Michael Wright, the actor best known for his searing performance as troubled singer Eddie King Jr. in The Five Heartbeats, has died aged 70.

After a screen career spanning nearly five decades, Michael died in Los Angeles on Wednesday, August 19, after suffering heart failure alongside complications from Marchiafava-Bignami disease, a rare degenerative neurological condition, his family told TMZ.

His death emerged on Saturday (22.08.26) and was announced publicly by his wife, Susan Wright, who paid tribute to an "extraordinary artist whose work touched generations".

She added in a statement on Instagram: "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."

Susan also said her family was grieving an "enormous and deeply personal loss" and asked for privacy.

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."

Along with Susan, Michael is survived by his children and stepchildren.

He became most closely associated with Eddie King Jr., the gifted but troubled lead singer at the center of Robert Townsend's 1991 musical drama The Five Heartbeats.

The film, which marked its 35th anniversary this year, followed the successes, personal battles and tensions experienced by a fictional R and B vocal group as its members pursued stardom.

Michael's performance helped turn the movie into an enduring cult favourite and remained the defining role of a career that stretched across film, television and the big screen.

Michael had already been acting for more than a decade when The Five Heartbeats arrived.

He secured an early breakthrough playing Clinton in Philip Kaufman's 1979 gang drama The Wanderers, before appearing in Robert Altman's Streamers in 1983.

His performance in Streamers, an adaptation of David Rabe's play about American soldiers awaiting deployment during the Vietnam war, earned Michael and his fellow principal cast members the Volpi Cup for best actor at the Venice film festival.

He later appeared as Victor Duncan in the 1987 school drama The Principal, alongside James Belushi and Louis Gossett Jr., who died aged 87 in 2024.

After The Five Heartbeats, Michael starred opposite Wesley Snipes as Raynathan Skuggs in the 1994 crime drama Sugar Hill.

His subsequent movie credits included Money Talks with Chris Tucker, Point Blank with Mickey Rourke and The Interpreter alongside Nicole Kidman and Sean Penn.

Michael also established a substantial television career.

He became familiar to science-fiction audiences as Elias Taylor in the 1980s V franchise, appearing in V: The Final Battle and V: The Series.

Another of his best-known television performances came in HBO's acclaimed prison drama Oz, in which he played inmate Omar White between 2001 and 2003. His television credits also included Miami Vice, New York Undercover, The Blacklist and the DC superhero series Black Lightning, where he appeared as Lazarus Prime.