Braugher returns to familiar role

NEW YORK — If not for a twist of fate many years ago, Andre Braugher likely would be an engineer right now.

A very intense engineer, but an engineer nonetheless.

It didn't happen only due to a chance encounter he had with Shakespeare while as an undergraduate at Stanford University.

The director of a student production of "Hamlet" begged Braugher to fill in for the role of Claudius when the original actor bowed out just before the debut.

Braugher, perhaps best known for his role of a Baltimore police detective in the acclaimed 1990s TV show "Homicide: Life on the Street," had just three days to learn his lines. When he finally hit the stage, he was ready to abandon his old life.

"I had a midlife crisis at 19. I just had to do this," says Braugher, now 45. "I found an emotional immediacy and resonance and joy in being on stage."

Braugher, the product of an all-boys Jesuit high school in Chicago, found there were some added benefits to a life as an actor that engineering couldn't match.

"People clap and they go out and have parties afterward, and its full of vivacious young women," he says, laughing. "Otherwise, it's just you and your slide rule and your T-1 calculator in the library."

His career trajectory forever changed. Braugher became a drama major and later got a master's from The Juilliard School. He then embarked on an Emmy- and Obie-winning career that has led him back this summer to where it all began: As Claudius in "Hamlet."

He co-stars in the Public Theater's free Shakespeare in the Park series, opposite Michael Stuhlbarg in the title role, Sam Waterston of "Law & Order" fame, Lauren Ambrose of "Six Feet Under" and Margaret Colin, currently on TV's "Gossip Girl."

It's Braugher's first time on stage in a dozen years and his sixth Shakespeare in Central Park, following appearances in "King John," "Much Ado About Nothing," "Measure for Measure," "Twelfth Night" and "Henry V," for which he won a 1997 Obie in the title role.

Since his film debut in "Glory," Braugher has had a varied career, appearing on screen in films such as "City of Angels," "Duets," "Primal Fear," the recent remake of "Poseidon" and Spike Lee's "Get on the Bus." He just was in "The Mist" and portrayed Gen. Hager in "Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer."

Perhaps Braugher's best work was as Baltimore detective Frank Pembleton in the cult show "Homicide." His searing portrayal of a cop was as breathtaking as Michael Chiklis' Vic Mackey on "The Shield." Over six seasons, Pembleton was a brooder, a philosopher and a master interrogator, one who could make even innocent men confess. When Braugher wanted to spice up his character, he persuaded the producers to let him suffer a debilitating stroke.

Braugher left the show in 1998 with an Emmy and high hopes. "Homicide" struggled on without him just one more season. Since then, the work hasn't always seemed commensurate with his talent.

The offer to return to Central Park this summer to rekindle his love of "Hamlet" was easy to accept. Braugher makes his home nearby in South Orange, N.J., with his actress wife, Ami Brabson — they met at Juilliard, and she played his spouse on "Homicide" — and their three boys.

"It's one of the greatest texts in the English language. Period," Braugher says. "When you think about how much commentary has been written about characters in the history of the world, it's Jesus followed by Hamlet."