After chronicling the crack boom of the 1980s as an investigative reporter, he had a high-profile but brief second career in Hollywood.
By Alex Williams, The New York Times
Barry Michael Cooper, who was one of the first journalists to explore the crack epidemic of the 1980s before turning to Hollywood, where he made his mark with screenplays for gritty films like “New Jack City,” died on Jan. 21 in Baltimore. He was 66.
His death, in a hospital, was confirmed by his son, Matthew Cooper, who did not cite a cause.
As a screenwriter, Mr. Cooper, who was raised in Harlem, was perhaps best known for the three films often called his Harlem Trilogy. The first, “New Jack City” (1991), about a ruthless uptown drug lord (Wesley Snipes), presaged a wave of films from Black directors and screenwriters that touched on gang life in the 1990s.
The trilogy included two films from 1994: “Sugar Hill,” another drug-hustling drama starring Mr. Snipes, and “Above the Rim,” a basketball drama starring Tupac Shakur as a dealer; Mr. Cooper wrote it with Benny Medina and the film’s director, Jeff Pollack.