Showing posts with label Nelsan Ellis. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nelsan Ellis. Show all posts

Saturday, July 08, 2017

‘True Blood’ Star Nelsan Ellis Dead At 39

Nelsan Ellis, who played sassy short-order cook Lafayette Reynolds on HBO's True Blood, has died at 39 of complications from heart failure.

His manager, Emily Gerson Saines, confirmed his death on Saturday to USA TODAY.

"He was a great talent, and his words and presence will be forever missed," she said in a statement.

While he also had roles on CBS' Elementary and worked in films like The Help, Secretariat, the James Brown biopic Get On and The Soloist, to fans of True Blood, he will always be Lafayette.

The Illinois-born actor so impressed the producers and fans of the HBO supernatural drama with his performance that the TV version of Lafayette escaped the early death the character was dealt in Charlaine Harris' books.

"A great talent gone too soon," Harris lamented on Twitter. "Such a shock."

True Blood marked Ellis' second HBO project. He also appeared in 2005's Emmy-winning Warm Springs, in which his character tended to the polio-stricken Franklin Delano Roosevelt (Kenneth Branagh).

The network issued a statement noting, "Nelsan was a long-time member of the HBO family whose groundbreaking portrayal of Lafayette will be remembered fondly within the overall legacy of True Blood. Nelsan will be dearly missed by his fans and all of us at HBO."

[SOURCE: USATODAY]