NELSAN ELLIS
November 30, 1977 – July 8, 2017 (age 39)
Cause of Death: Complications from heart failure
Not a huge star, relatively, actor Nelsan Ellis did play some major roles, one of which was Martin Luther King, Jr. in Lee Daniel’s The Butler and James Brown’s associate Bobby Byrd in Get On Up. What Nelsan was probably best known for, however, was his run as a short order cook and drug dealer next to Anna Paquin in the complete series of HBO’s True Blood. Sadly enough, from the statement released by his family, the complications from heart failure were likely due to the withdrawal symptoms of alcohol, which he had been trying to give up.
NELSAN ELLIS’ FILMOGRAPHY
| 2002 | Lost (short) |
Hoffa |
| 2005 | Trespass (short) |
Donny |
| 2008 | The Express |
Will Davis, Jr. |
| 2009 | The Soloist |
David Carter |
| 2009 | Talent (short) |
Titus |
| 2010 | Secretariat |
Eddie Sweat |
| 2011 | The Help |
Henry the Waiter |
| 2012 | The Reluctant Fundamentalist |
Wainwright |
| 2012 | Naked Eye (short) |
The Man |
| 2013 | Page 36 (short) |
Writer and Director |
| 2013 | The Butler | Martin Luther King, Jr. |
| 2013 | Gods Behaving Badly |
Dionysus |
| 2014 | Get On Up |
Bobby Byrd |
| 2015 | The Stanford Prison Experiment |
Jesse Fletcher |
| 2016 | Little Boxes |
Mack Burns |
| 2017 | True To The Game |
Tyrik |
NELSAN ELLIS’ TELEVISION APPEARANCES
| 2005 | Warm Springs |
Roy Collier | Television movie |
| 2005-2006 | The Inside |
Carter Howard | 13 Episodes |
| 2007 | Veronica Mars |
Apollo Bukenya | Episode: “I Know What You’ll Do Next Summer” |
| 2007 | Without A Trace | Deng Nimieri | Episode: “Lost Boy” |
| 2008-2014 | True Blood |
Lafayette Reynolds | Main Cast; 81 Episodes |
| 2015 | RuPaul’s Drag Race | Himself, Guest Judge | Episode: “Conjoined Queens” |
| 2016 | Send Me: An Original Web Series | Benjamin | Episode: “Interview One” |
| 2016-2017 | Elementary | Shinwell Johnson | Main Character; 11 Episodes |
