Background
Cathey was born in Huntsville, Alabama, and spent his childhood in West Germany.
Cathey was born in Huntsville, Alabama, and spent his childhood in West Germany.
Cathey graduated J.O. Johnson High School, where he acted in plays such as "To Kill a Mockingbird". He subsequently studied theatre at the University of Michigan and the Yale School of Drama.
One of Cathey"s earliest roles was starring in the children"s television show Square One. This was followed by guest roles in such series as Star Trek: The Next Generation and Homicide: Life on the Street. In 1994, he appeared in The Mask as Freeze, the main antagonist"s friend and bodyguard who gets killed by the title character.
He also appeared in 1995"s Se7en as the coroner.
He played the villain Dirty Dee in the cult comedy film Pootie Tang and had a regular role on the Home Box Office series The Wire as Norman Wilson during the fourth and fifth seasons. He had a recurring role on the Home Box Office prison drama Oz as unit manager Martin Querns.
In the film Tank Girl, he played the role of Deetee. He narrated Aftermath: Population Zero, a National Geographic Channel special which imagines what Earth might be like if humanity no longer existed.
He played the homeless man First Rate (at Lloyd's), murdered by Patrick Bateman, in the film American Psycho.
He narrated TLC"s Wonders of Weather, a television series. On Between the Lions, he played King Ray in the story of "Rumpelstitlkstin" in the episode, "Hay Day". In 2009, Cathey performed in The People Speak, a documentary feature film that uses dramatic and musical performances of the letters, diaries, and speeches of everyday Americans, based on historian Howard Zinn"s A People"s History of the United States.
Since September 2009, Cathey has played the role of Ellis Boyd "Red" Redding in a theatrical production of The Shawshank Redemption at Wyndham"s Theatre, London.
He has made two guest appearances on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, as an undercover police officer involved with animal smuggling (episode: "Wildlife") and later as a high-priced defense attorney to a hooker (episode: "Rhodium Nights"). This was followed by a guest appearance on Law & Order: Criminal Intent as a talented, charismatic and egotistical professor of American Studies suspected of involvement in a murder to advance his career.
He also played boxing promoter Barry K. Word on the Forex series Lights Out. In 2013, Cathey began a recurring role as Freddy Hayes, the owner of Freddy"s Barbecue, in Netflix"s original series House of Cards, as well as on Grimm, in the recurring role of Baron Samedi.
Cathey has expressed a wish to appear in the soap opera Fair City.
Cathey co-starred in Josh Trank"s Fantastic Four (2015), as Doctor Franklin Storm, the father of The Invisible Woman and The Human Torch.