The Wire actor Michael K. Williams died of drug intoxication, says medical examiner

Williams, 54, was found dead by household associates in his penthouse apartment. Police claimed at the time that they suspected a drug overdose.

The city’s Office environment of Main Health-related Examiner mentioned it would not comment even more. A concept trying to get remark was left with Williams’s consultant.

Williams had spoken frankly in interviews in current a long time about his struggle with drug addiction, which he said persisted soon after he attained fame on The Wire in the early 2000s.

“I was participating in with fireplace,” he told the Newark Star-Ledger in 2012.

“It was just a issue of time prior to I acquired caught and my small business ended up on the cover of a tabloid or I went to jail or, even worse, I ended up lifeless. When I glimpse back again on it now, I never know how I didn’t finish up in a human body bag.”

New York Police Commissioner Dermot Shea explained in an job interview soon soon after Williams’s demise that he experienced spoken with the actor before this 12 months about collaborating with the section on local community outreach.

Williams had been performing with a New Jersey charity to smooth the journey for previous prison inmates searching for to re-enter society and was performing on a documentary on the matter. A further task concerned reaching out straight to at-hazard youth.

“This Hollywood factor that you see me in, I’m passing as a result of,” Williams told The Linked Push very last 12 months. “Due to the fact I believe this is where by my passion, my function is meant to be.”

Omar, a rogue robber of drug sellers primarily based on genuine figures from Baltimore, was massively common between supporters of The Wire, which ran on HBO from 2002 to 2008.

Observe | ‘It’s been a blessing,’ Williams claims of performing career: 

Actor Michael K. Williams talks about likely from working in his mother’s daycare to the roles he played on “The Wire” and “Boardwalk Empire” in element one of his 2011 interview on CBC’s George Stroumboulopoulos Tonight. 10:46

Williams also starred as Chalky White in HBO’s Boardwalk Empire from 2010-14 and had roles in the movies 12 A long time a Slave and Assassin’s Creed.

Williams was nominated this 12 months for an Emmy for supporting actor in a drama sequence for HBO’s Lovecraft Place, but misplaced Sunday to a star of The Crown.

Williams was remembered in the ceremony’s “In Memoriam” segment.