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Nelsan Ellis, best known for playing Lafayette Reynolds on HBO’s True Blood, has died. He was 39.
“We were extremely saddened to hear of the passing of Nelsan Ellis,” HBO said in a statement this afternoon. “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.”
Said True Blood creator Alan Ball: “Nelsan was a singular talent whose creativity never ceased to amaze me. Working with him was a privilege.” (Watch a clip of Ellis’ indelible portrayal below.)
Ellis, who joined the cast of CBS’ Elementary this past season as a series regular before his character Shinwell was murdered, was also in the Oscar Best Picture nominee The Help alongside Octavia Spencer, Viola Davis and Emma Stone. Spencer has already reacted on Instagram:
His film credits also included playing Martin Luther King Jr in Lee Daniels’ The Butler, playing Bobby Byrd in the James Brown biopic Get On Up and 2015 Sundance pic The Stanford Prison Experiment. Most recently, he starred in the indie Little Boxes and has the upcoming True To The Game.
His TV credits include the Fox series The Inside which ran for seven episodes in 2005. He then landed the role in True Blood, where he starred opposite Anna Paquin and Stephen Moyer on Southern gothic vampire series that ran from 2008-2014.
Here’s a clip of Ellis, in full glory as Lafayette, from a DVD extra posted by HBO on YouTube in 2009. Enjoy.
