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RIP Michael K Williams


Harbingers
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First comes a whistled tune—“The Farmer in the Dell,” delivered with extra menace. Then the sight of him—Omar Little, played by Michael K. Williams, stalking the streets of Baltimore in a billowing duster concealing a shotgun. Omar was the most indelible character on The Wire, one of TV’s greatest dramas, and the show was most viewers’ introduction to Williams, a captivating screen presence who was found dead yesterday in Brooklyn at the age of 54.

Williams demonstrated versatility far beyond that one character: “Michael K. Williams Is More Than Omar From The Wire,” declared the headline of an excellent 2017 profile of the actor. But on hearing of his death, I couldn’t help but think of his swaggering entrance on that show back in 2002, when he was a near-total unknown. Though The Wire was about the impassable institutional lines drawn between cops and criminals, Omar belonged to neither world, a stickup artist who robbed drug dealers and kept to his own moral code. From the first minute, Williams spun to life a singular character who was intimidating, unpredictable, and devilishly wry—a standout in a series littered with career-best performances.

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I never watched The Wire, but I saw Williams in Boardwalk Empire as Chalky White, Leonard Pine in Hap & Leonard, both underappreciated roles.

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