Isiah Whitlock Jr., an actor who made frequent memorable appearances on the HBO series ''The Wire'' and ''Veep'' and in five films with director Spike Lee, died Tuesday. He was 71.
Whitlock's manager Brian Liebman told The Associated Press in an email that the actor died in New York after a short illness.
Whitlock played openly corrupt state Sen. Clay Davis on 25 episodes across the five seasons of ''The Wire.''
Davis, a fan-favorite character, was known for his profane catchphrase — ''sheee-it" — delivered by Whitlock in moments of triumph and blunt honesty. The actor first used the phrase in his first film with Lee, 2002's ''The 25th Hour," when his detective character discovers a cache of drugs hidden in a couch.
''It's a big, big, big loss,'' Lee said in a phone call with the AP on Tuesday night. ''I'm going to miss him for the rest of my life.''
Whitlock went on to appear in four other Lee films, including 2004's ''She Hate Me,'' 2012's ''Red Hook Summer,'' 2015's ''Chi-Raq,'' 2018's ''BlacKkKlansman'' and 2020's ''Da 5 Bloods.''
''We vibed over all those years,'' Lee said. ''We clicked from the jump.''
Lee said he has especially sweet memories of the extended time he spent with Whitlock shooting ''Da 5 Bloods'' on location in Thailand, and he fondly remembered the last time he saw Whitlock — Lee and his daughter, Satchel, sat with him at a screening of ''Kiss of the Spider Woman'' earlier this year.
