Charles Porter, producer of the 2025 film Finding Faith and an actor who appeared on television series including House, Without a Trace and Bones, has died at 47. Porter died Monday at his home in Calabasas after a 17½-year battle with Hodgkin lymphoma.
Finding Faith starred Paula Patton, Loretta Devine and Keith David. The film was written and directed by LazRael Lison, produced in collaboration with Summer House Pictures and Third Eye Productions, and released in theaters through Fathom Entertainment before running on Lifetime.
As founder of Black Bench Productions, Porter developed and financed independent films. For BET+, he produced A Miracle Before Christmas (2022), which starred David, LeToya Luckett and Romeo Miller, and Christmas Angel (2023), which starred Miller, DaniLeigh, Skyh Black, Elise Neal and Tamar Braxton.
Porter's acting roles included playing pioneering Black NASCAR driver Wendell Scott in the 2011 ESPN film Wendell Scott: A Race Story. He also appeared in films including Holla (2006), Johnny Was (2006) and Peppermint (2018), and starred in the thrillers Nailed (2006) and Battered (2014), which he also produced.
Porter was an executive producer and early investor on Last Meals, an upcoming feature from Sentient Entertainment and HanWay Films that stars Mads Mikkelsen, Boyd Holbrook, Tessa Thompson and Michael Shannon.
Charles Frederick Porter II was born March 13, 1979, in Oxford, England. He attended Duke University, where he earned a degree in Cultural Anthropology and was a four-year football letterman. He also worked as a model, appearing in Italian Vogue and an international Adidas campaign, and published three poetry books.
Porter is survived by his wife of 18 years, Candice Tab Porter; daughters Layla Rose Porter, 9, and Juliette Jasmine Porter, 6; and other family members.