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| 1 | SENATE RESOLUTION
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| 2 | WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois Senate are saddened to | ||||||
| 3 | learn of the death of Nelsan Ellis, who passed away on July 8, | ||||||
| 4 | 2017; and
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| 5 | WHEREAS, Nelsan Ellis was born in Harvey on November 30, | ||||||
| 6 | 1977 and moved to Bessemer, Alabama at the age of six; he | ||||||
| 7 | returned to Illinois at the age of 14, where he attended | ||||||
| 8 | Thornridge High School in Dolton; in 2004, he earned a Bachelor | ||||||
| 9 | of Fine Arts degree from Juilliard's prestigious drama | ||||||
| 10 | division; and
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| 11 | WHEREAS, While at Juilliard, Nelsan Ellis wrote a | ||||||
| 12 | semi-autobiographical play entitled "Ugly", which was
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| 13 | performed at Juilliard and earned him a Martin E. Segal Award | ||||||
| 14 | from the Lincoln Center; and
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| 15 | WHEREAS, In 2007, Nelsan Ellis was cast as Lafayette | ||||||
| 16 | Reynolds in the HBO series, "True Blood", a widely
popular show | ||||||
| 17 | that ran for seven seasons and 80 episodes; and | ||||||
| 18 | WHEREAS, Nelsan Ellis's numerous other roles included | ||||||
| 19 | Martin Luther King, Jr. in "Lee Daniels' The
Butler" and Bobby | ||||||
| 20 | Byrd, a longtime friend of James Brown, in the biographical | ||||||
| 21 | drama, "Get on Up"; he also held roles in "The Soloist", | ||||||
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| 1 | "Secretariat", "The Help", "The Stanford Prison Experiment", | ||||||
| 2 | and the
CBS detective series, "Elementary"; and | ||||||
| 3 | WHEREAS, Nelsan Ellis won numerous awards for his work as | ||||||
| 4 | an actor, and was nominated for many more; he won
a Satellite | ||||||
| 5 | Award from the International Press Academy in 2008; his | ||||||
| 6 | nominations include a
Scream Award from Spike TV in 2009, an | ||||||
| 7 | NAACP Image Award in 2011 and 2012, and a Black Reel Award from | ||||||
| 8 | the Foundation for the Augmentation of African-Americans in | ||||||
| 9 | Film in 2015; and
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| 10 | WHEREAS, Nelsan Ellis is survived by his son, grandmother, | ||||||
| 11 | father, and seven siblings; and
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| 12 | WHEREAS, Nelsan Ellis was an acclaimed actor and playwright | ||||||
| 13 | and a loving father and friend who will be
missed by all; his | ||||||
| 14 | death was met with an overwhelming outpouring of condolences | ||||||
| 15 | from friends
and fans around the world; therefore, be it
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| 16 | RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE ONE HUNDREDTH GENERAL | ||||||
| 17 | ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we mourn the death of | ||||||
| 18 | Nelsan Ellis, and recognize his great contributions to the film | ||||||
| 19 | and television industries; and be it further
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| 20 | RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be | ||||||
| 21 | presented to the family of Nelsan Ellis with our
sincerest | ||||||
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| 1 | condolences.
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