RESOLVING THE LEDGER
This is one outlet's own report from The Hollywood Reporter — the article as it was filed. Other outlets are covering the same event; open the full story to compare every source side by side.
See the full story · 8 sources
Michael Wright, who starred as the lead vocalist Eddie King Jr. in Robert Townsend's The Five Heartbeats and as Wesley Snipes' brother in Sugar Hill , has died. He was 70.
Wright died Wednesday in Los Angeles of heart failure and complications from Marchiafava-Bignami, a rare degenerative neurological disease, TMZ reported .
"Our family is grieving an enormous and deeply personal loss," his wife, Susan, wrote on Instagram. "Michael, your work will live forever, but your love will live even longer in the hearts of those who knew you best. Rest peacefully, my love. You will be missed beyond words." Related Stories Movies Paul M. Pollard, Camera Man on 'Bound for Glory' and 'Heaven's Gate,' Dies at 84 Music Frank Beard, ZZ Top Drummer, Dies at 77
The lanky Wright also stood out as the Resistance leader Elias Taylor on the popular NBC miniseries and series V in the mid-1980s and as the drug-addled inmate Omar White on 22 episodes of HBO's Oz over three seasons from 2001-03.
In The Five Heartbeats (1991), written by Townsend and Keenen Ivory Wayans, Wright sparkled as the leader of the Motown-inspired R&B group that struggled to deal with success over the years (his character battled drugs and alcohol). The group also featured Townsend as Duck Matthews, Tico Wells as Anthony "Choirboy" Stone, Leon as J.T. Matthews and Harry J. Lennix as Terrence "Dresser" Williams.
He was excellent again as Raynathan Skuggs, brother of Snipes's Roemello Skuggs, in the gritty Sugar Hill (1994), written by Barry Michael Cooper in the second film in his "Harlem Trilogy."
Wright was born in New York City on April 30, 1956. His mother, Alberta, owned Jezebel, a Southern restaurant in the theater district, and that's where he met Townsend for the first time.
"I never go out," Townsend told New York magazine in 1991. "But before I knew it, we were club-hopping. Then we ended up in Michael's apartment at 3 a.m. watching this Japanese film he'd made."
Wright had made his onscreen debut as Clinton, the leader of The Del Bombers gang, in The Wanderers (1979), directed by Philip Kaufman. He then played the volatile young soldier Carlyle in Robert Altman's Streamers (1983).
His résumé also included the films The Principal (1987), Money Talks (1997), Piñero (2001), The Interpreter (2005) and Dope King (2025) and the TV series Miami Vice , New York Undercover and Black Lightning .
Survivors include five children and a grandchild.
AIPROPX is an independent multi-source news index — we track, compare, and connect coverage from across the web into one place you won't find anywhere else.