'John Wick' star Lance Reddick's cause of death confirmed; family disputes findings

Lance Reddick — an actor known for roles in HBO's The Wire, J.J. Abrams' Fringe, Lionsgate's John Wick franchise, Warner Bros.' MonsterVerse, NBC's The Blacklist, Netflix's Resident Evil television series, and more — unexpectedly passed away in mid-March at the age of 60.

TMZ was first to break the unfortunate news, stating that Reddick's body was discovered at his home in Los Angeles. Per the official death certificate acquired by TMZ, the actor's passing was the result of two heart-related ailments: Ischemic Heart Disease and Atherosclerotic Coronary Artery Disease.

Reddick's family, however, disputes this finding. "To my knowledge, no medical examination of Lance during his lifetime ever indicated such conditions," the actor's longtime attorney James Hornstein said in a statement to Entertainment Weekly. "The information appearing on the death certificate is wholly inconsistent with his lifestyle. On behalf of [Lance's wife] Stephanie Reddick, the death certificate information is not corroborated and is inconsistent with the facts known to the family."

In the wake of his passing, two of Reddick's co-stars on The Wire, Wendell Pierce and Isiah Whitlock Jr., mourned his death on Twitter.

"A man of great strength and grace," Pierce wrote. "As talented a musician as he was an actor. The epitome of class. A sudden unexpected sharp painful grief for our artistic family. An unimaginable suffering for his personal family and loved ones. Godspeed my friend. You made your mark here."

Whitlock Jr. said he was "shocked and saddened by the news," going on to add: "R.I.P. My friend. You will be missed. God speed."

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The actor's passing came a week before the wide theatrical release of John Wick: Chapter 4, in which Reddick posthumously reprised the role of Charon, the stoic concierge of the assassin-friendly Continental Hotel in New York City. Charon is also set to make a cameo appearance in the upcoming spinoff film, Ballerina, alongside John Wick (Keanu Reeves) and Winston (Ian McShane).

"We are deeply saddened and heartbroken at the loss of our beloved friend and colleague Lance Reddick," Reeves and John Wick director Chad Stahelski said in a joint statement to Variety, promising to dedicate the sequel to their late collaborator. "He was the consummate professional and a joy to work with. Our love and prayers are with his wife Stephanie, his children, family and friends. We dedicate the film to his loving memory. We will miss him dearly."

In addition, Reddick was set to portray lead Olympian deity Zeus in the debut season of Percy Jackson and the Olympians (an adaptation of Rick Riordan's bestselling YA novels) coming to Disney+ later this year.

Writer-director James Gunn (recently-installed chief of DC Films at Warner Bros.) was also among The Hollywood players who paid tribute. "Lance Reddick was an incredibly nice guy, and an incredibly talented actor," he tweeted. "This is heartbreaking. My love goes out to all his family, friends, and collaborators."

Famed comic book creator Mike Mignola recalled how he was just with Reddick "a couple of weeks ago" while the actor recorded dialogue as Hellboy for Upstream Arcade's Hellboy Web of Wyrd video game. "I'm stunned," said the writer-illustrator. "He was so great and such a nice guy. And just so young! Just too sad."

The actor kindly sat down with SYFY WIRE last summer to discuss his turn as iconic Resident Evil antagonist Albert Wesker in the first and only season of Netflix's small screen adaptation of the hit video game franchise.

"What was hard about that character is that, because he’s so iconic and such a particular type of thing, the biggest challenge there was to make him three-dimensional and not a two-dimensional mustache-twirling villain," he told us, describing the villain as "so hyper-alpha and almost a pure psychopath with no conscience."

Per Variety, Reddick is survived by his wife, Stephanie Reddick, and children, Yvonne Nicole Reddick and Christopher Reddick. His family requests that donations be given to momcares.org, a local non-profit in the actor's hometown of Baltimore.