Reg E. Cathey

Reginald Eurias Cathey [1][2][3] (August 18, 1958 – February 9, 2018) was an American actor. He was best known for his roles as Norman Wilson in The Wire, Martin Querns in Oz, the game show announcer in Square One Television, Dr. Franklin Storm in the 2015 reboot of Fantastic Four, and Freddy Hayes in House of Cards, the latter earning him three consecutive Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series, including a win in 2015.[4]

Reg E. Cathey
Cathey in 2016
Born	Reginald Eurias Cathey (1958-08-18)August 18, 1958 Huntsville, Alabama, U.S.
Died	February 9, 2018(2018-02-09) (aged 59) New York City, New York, U.S.
Education	University of Michigan (BFA) Yale University (MFA)
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1984–2018

Early life

Cathey was born in Huntsville, Alabama, to Red Cathey, an Army colonel,[5] who fought in three wars (World War II, Korean War and Vietnam War)[6] and his wife, who was a DOD worker and an educator.[5][7] He had a sister, Donza.[2] He spent his childhood with his family on a rural farm[6] in West Germany before returning to Alabama at the age of 14.[6][7][8] His interest in theater began at age 9, after attending a United Service Organization show in West Germany.[9] Cathey graduated from J.O. Johnson High School,[10] where he acted in plays such as To Kill a Mockingbird.[11] He subsequently studied theatre at the University of Michigan and the Yale School of Drama.[4]

Career

One of Cathey's earliest roles was starring in the children's television show Square One. This was followed by guest roles in such series as Star Trek: The Next Generation and Homicide: Life on the Street. In 1994, he appeared in The Mask as Freeze, the main antagonist's friend and bodyguard who gets inadvertently killed by the title character.[11] He also appeared in 1995's Se7en as the coroner. He played the villain Dirty Dee in the cult comedy film Pootie Tang and had a regular role on the HBO series The Wire as Norman Wilson during the fourth and fifth seasons.[12] He also worked with The Wire creator David Simon on the Emmy Award-winning miniseries The Corner; Cathey played a drug addict known as Scalio. He had a recurring role on the HBO prison drama Oz as unit manager Martin Querns. In the film Tank Girl, he played the role of Deetee. He narrated Aftermath: Population Zero, a National Geographic Channel special which imagines what Earth might be like if humanity no longer existed. He played the homeless man Al, murdered by Patrick Bateman, in the film American Psycho. He narrated TLC's Wonders of Weather, a TV series. On Between the Lions, he played King Ray in the story of "Rumpelstitlkstin" in the episode, "Hay Day".

In 2009, Cathey performed in The People Speak, a documentary feature film that uses dramatic and musical performances of the letters, diaries, and speeches of everyday Americans, based on historian Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States.[13]

In Fall 2009, Cathey played the role of Ellis Boyd "Red" Redding in a theatrical production of The Shawshank Redemption at Wyndham's Theatre, London.[14] He has made two guest appearances on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, as an undercover police officer involved with animal smuggling (episode: "Wildlife") and later as a high-priced defense attorney to a hooker (episode: "Rhodium Nights"). He also made a guest appearance on Law & Order: Criminal Intent in the episode "Anti-Thesis" as a college professor suspected of murder. He also played boxing promoter Barry K. Word on the FX series Lights Out.[15]

In 2013, Cathey began a recurring role as Freddy Hayes, the owner of Freddy's BBQ, in Netflix's original series House of Cards, as well as on Grimm, in the recurring role of Baron Samedi. His portrayal of Hayes in the second, third, and fourth seasons of House of Cards earned three Emmy nominations and one win for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series.[16]

Cathey had expressed a wish to appear in the Irish soap opera Fair City.[17]

Cathey co-starred in Josh Trank's Fantastic Four (2015), as Dr. Franklin Storm, the father of The Invisible Woman and The Human Torch.[18] He also played the county sheriff in the city of Rome, WV, in the Cinemax series Outcast. One of Cathey's final TV roles was portraying James Lucas in the Netflix series Marvel's Luke Cage.[19]

Death

Cathey died at his home in New York City on February 9, 2018, at the age of 59. He was reported to have had lung cancer.[2][3][20] He was cremated, and his ashes were spread somewhere in New York City. [21]

Around the time of his death, Cathey provided the voice of Captain Quaid in Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure. When Cathey died, his character's remaining lines had to be provided by Keith David.

