After HOMICIDE he had a seemingly unbroken string of lead roles for TV and HBO: MEN OF A CERTAIN AGE, LAST RESORT with Robert Patrick (Andre was a submarine captain), GIDEON'S CROSSING (whch tied in to or was spun off from THE PRACTICE), then his longest-running TV hit, BROOKLYN NINE-NINE. Not his first cop, but definitely in charge....of a bunch of wackos. I enjoyed his chemistry with Adam Sandberg.
Not every Hollywood film took advantage of his talents (his generic SALT role as a doomed VIP could have been any actor), but as Thomas in GLORY he became Matthew Broderick's first volunteer. Many of us liked him so much we may have even temporarily hated Denzel Washington for picking on him. Thomas, like a lot of us Trekkers, was mocked for his nerdiness. We'll never know for certain if he survived Fort Wagner, odds being perhaps 10 percent, but please, God, let it be so.
And he was the antagonist in the first half of THE MIST, who, once again, maybe, just might have survived, odds being 15 percent at best, but he stuck with his point of view, and the rest we'll simply never know. An equally fine film role. He's got funny moments in Spike Lee's GET ON THE BUS as well. (One of the drivers in that movie looks very familar.)
HOMICIDE was tampered with and its early days grossly truncated by Numbskull Broadcasting Company, which waited three entire years to give the show a full 22-episode season. (After its initial nine episodes, NBC cruelly limited year two to just FOUR.) Braugher became the unofficial star of its alphabetical ensemble, and while playing well-educated, there was no GLORY-like nerdiness this time. He was never less than ferociously brilliant. He stayed for six years, then returned after the seventh for an excellent TV-movie reunion which movingly wrapped up the series forever.....in which Detective Pembleton arrested his best friend and ex-partner (Kyle Secor). In a sense, HOMICIDE had two finales.
Braugher teamed up with Avery Brooks to perform East Coast Shakespeare as well.
If I might wrap things up by returning to HOMICIDE (the second best cop show ever, and the third-best American TV show period), during the show's 1996 season finale, it flat-out terrified me by having Braugher suffering a stroke right in the middle of an especially critical interrogation. It was Braugher's idea. He desired to stretch his character, while having him recover slowly but eventually surely from his condition. That year-four cliffhanger literally had me frightened for his fictional character. I was actually that invested in Frank Pembleton then. It was 100 times worse than Picard's third-year TNG Borgification!
He did improve over time, and while his total recovery was perhaps not entirely realistic, I'm still damn glad Frank made it. If you can only see one episode of HOMICIDE, you'll want to head straight for Year One's ''Three Men and Adena,'' guest-starring Moses Gunn, who is boxed in for 60 minutes with Braugher and Secor. You won't forget it.
Now over half of HOMICIDE's original cast members are gone. We still have Secor, Melissa Leo, Clark Johnson and Daniel Baldwin. The building they filmed in stands, but only the exterior. It's a Baltimore local landmark.
Goodbye, Andre. As Frank, you outsmarted Steve Buscemi like nobody before or since. Rest well. Just as Giardello saw Adena in the last HOMICIDE ever, I know you'll see Ned, Yaphet, Richard and Jon wherever you are just now. Good times forever for you.
