Hollywood writer and producer Barry Michael Cooper, who wrote the screenplay for a series of beloved films of the 1990s, has died in Baltimore at the age of 66.
Cooper helped write the script for the iconic 1991 crime film New Jack City, starring Wesley Snipes as a drug dealer opposite Ice-T as the detective on his case.
He also wrote the 1994 film Above The Rim, a basketball drama directed by Tupac Shakur and based on a story by Jennifer Lopez’s former manager, Benny Medina.
Most recently, he worked as a producer on the Spike Lee sitcom She’s Gotta Have It, based on Lee’s 1986 debut feature film of the same name.
Just five days before his death, Cooper had written an Instagram post marking Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday quoting the title of the civil rights activist’s famous 1955 sermon Am I My Brother’s Keeper?
The Maryland Office of the Chief Medical Examiner confirmed that Cooper died on Tuesday, according to a report from TMZ. The cause of death was not indicated.
Hollywood writer and producer Barry Michael Cooper, who wrote a series of beloved films of the 1990s, died in Baltimore at the age of 66; in the photo 2011

Cooper helped write the script for the iconic 1991 crime film New Jack City, with a cast that included (from left) Russell Wong, Mario Van Peebles, Judd Nelson and Ice-T.
Before working in the entertainment industry, Cooper was a music critic and then an investigative reporter for The Village Voice in New York.
He was born and raised in Harlem, which also served as the setting for his three best-known screenplays, all produced in the 1990s.
The trio consisted of New Jack City, Above The Rim and the 1994 film Sugar Hill, starring Wesley Snipes, Michael Wright and Abe Vigoda.
The three films are occasionally known collectively as the Harlem Trilogy and are credited with shedding light on the experience of New York’s black community.
Perhaps the most famous feature film he worked on was New Jack City, directed by Mario Van Peebles from a screenplay by Cooper and Thomas Lee Wright.
In the film, Ice-T’s detective character goes undercover and infiltrates a drug gang led by Wesley Snipes’ character in the midst of the crack epidemic.
With a formidable cast that included Allen Payne, Chris Rock, Judd Nelson and Bill Cobbs, New Jack City emerged as a financial and critical success.
The film is hailed for starting what is sometimes called the New Jack Cinema movement, a wave of gritty independent noir films of the 1990s.

In the film, Ice-T’s detective character goes undercover and infiltrates a drug gang led by Wesley Snipes’ character in the midst of the crack epidemic.

Ice-T and Chris Rock (right) appear in New Jack City, which is credited with launching the New Jack Cinema movement of independent black films.

He also wrote the 1994 film Above The Rim, a basketball drama directed by Tupac Shakur (left) and based on a story by Jennifer Lopez’s former manager, Benny Medina.
Its soundtrack was particularly memorable as an exponent of R&B’s ‘new jack swing’, with songs including Christopher Williams’ I’m Dreamin’, Keith Sweat’s (There You Go) Tellin’ Me No Again and I Wanna Sex You Up. by Color Me Badd.
Cooper was the one who coined the term “new jack swing” in the 1980s based on Harlem slang, he told Terry Gross on NPR. Fresh air in 1991.
While promoting New Jack City, he reflected that “we had never before seen those images on screen told in that way from the perspective of an African-American, which is what I am, rather than coming from a young white film student.” coming from the Midwest or even UCLA or USC.
The film’s setting was based on people who were “my friends,” Cooper admitted. “I don’t do what they do, they don’t do what I do, but they respect me and on some level I respect them, but I don’t respect what they do.”
And he added: ‘I’m not defending what they do. What they do is a very heinous crime. But I am not God here to judge anyone. They have to deal with it when it’s time for them to deal with it. But we talk, and we don’t just talk about the street.’
Cooper continued: “We talked about his aspirations: ‘Well, Barry, I can’t live like this anymore and I know I’m going to end up in jail or dead, and if I’m in jail, I can die there too.’ But what should I do? I’m trapped. I can’t show that I’m a punk, because if I come out soft, they’ll kick me out.”