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Michael K. Williams Dies at 54 — How to Watch His Best Movies and TV Shows

Ben Bowman
Ben Bowman is the Content Director of The Streamable. He cut the cord in 2009. He roots for all Detroit sports and is a fan of Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, Edgar Wright, Paul Thomas Anderson, Billy Wilder, Buster Keaton, and the Coen Brothers. Ben streams on an Apple TV.
Read full bio ›
Ben Bowman

Michael K. Williams commanded your attention when he was on the screen. With his towering physical presence, nuanced delivery, and impeccable sense of timing, his inclusion in a cast was often the secret ingredient that made entertainment legendary.

While Williams was an actor for many years, his big break came in the first season of HBO’s dearly-loved drama series, “The Wire.” Williams portrayed Omar Little, a seemingly indestructible Robin Hood figure who stole from drug dealers and sought justice for weaker characters. Omar was funny and complicated and adventurous and incredibly smart. President Obama called Omar his favorite character from the show. And if you’ve never seen it, you’re missing out on what many people believe is the single greatest TV series of all time.

Williams received three Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or Movie nominations for his roles in “Bessie” (2015), “The Night Of” (2016) and “When They See Us” (2019)

Nearly all of his best work is available with a subscription to HBO Max.

The Best of Michael K. Williams

  • Lovecraft Country

    August 16, 2020

    The anthology horror series follows 25-year-old Atticus Freeman, who joins up with his friend Letitia and his Uncle George to embark on a road trip across 1950s Jim Crow America to find his missing father. They must survive and overcome both the racist terrors of white America and the malevolent spirits that could be ripped from a Lovecraft paperback.

  • When They See Us

    May 31, 2019

    Five teens from Harlem become trapped in a nightmare when they’re falsely accused of a brutal attack in Central Park.

  • The Night Of

    July 10, 2016

    After a night of partying with a female stranger, a man wakes up to find her stabbed to death and is charged with her murder.

  • Bessie

    May 16, 2015

    The story of legendary blues performer, Bessie Smith, who rose to fame during the 1920s and ’30s.

  • Boardwalk Empire

    September 19, 2010

    Atlantic City at the dawn of Prohibition is a place where the rules don’t apply. And the man who runs things — legally and otherwise — is the town’s treasurer, Enoch “Nucky” Thompson, who is equal parts politician and gangster.

  • A Day in the Life

    July 7, 2009

    Onyx rapper Sticky Fingaz directs and stars in this hip-hop musical about a gangster who gets caught up in a bloody war between two feuding crime families while struggling to leave the streets behind. When Black’s family raids one of Stick’s drug houses and kills two of his men, Stick is forced to choose between leaving it all behind or seeking revenge and feeding the cycle of violence.

  • Gone Baby Gone

    September 18, 2007

    When 4 year old Amanda McCready disappears from her home and the police make little headway in solving the case, the girl’s aunt, Beatrice McCready hires two private detectives, Patrick Kenzie and Angie Gennaro. The detectives freely admit that they have little experience with this type of case, but the family wants them for two reasons—they’re not cops and they know the tough neighborhood in which they all live.

  • The Wire

    June 2, 2002

    Told from the points of view of both the Baltimore homicide and narcotics detectives and their targets, the series captures a universe in which the national war on drugs has become a permanent, self-sustaining bureaucracy, and distinctions between good and evil are routinely obliterated.

    This brilliant series is routinely cited as the best TV show ever made. (Entertainment Weekly, The BBC, The Telegraph, The Guardian, and Salon.com have all ranked it #1.) It is the closest thing we have to a novel on television. Sprawling narratives, unforgettable characters, and jaw-dropping plot twists combine into something remarkable, unique, and definitively American. From the police to the drug dealers to the junkies to blue-collar workers to politicians to journalists to elementary students, all the pieces matter.

Williams’ fellow actors eulogized him on Twitter.

If you haven’t seen “The Wire,” start watching today. Williams’ work is absolutely mesmerizing.

Ben Bowman
Ben Bowman is the Content Director of The Streamable. He cut the cord in 2009. He roots for all Detroit sports and is a fan of Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, Edgar Wright, Paul Thomas Anderson, Billy Wilder, Buster Keaton, and the Coen Brothers. Ben streams on an Apple TV.
Read full bio ›
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