Michael Wright, an actor best known for starring as Eddie King Jr. in the oft-quoted and beloved Motown-inspired movie “The Five Heartbeats,” as well as the HBO series “Oz,” has died. He was 70 years old.
The actor’s wife, Susan Wright, confirmed his death on social media on Friday, writing, “It is with profound sadness and an unimaginable heaviness in my heart that I share the passing of my beloved husband, Michael Wright.”
The actor’s family said in a statement to TMZ that Michael Wright died on Wednesday in Los Angeles from apparent heart failure and complications associated with Marchiafava-Bignami, a rare and progressive neurological disorder.
“Many knew and loved him through The Five Heartbeats, The Wanderers, V, The Principal, Streamers, and the many other characters he brought to life throughout his remarkable career,” the post continued. “His talent, presence, and contributions to film and television will live on, but to those of us who loved him personally, he was so much more than the roles the world knew him for.
“Our family is grieving an enormous and deeply personal loss. We understand how much Michael meant to so many people, and we are grateful for the love, prayers, memories, and condolences already being shared.”
Susan Wright asked for “privacy and grace to grieve” and that “people refrain from sharing unconfirmed information,” adding that when the family is ready, they will share more about the actor’s life and plans to honor him.
She added: “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.”
Michael Wright was born April 30, 1956, in New York City. His mother, Alberta Wright, owned a vintage clothing store called Jezebel on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, and Michael credits her with kick-starting his career. “Miss Ana Strasberg came into the store, and my mom shared that she had a son who was a fledgling actor, and Miss Strasberg invited me to come down to the Lee Strasberg Theater Institute and to have a meeting with her, and that meeting … changed my life,” he said during a 2015 appearance on “The Sissy Gamache Show.”
At the institute, Wright participated in a work-study program — mopping floors, answering phones and interviewing other acting hopefuls to see if they had what it took to make it in the program. Ana became Wright’s mentor and he became Lee Strasberg’s secretary.
“I came to the acting process having read every conceivable thing that concerned it. … I was an acolyte of Konstantin [Stanislavski.] I knew [Richard] Boleslavski. I knew [Yevgeny] Vakhtangov. And I understood how the process occurred — it was relaxation. It was concentration. Intent. I would score my scripts like it was nobody’s business, and I would do everything word for word, line for line, moment for moment, beat for beat,” he told Gamache.
“At the end of the day, when the man said, ‘Cut,’ I take that character off like this shirt and hang him up in the closet.”
Wright landed his first film role in 1979’s “The Wanderers” and his first big television break in 1983 as Elias Taylor on the science fiction miniseries “V,” which carried over into 1984’s “V: The Final Battle” and in the “V” series that ran from 1984 to 1985.
“I never decided to go to L.A.,” he told Gamache. “I had to go.”
“I got cast in a science fiction miniseries. It was one of the most amazing experiences of my life: landing at LAX, being picked up and driven down the I-10 and coming down Barham Boulevard and seeing the Warner Brothers studio,” he continued. “It was like descending into the Emerald City. I was there and going through that studio gate, and being directed to my dressing room, and being able to have the freedom to walk around that lot and to see all of those sets that I was familiar with from my childhood.”
Through the ’80s, he acted in television projects including “Miami Vice” and films including 1987’s “The Principal,” starring Jim Belushi and Louis Gossett Jr., and the 1987 romantic drama “Bedroom Eyes.”
In the ’90s, he acted in a number of cult classics, including “Lionheart,” “Sugarhill” and the project he’s most well-known for, “The Five Heartbeats,” in which Wright portrays the volatile and drug-addled soul singer Eddie King Jr., widely considered the heart of the movie.
“Eddie King Jr. is without a question an iconic film figure in African American cinema,” the actor told Gamache. “I can’t go anywhere on any given day and not encounter people that figure me out as Eddie King. They know all my songs, and they know my lines better than me.”
By the aughts, Michael was asked to audition for a one-episode role in the OG prestige HBO drama “Oz,” in which he played an inmate with a penchant for poetry.
“I went in there, and I just went totally berserk,” he told Gamache of the audition. “And I went through a week of that episode, and then after that was finished, I went back to my dressing room, and there was another script on my bed. And I said, ‘OK, that’s interesting.’ So I did that episode. And then when that was finished, there was another script on my bed, and I said, ‘OK.’ And then I did that episode, and there was another script on my bed. And so I said, ‘Oh s—! I guess I must be a regular.’”
Robert Townsend, who directed and starred as Donald “Duck” Matthews in “The Five Heartbeats,” told “The Breakfast Club” in 2018 that he’d actually had Denzel Washington in mind for the role, but when Wright came in to read, he knew “this is the dude to play Eddie King.”
Townsend posted a tribute on X over the weekend, writing alongside a clip from the film that featured Wright as Eddie singing in a choir, “Tears… flowing as I write this. Michael was a ‘Pure Artist.’”
Wright is survived by his wife, Susan; his children Manon Wright, Byron Barr, Brittney Briggs, Brianna Barr and Sir Barr; and a grandchild, Yoko.
