\n\t\u201cOur family is grieving an enormous and deeply personal loss,\u201d his wife, Susan, wrote<\/a> on Instagram. \u201cMichael, 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.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThe lanky Wright also stood out as the Resistance fighter 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\u2019s Oz over three seasons from 2001-03.<\/p>\n \n\tIn The Five Heartbeats (1991), written by Townsend and Keenen Ivory Wayans, Wright sparkled as the leader of the Motown-inspired R&B group that struggles to deal with success over the years (his King character battled drugs and alcohol). The group also featured Townsend as Duck Matthews, Tico Wells as Anthony \u201cChoirboy\u201d Stone, Leon as J.T. Matthews and Harry J. Lennix as Terrence \u201cDresser\u201d Williams.<\/p>\n \n\tWright was excellent again as Raynathan Skuggs, brother of Snipes\u2019 Roemello Skuggs, in the gritty Sugar Hill (1994), written by Barry Michael Cooper in the second film of his \u201cHarlem Trilogy.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\tFrom left: Leon, Robert Townsend, Tico Wells, Harry J. Lennix and Michael Wright in \u2018The Five Heartbeats.\u2019 <\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t20th Century Fox Film \/ courtesy Everett Collection<\/p>\n \n\tWright was born in New York City on April 30, 1956. His mother, Alberta, owned Jezebel, a Southern restaurant in the theater district, and that\u2019s where he met Townsend for the first time.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI never go out,\u201d Townsend told New York magazine in 1991. \u201cBut before I knew it, we were club-hopping. Then we ended up in Michael\u2019s apartment at 3 a.m. watching this Japanese film [Bedtime Lies] he\u2019d made.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tWright had started out in a work study program at the Lee Strasberg Institute, where he \u201cmopped floors, I answered phones, I did all kinds of tasks in exchange for my classes,\u201d he told<\/a> Sheen magazine in a 2021 interview.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tHe then appeared in his first film as Clinton, the leader of The Del Bombers gang, in The Wanderers (1979), directed by Philip Kaufman, followed by a turn as a volatile young soldier named Carlyle in Robert Altman<\/a>\u2019s Streamers (1983).<\/p>\n \n\tSix months after their first meeting, Townsend sent him the script for The Five Heartbeats for the role that had been designed with Denzel Washington in mind. <\/p>\n \n\tHe noted that after Cooper had written the part of Raynathan for him in Sugar Hill, he was sitting in a coffee shop in Manhattan when Snipes walked in \u201cwith an entourage of about 10 people.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI just stood up and got him by the lapels and said, \u2018Man, I got a movie and I want you to make it with me,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cHe wanted me to tell him more about it. We got in his limo. Wesley had a three-picture deal with Fox, I think. I got Wes to commit to making that film. That\u2019s how that film got made.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cThat was an authentic New York role, and it was made for me. A lot of it was commiserate with my own personal journey. I improvised the whole film.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tWright\u2019s r\u00e9sum\u00e9 also included the films The Principal (1987), Money Talks (1997), Pi\u00f1ero (2001), The Interpreter (2005) and Dope King (2025) and the TV series Miami Vice, New York Undercover and Black Lightning.<\/p>\n \n\tSurvivors include five children and a grandchild.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cThe greatest sin an actor can commit is to fail to be interesting,\u201d he said in his Sheen interview. \u201cI always try to make my characters interesting. I want you to be riveted and wonder what\u2019s going on behind my eyes. I want the audience to think along with me and go on an internal journey.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-hollywoodreporter-2021\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\")
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