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Ricky Harris

Ricky Harris was a popular actor, producer, and comedian who left his mark on everything from film to hip-hop to sitcoms. Born on October 5, 1965 in Long Beach, CA, Harris's inner city L.A. roots brought him his first major film roles, in the Tupac Shakur/Janet Jackson drama "Poetic Justice" (1993) and Snoop Dogg's short film "Murder Was the Case" (1994), based on Snoop's real life murder charge, for which he was eventually acquitted. This led to a fruitful working relationship between Snoop and Harris, who flexed his comedic chops on various skits on Snoop's classic debut, Doggystyle, and later co-starred in Snoop and Pam Grier's supernatural blaxploitation thriller, "Bones" (2001). In 1995, Harris appeared in projects as diverse as the low-budget cult horror flick "Tales From the Hood" (1995) and Michael Mann's sprawling, operatic crime thriller, "Heat" (1995). On television, Harris was best known to audiences as Javon "J.W." Williams on the sitcom "Moesha" (UPN, 1996-2001) and later as Malvo on Chris Rock's acclaimed comedy series "Everybody Hates Chris" (UPN, The CW, 2005-09). Harris also had the uncommon distinction of having appeared on all three original CSI series: "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" (CBS, 2000-2015), "CSI: Miami" (CBS, 2002-2012), and "CSI: NY" (CBS, 2004-2013). Harris's final big screen appearance came in Rick Famuyiwa's Sundance hit "Dope" (2015). On December 26, 2016, Harris suffered a fatal heart attack. He was 51 years old.