Actor Michael K. Williams, who starred in “The Wire,” died Monday.
Williams was found dead Monday afternoon by family members in his Brooklyn penthouse apartment, New York City police said. He was 54.
His death was being investigated as a possible drug overdose, the NYPD said. The medical examiner was investigating the cause of death.
Williams appeared in all five seasons of “The Wire” from 2002 to 2008, his character growing in prominence with each season.
His “Wire” co-stars were quick to pay tribute to him Monday afternoon.
“The depth of my love for this brother, can only be matched by the depth of my pain learning of his loss,” Wendell Pierce, who played Detective William “Bunk” Moreland and had many memorable scenes with Williams, said on Twitter.
Isiah Whitlock Jr., who played crooked politician Clay Davis on “The Wire,” tweeted that Williams was “One of the nicest brothers on the planet with the biggest heart. An amazing actor and soul.”
Williams had been working with a New Jersey charity to smooth the journey for former prison inmates seeking to reenter society and was working on a documentary on the subject.
He spoke in an Associated Press story in 2020 of his rough time growing up, and said he had struggled with drug addiction.