Filmography

Reg E. Cathey film work

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1988	Funny Farm	Reporter #2	[22]
1988	Crossing Delancey	Cab Driver	[22]
1988	Ich und Er	Waiter
1989	Penn & Teller Get Killed	Fan's Friend	[22]
1989	Born on the Fourth of July	Speaker
1990	Loose Cannons	Willie	[22]
1990	Quick Change	Sound Analyst	[22]
1990	Astonished	Wayne
1991	What About Bob?	Howie Katrell	[22]
1994	Clean Slate	1st Cop
1994	The Mask	Freeze	Credited as Reginald E. Cathy[22]
1994	Clear and Present Danger	Sergeant-Major	[22]
1994	Airheads	Marcus	[22]
1994	The Hard Truth	Shotgun cop
1995	Napoleon	Frog	Voice, English version
1995	Tank Girl	Deetee	[22]
1995	Se7en	Dr. Santiago	[22]
1997	Ill Gotten Gains	Nassor	[22]
2000	American Psycho	Homeless Man	[22]
2001	Pootie Tang	Dirty Dee	[22]
2003	Head of State	Officer Waters	[22]
2003	A Good Night to Die	Avi
2003	S.W.A.T.	Lt. Greg Velasquez	[22]
2004	The Machinist	Jones	[22]
2004	Everyday People	Akbar	[22]
2004	Men Without Jobs	Mr. Morgan	[22]
2004	The Cookout	Frank Washington	[22]
2006	508 Nelson	Frank Harmon
2008	20 Years After	Samuel	[22]
2008	Patsy	Dr. Joshua
2011	My Last Day Without You	Pastor Johnson	[22]
2012	Arbitrage	Earl Monroe
2012	The Normals	Rodney
2012	Sampling	Leonard	Short
2014	Two Men in Town	Supervisor Jones	[22]
2014	Alex of Venice	Walt
2014	St. Vincent	Gus	[22]
2015	Nasty Baby	The Bishop	[22]
2015	Sweet Kandy	Curtis Coleson
2015	Fantastic Four	Dr. Franklin Storm	[22]
2016	Hands of Stone	Don King	Uncredited[22]
2017	Flock of Four	Pope Dixon
2018	Tyrel	Reggie

Reg E. Cathey television work

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1984	A Doctor's Story	Richie	Television movie
1987	Spenser: For Hire	Shepard	Episode: "The Man Who Wasn't There"
1987–1992	Square One TV	Various	240 episodes
1988-1989	Sesame Street	Blue Bird (voice only)	2 episodes
1990	Great Performances	Guildenstern	Episode: "Hamlet"
1991	Eyes of a Witness	Prosecutor	Television movie
1992	Fool's Fire	Minister Gunther	Television movie
1993	And the Band Played On	Staff doctor #2	Television movie
1993	Star Trek: The Next Generation	Morag	Episode: "Aquiel"
1994	Roc	Fred	Episode: "The Concert"
1995	Tyson	Attorney Winston	Television movie
1996	ER	IAD Investigator David Haskell	Episode: "Take These Broken Wings"
1997–1998	Arli$$	Alvin Epps	3 episodes
1998	Homicide: Life on the Street	Bernard Weeks	Episode: "Full Court Press"
2000	The Corner	Scalio	6 episodes
2000	Homicide: The Movie	Bernard Weeks	Television movie
2000–2003	Oz	Martin Querns	8 episodes
2001	Boycott	E.D. Nixon	Television movie
2002	Law & Order: Criminal Intent	Professor Roland Sanders	Episode: "Anti-Thesis"
2004	Law & Order	Gerald	Episode: "Darwinian"
2004	The Jury	Mr. Grove	Episode: "Mail Order Mystery"
2005	Third Watch	Jaime Castro	Episode: "Welcome Home"
2006–2008	The Wire	Norman Wilson	23 episodes
2008	Law & Order: Special Victims Unit	Victor Tybor	Episode: "Wildlife"
2009	Une aventure New-Yorkaise	Marcus	Television movie
2010	30 Rock	Rutherford Rice	Episode: "Let's Stay Together"
2011	Earth: Making of a Planet	Narrator	Documentary Film
2011	Lights Out	Barry K. Word	12 episodes
2012	Person of Interest	Davidson	Episode: "Blue Code"
2012–2013	Law & Order: Special Victims Unit	Barry Querns	4 episodes
2013	Grimm	The Baron / Baron Samedi	3 episodes
2013–2016	House of Cards	Freddy Hayes	15 episodes Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series (2015) Nominated—Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series (2014, 2016)
2014	Banshee Origins	Det. Julius Bonner	3 episodes
2014	Banshee		2 episodes
2014	The Divide	Uncle Bobby	5 episodes
2015	The Good Wife	Judge Aaron Coleman	Episode: "The Deconstruction"
2015	Neon Joe, Werewolf Hunter	Dad	2 episodes
2015	Masters of the Clock: The Legend of Martinsville	Narrator	Television movie
2016	The Blacklist	The Caretaker	Episode: "The Caretaker (No. 78)"
2016	Horace and Pete	Harold	2 episodes
2016	Inside Amy Schumer	Congressman #2	Episode: "The World's Most Interesting Woman in the World"
		Adviser	Episode: "Madame President"
2016–2017	Outcast	Chief Byron Giles	20 episodes
2017	The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks	Zakariyya Lacks	Television movie
2018	Elementary	Mr. Clay	Episode: "Our Time Is Up"; posthumous release
2018	Luke Cage	James Lucas	7 episodes; posthumous release
2018	Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure	Captain Quaid	Voice, 2 episodes; posthumous release

