Actor Michael Wright, known for his roles in The Five Heartbeats, Sugar Hill, V and Oz, died Aug. 19 in Los Angeles. He was 70.
“It is with profound sadness and an unimaginable heaviness in my heart that I share the passing of my beloved husband, Michael Wright,” his wife Susan Wright wrote on Instagram.
Citing a statement from the family, TMZ reported that Wright died from heart failure coupled with complications from Marchiafava-Bignam disease.
Wright made his debut in the 1979 coming-of-age drama The Wanderers. For his second feature, Robert Altman’s 1983 Streamers, he shared the Best Actor Award at the Venice Film Festival with the rest of the main cast.
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In 1991, Wright went on to play one of the five leads, troubled singer Eddie King, Jr., in Robert Townsend’s musical drama The Five Heartbeats.
In features, he also appeared in The Principal, Sugar Hill, Money Talks, Point Black and The Interpreter.
In TV, Wright starred in the 1980s sci-fi franchise V, which spanned two miniseries and a TV series and had a major recurring role on HBO’s Oz. Most recently, he did an arc on the CW’s The Black Lightning.
“Michael was a husband, a father (Manon Wright, Byron Barr, Brittney Briggs, Brianna Barr, Sir Barr, a grandfather (Yoko), loved one, a friend, and an extraordinary artist whose work touched generations,” Susan Wright wrote.
