Nelsan Ellis, most famous for his long-running role as Lafayette Reynolds, the most fabulous queer line cook on the planet, on HBO’s True Blood, has died at the age of 39.
The performer passed away after complications with heart failure.
“We were extremely saddened to hear of the passing of Nelsan Ellis,” HBO said in a statement. “Nelsan was a long-time member of the HBO family whose groundbreaking portrayal of Lafayette will be remembered fondly within the overall legacy of ‘True Blood.’ Nelsan will be dearly missed by his fans and all of us at HBO.”
Related: Remembering Nelasn Ellis as a champion of gay rights, on ‘True Blood’ set and off it
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True Blood creator/executive producer Alan Ball put out a statement of his own as well: “Nelsan was a singular talent whose creativity never ceased to amaze me,” said Ball. “Working with him was a privilege.”
Octavia Spencer, who appeared with Ellis in The Help, seems to have broken the news of the death on Instagram Saturday morning, writing: “Just got word that we lost (Nelsan). My heart breaks for his kids and family.”
Ellis also appeared in Elementary, Get On Up, The Stanford Prison Experiment, Little Boxes, and Lee Daniel’s The Butler.
Aromaeus
Why is it never celebrities I don’t like?
jasentylar
Oh no. Another talented brother gone too soon. Rip
strix1
Sad loss! I never knew of him before seeing him as Lafayette on True Blood of which he soared in that role. RIP Nelsan.
Josh447
He was an awesome talent, so sorry to lose him.
Hussain-TheCanadian
Oh my God I am so saddened by this news; the portrayal of Lafayette is one of the best singular performances of a gay character ever, your talent will always shine Nelsan.
We will see you on the promised day, RIP!
KaiserVonScheiss
F. RIP.
sfbeast
Oh no! Sad sad sad. He was fabulous as Lafayette. And whenever I saw him in any other roles, he was always Lafayette. What a tragic loss.
SEB1992
Okay, what I don’t understand is: Nelsan Ellis had never won any “Emmy-worthy” performance, not even “Golden Globes.” He worked really hard to get into the gay character by heart. What a terrible shame. He’s a proud heterosexual dude in real life, although he’s willing to play something entirely different. Don’t you think he deserved it? Looking him up on IMDB.com, he had very few awards. That’s a shameful waste of hard-working talent like him in the racist Hollywood system. He’s been SNUBBED over many roles he plays in TV and movies. When will Hollywood start apologizing soon?!
Kangol
I agree. He was never fully acknowledged for bringing this potentially very stereotypical character to life. The show’s writers clearly had no clue about black gay men beyond stereotypes, but Nelsan Ellis really worked to make Lafayette real, and unforgettable. I wonder if some of the Hollywood and TV honchos who ignored him are surprised by the outpouring of grief at his death?
man5996853
I agree that there is racism in Hollywood…a surprising amount…but I think that Nelsan suffered from being on a pretty crappy show, to be honest. I don’t believe that the show received a single acting nomination during its entire run(with the exception of Alfre Woodard, who was nominated as a Guest Actor). He was always better than the script, which should have been enough to get him a nomination.
JED08
Are you calling True Blood a pretty crappy show??
ChrisK
You may not like it but it was very successful long running series conceived by Alan Ball. The same guy who created six feet under.
SEB1992
I wished True Blood carefully follow the source materials of Charlene Harris. At first, the crews and producers of True Blood had shown their potentiality and creative skills, but they didn’t do a “shock value” very well as Games of Thrones. For example, “The Red Wedding” at the end of the third season. If Alan Ball had promised to represent more “shock values,” which would have been wildly successful. On the other hand, Game of Thrones may not be %100 loyal to the book series, but the showrunners did their job BETTER than Alan Ball. I wish Alan Ball did that, as well. The first season I watched wasn’t that bad and half-heartedly approved the plotline. I understood why some changes are made when I read one of Alan Ball’s interviews and including the author, Charlene Harris, seemingly acceptable with his creative plans. I wish she was stricter with him so he would listen more to her. I guess she just wanted to get paid for publishing her books on TV. Most writers wanted to get paid rather than criticizing the adaptation, you know what I mean? The second season was probably better than a book because it felt like a novella (short stories). The third season needed more work on the plot holes (It failed to explain the toxic relationships between Debbie Pelt and Sookie). The fourth season was terrible! Witches didn’t turn themselves into werewolves as the book explained. But they decided to show Sookie’s grandmother at the end of the fourth season, that is okay by me. However, unlike the fourth book, was more captivating and exciting than that show. The fifth season is ten times worse than its book. It didn’t say much about the vampire queen of Louisiana in such complexion, it changed everything on TV. The sixth season is worse than any book! It felt like “too rush” to finish off everything. New characters come too early, in the books, they show up later. We didn’t have time to get to know them or why they are important to the HBO cable network. Then the season finale ruined my taste! That’s why I stopped being a True Blood fan. I’ll be only a fan to the source materials, that’s it.
man5996853
@JED08: Yes. And I think that I’m being too kind.
Curtispsf
man5996853 Are you out of your mind? True Blood received numerous acting awards. Just Google True Blood nominations. Next time think before opening your mouth….or do some research.