References

1. Radloff, Jessica (September 13, 2015). "Darren Criss Talks Glee, Derek Hough Wins His Second Emmy, and More News From the Creative Arts Emmys". Glamour. As for Reg E.'s interesting first and middle name, the actor admits that he came about his name in the most unusual of ways when he was 19 years old. "My [legal] name is Reginald Eurias, so I've always been Reggie, but I was in love years ago and there was that song, 'Chuck E.'s In Love,' [by Rickie Lee Jones], so I made it Reg E.
2. "Reg E. Cathey, actor on House Of Cards and The Wire, dies at 59, Entertainment News & Top Stories". Elite News 24. February 10, 2018.
3. Brockington, Ariana (February 9, 2018). "Reg Cathey, 'House of Cards' and 'The Wire' Actor, Dies at 59". Variety. Retrieved February 9, 2018.
4. U-M alum Reg E. Cathey on his 'House of Cards' Emmy Julie Hinds. Detroit Free Press. September 18, 2015. Retrieved September 20, 2015
5. Russell, Yvonna (December 6, 2017). "Everyman: Actor Reg E. Cathey". The Huffington Post.
6. Ellis-Petersen, Hannah (June 3, 2016). "Reg E Cathey: 'The world is being destroyed by psychopaths'". The Guardian.
7. Stevens, Matt (February 9, 2018). "Reg E. Cathey, Actor on 'House of Cards' and 'The Wire,' Dies at 59". The New York Times.
8. "The Wire: Out of Character with Reg E. Cathey (HBO)". YouTube. April 11, 2008. Retrieved December 12, 2012.
9. Sutton, Joe; Chavez, Nicole (February 13, 2018). "Reg E. Cathey, 59, actor". Philly.
10. Kezo, Jeannie (September 20, 2007). "A New World on the Huntsville Horizon". Valley Planet. Archived from the original on June 9, 2009.
11. "From Huntsville to Hollywood". The Huntsville Times. December 10, 1993.
12. "The Wire: Homepage". HBO. March 20, 2012. Retrieved December 12, 2012.
13. "Entertainment: The People Speak". Los Angeles Times. December 12, 2009.
14. Billington, Michael (September 13, 2009). "Review: The Shawshank Redemption". The Guardian.
15. "Lights Out (2011) Reg E. Cathey: Barry K. Word". IMDb. Retrieved February 11, 2018.
16. Colurso, Mary. "Alabama ties: Tony Hale, Laverne Cox, Reg E. Cathey among nominees for 2014 Emmy Awards". Al.com. Retrieved July 10, 2014.
17. "The Wire star hopes to appear in Fair City". RTÉ Arts. Raidió Teilifís Éireann. June 3, 2009. Retrieved June 3, 2009.
18. Siegel, Tatiana. "Fox's 'Fantastic Four' Reboot Adds 'The Wire's' Reg E. Cathey". The Hollywood Reporter. May 8, 2014.
19. Lammers, Timothy (February 10, 2018). "Reg E. Cathey's Final Role Was Playing Luke Cage's Father in Season 2". Screen Rant. Archived from the original on February 10, 2018. Retrieved February 10, 2018.
20. 'House of Cards' Star Reg E. Cathey Dead At 59
21. TMZ 'House of Cards' Star Reg E. Cathey Left Behind Nearly $500,000". TMZ. June 18, 2018.
22. "Filmography for Reg E.Cathey". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved February 12, 2018.

External links

• Reg E. Cathey on IMDb
• The People Speak on IMDb