'The Wire' Star Wendell Pierce Remembers Michael K. Williams: 'He Sings Their Truth'

The Wire star Wendell Pierce paid tribute to fellow series actor Michael K. Williams Monday after news broke that Williams died at the age of 54.

“The depth of my love for this brother can only be matched by the depth of my pain learning of his loss,” Pierce, who played Detective William “Bunk” Moreland on the HBO series, wrote on Twitter. “An immensely talented man with the ability to give voice to the human condition portraying the lives of those whose humanity is seldom elevated until he sings their truth.”

Pierce also shared a clip from season three of The Wire in which his character admonishes Williams’ Omar — a stick-up man who robs drug dealers — for showing no remorse after a local girl is killed. “The Wire brought us together and immortalized Omar and Bunk in that ‘scene’ on a park bench. But for us, we aimed to take that moment in time together and say something about Black men. Our struggle with ourselves, internally, and each other. For me and Mike we had nothing but respect.”

Williams’ rep, Marianna Shafran, confirmed the actor’s death to Rolling Stone. Police sources added that Williams was found dead in his home in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn at approximately 2 p.m. Monday. A cause of death was not given.

Williams also notably starred as gangster Chalky White in the HBO hit Boardwalk Empire and Montrose Freeman, the father to Jonathan Majors’ Atticus Freeman, in the acclaimed horror series Lovecraft County. He earned an Emmy nomination for that role, in addition to three other nods, including his portrayal of Bessie Smith’s husband in the 2015 TV movie Bessie.

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