Michael Kenneth Williams made dangerous men worth listening to, giving them wit, tenderness and rules they took seriously. We rate him highest when a programme gives those contradictions time, as The Wire does.
Fi1m perspective
In The Wire (2002), Omar Little’s stillness gives us time to notice the wit in his speech. Michael Kenneth Williams makes this stick-up man’s strict code worth attending to, without asking us to approve of his occupation. We delighted in Omar’s unpredictability because, amid people carefully organising their lives and work, Williams kept us wondering what he would do next. That uncertainty is a considerable pleasure in a programme so interested in how things function.
This was his breakthrough, and the writing of David Simon and Ed Burns gave him something his smaller parts could not: time to let a difficult person become familiar. Our enthusiasm for The Wire rests partly on the individuality of its cast, including Wood Harris and Idris Elba. Williams belongs in that company because Omar remains interesting even when we understand what the programme is saying about the city. The danger, humour and tenderness can coexist without Williams stopping to explain each change.
Ben Affleck’s Gone Baby Gone (2007) is worth an evening, though we recommend it chiefly for Casey Affleck and Amy Ryan. Williams appears as Devin, within a cast that gives us reasons to stay when the investigation becomes too contrived. William Goldenberg’s editing makes the plot clear enough; it cannot make all that behaviour believable.
Television kept offering him more room: Chalky White, the racketeer and community leader in Boardwalk Empire (2010), then prison inmate Freddy Knight in The Night Of (2016). The familiar casting is a frustration. Tough men involved in crime recur too often, however carefully Williams distinguishes them. His comic turns in Community during 2011–2012, sending up that intimidating image, are a useful corrective.
His physical presence made such casting understandable, but the scar was too easy a shorthand for menace. The better work lets him be tender or funny without treating either as a surprise. Start with The Wire, and give him the time that its writers did.
Biography
Michael Kenneth Williams (1966–2021) was an American actor. He played Omar Little in the HBO series The Wire (2002–2008) and Albert "Chalky" White in the HBO series Boardwalk Empire (2010–2014).
Williams was born in Brooklyn, New York City, and raised in the Vanderveer Projects in East Flatbush. He attended George Westinghouse Career and Technical Education High School and later enrolled at the National Black Theatre in New York City. He began his career as a dancer, appearing in music videos for artists including Madonna and George Michael, before transitioning to acting.
