Charles Porter, who produced Finding Faith, a 2025 film that starred starring Paula Patton, Loretta Devine and Keith David, and served as an advocate for inspirational independent filmmaking, has died. He was 47.
Porter died Monday at his home in Calabasas after a 17½-year battle with Hodgkin lymphoma, his family told The Hollywood Reporter.
As an actor, Porter appeared on TV series including The Parkers, House, Without a Trace and Bones and starred as the pioneering Black NASCAR driver Wendell Scott in the 2011 ESPN film Wendell Scott: A Race Story.
As founder of Black Bench Productions, Porter developed, packaged, produced and financed indie films, championing stories of faith, family, resilience and redemption while creating opportunities for Black artists and filmmakers.
He was the guiding force behind Finding Faith, written and directed by LazRael Lison. The film, produced in collaboration with Summer House Pictures and Third Eye Productions, was released in theaters through Fathom Entertainment before running on Lifetime.
For BET+, Porter produced A Miracle Before Christmas (2022), starring David, LeToya Luckett and Romeo Miller, and Christmas Angel (2023), starring Miller, DaniLeigh, Skyh Black, Elise Neal and Tamar Braxton. Those were produced in collaboration with Summer House as well.
His other producing credits included the thrillers Nailed (2006), Battered (2014) — he also starred in those two — and Grace Point (2023).
Charles Frederick Porter II was born on March 13, 1979, in Oxford, England (his father was in the Air Force, and his mother is British). He came to the U.S. at age 3 and attended Rumsey Hall, a prep school in Washington Depot, Connecticut, and The Lawrenceville School in New Jersey.
He went on to Duke University, where he earned a degree in Cultural Anthropology and, at 6-foot-4 and 250 pounds, was a four-year football letterman as one of the ACC’s top defensive tackles. (A back injury ultimately ended his goal of playing pro ball.)
Porter moved to Los Angeles in 2002 and appeared on the ESPN game/reality show Beg, Borrow & Deal. In addition to his TV acting gigs, he also appeared in films including Holla (2006), Johnny Was (2006) and Peppermint (2018).
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. He was developing a slate of faith-based films at the time of his death.
Porter also was a successful model, appearing in Italian Vogue, starring in an international Adidas campaign and walking the runway for the Ebony Fashion Fair. And as an author, he published three poetry books — Get to Know, Choose Your Path and Enjoying the Journey — and was working on B+, inspired by his changed blood type following one of his three bone marrow transplants.
He and his wife of 18 years, Candice Tab Porter, expressed their gratitude to the City of Hope and Dr. Stephen J. Forman “for their dedication and compassionate care.”
Away from Hollywood, Porter was a beloved youth football coach, personal trainer and mentor in Malibu, Calabasas and Westlake Village and the founder of Brainwashed for Greatness, dedicated to positivity and personal growth.
In addition to his wife, an entertainment marketing executive and former Hollywood publicist, survivors include daughters Layla Rose Porter, 9, and Juliette Jasmine Porter, 6; mother Dorothy Fourmeax; brother Sydney Sparks-Fourmeax; sister Natalie Zore; mother-in-law Jeeny Miller; sister-in-law and producing partner Renée Tab; brothers-in-law Amir Tab and Chris Tuffin; and nephews Alexander and Tristan Tuffin and Kayla, Phillip and Austin Zore.
His wife, sister-in-law and best friend and former Duke teammate, William L. Hill, were with him when he died. His guiding philosophy, his family said, remained constant: “Never Quit.”
