Actor Michael K. Williams died at age 54 of an accidental overdose, the New York medical examiner confirmed Friday.
The interpreter, recognized for his role as Omar Little in the acclaimed crime series
The Wire,
had in his body cocaine, heroin and the synthetic opioids fentanyl and p-fluorofentanyl.
Williams was found dead on September 6 in his Brooklyn, New York, apartment, and had publicly acknowledged his fight against drug addiction.
[What the "fall from grace" of attorney Alex Murdaugh hides: a drug addiction fueled by the opioid epidemic]
A short statement from the medical examiner's office read: “Cause of death: acute poisoning from the combined effects of fentanyl, p-fluorofentanyl, heroin and cocaine.
Manner of death: accidental ”.
Fentanyl, found in your body, can be 50 times more potent than heroin, and some heroin users seek it out for precisely that reason.
Last year more than 93,000 people died in the United States from the use of fentanyl and opioids, a record number, according to our sister network NBC News.
The five-time Emmy Award-nominated performer revealed his drug use and detox problems in 2012 in an interview with Inside Jersey magazine.
"Because I?
Why have I gotten rid of it?
I should be dead, ”he said.
In 2016, he recounted in an interview with public radio NPR how he had found help in a New Jersey church at a particularly difficult time when addiction threatened to destroy his career.
[“We are the ones who die”: the pandemic triggers opioid overdoses and Latinos are the most vulnerable]
In a 2017 interview with
The New York Times
, he acknowledged that "addiction" did not disappear. "It is a daily struggle for me, but I am fighting," he said.
The actor had a notable career on the small screen with roles in series such as
Boardwalk Empire
(2010-2014),
The Night Of
(2016) or
When They See Us
(2019) and also participated in films such as
12 Years a Slave
(2013) or in the television tape
Bessie
(2015).
