Actor Who Coined a Catchphrase Dies at 71

Isiah Whitlock Jr., the actor who turned a single drawn-out word into one of TV's most recognizable catchphrases, has died at 71. His manager, Brian Liebman, tells Deadline Whitlock died peacefully in New York on Tuesday after a short illness.

Whitlock was best known as smooth-talking, crooked state senator Clay Davis on HBO's The Wire, a character he played across all five seasons of the acclaimed drama. The role cemented his now-iconic "Sheeeeeit" delivery, a stretched-out spin on an expletive that he first tried in Spike Lee's 25th Hour, then repeated in Lee's She Hate Me before the Wire writers began scripting it in. "I saw a couple of opportunities where I could do it, and I did," he recalled in a 2008 interview, later noting he'd hear strangers call it out to him in public. He once said he picked up the drawn-out pronunciation from his uncle, USA Today reports.

A native of South Bend, Indiana, Whitlock headed to San Francisco's American Conservatory Theater after college and went on to build a 35-plus-year career as a reliable character actor. He landed his first notable TV role in 1987 on Cagney & Lacey and became a familiar face on series including Law & Order (in multiple franchise entries), Veep, Your Honor, and most recently Netflix's White House-set mystery The Residence, where he played the chief of police opposite Uzo Aduba.

On the film side, Whitlock was a frequent collaborator of Spike Lee, appearing in six of the director's movies, among them Red Hook Summer, Chi-Raq, BlacKkKlansman, and Da 5 Bloods. His recent work included Cocaine Bear, and his voice will be heard in the upcoming Pixar/Disney animated film Hoppers. He even once had a "meta" role, playing a super-fan of The Wire in 2011's Cedar Rapids, Variety reports. "Isiah was a brilliant actor and even better person," Liebman said, adding that he was loved by those who worked with or knew him and "will be greatly missed."