylens in Horizon Zero Dawn. Lance also narrated a documentary called Through the Eye of the Needle.
5. He’s Still Upset About His Character In Lost Being Killed Off
Sometimes things don’t work out as planned, and that’s exactly how things went down for Lance when he took a role on Fringe that ended impacting his time on Lost. He told Cinema Blend, “When I was cast on Fringe, I was told that I’d be able to continue recurring on Lost. And then, the very first episode that I did on Lost in the middle of Fringe season one — they killed me. So, that was annoying. Don’t get me wrong, it was a great episode … But, it was like, ‘What the f**k, guys?’”
6. He’s A Musician
Lance never wanted to be an actor. Instead, music was his first love and what he had always hoped to make a career out of. Although acting ultimately became his primary focus, he never gave up on his musical aspirations. In 2007, he released an album titled “Contemplations & Remembrances”.
7. A Back Injury Led Him To Acting
Lance’s journey to becoming an actor was nontraditional to say the least. The only reason he even decided to pursue acting was because he suffered a serious back injury that prevented him from going back to his jobs delivering newspapers and working in restaurants.
8. He’s A Husband And Father
Lance certainly isn’t one of those actors that likes to put all of his business in the street. He enjoys his privacy and keeps his media attention focused on his career. However, we do know that he is a dedicated family man. He has been married to his wife, Stephanie, for nearly a decade. He has two children, a son and daughter from his first marriage.
9. He Attended Yale
In his late 20s, he decided to apply to the theater program at Yale University. Initially, he was just interested in studying acting with the hopes that it would somehow help his music career. While some people may have said he was too old to start a new career venture at the time, Lance’s life experience proved to be a valuable asset.
10. He Loves Comic Books
Lance has always been a comic book fan and Batman is one of his favorite characters. In 2014, he got the opportunity to voice the character Ra’s al Ghul in the TV series, Beware the Batman. Maybe one day he’ll get the chance to be part of a live action Batman project.
