Michael K. Williams' sister mourns actor 4 years after his death: 'He didn't want to die'
- - Michael K. Williams' sister mourns actor 4 years after his death: 'He didn't want to die'
Ryan ColemanAugust 26, 2025 at 5:00 AM
Michael K. Williams and his sister, Michelle Chambers
Four years after the shocking death of The Wire star Michael K. Williams at only 54, his sister Michelle Chambers is paying tribute to the beloved actor.
"I just miss his kindness, he was such a gentle, kind soul," the former Compton, Calif., City Councilmember shares in Fame and Fentanyl, a new two-hour A&E special examining the famous lives lost to the powerful opioid. "He was just a heart that this world didn't deserve."
Williams' death was ruled an accidental overdose of a combination of substances, including fentanyl. Chambers insists, however, "He didn't want to die, be poisoned, or ingest that poison — and darn sure didn't do it willingly."
Nicole Rivelli/HBO
Michael K. Williams as Omar Little on 'The Wire'
Fame and Fentanyl chronicles the advent in popularity of the dangerously potent synthetic opiate, and the crisis it has caused being cut into a number of other drugs, including cocaine, heroin, methamphetamines, and prescription medications.
Stars like Prince, Tom Petty, Angus Cloud, and Williams were all discovered to have lethal amounts of fentanyl in their systems after their deaths. After four men were charged in connection with the distribution of drugs that caused Williams' overdose in 2022, Damian Williams, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, declared the spread of fentanyl "a public health crisis" that "has to stop."
"Words cannot express the pain and devastation, the emptiness," Chambers says.
Williams and Chambers had a six-year age difference, but their birthdays were only a day apart. She told Fox 11 Los Angeles in 2021 that they were close, and she even accompanied him to the Emmy Awards in 2015, when his performance in Bessie earned him the first of five nominations.
"Addiction takes over your mind. There's going to be times where you're going to fall off, but get back up again. Michael would say, 'Get back up again, you can do this,'" she says.
Williams was open about his struggle with substance use, telling Men's Health in 2020 that "a lot of trauma early on that I didn't have the proper tools to deal with" is what initially led him to drugs.
"It wasn't an easy childhood, being sensitive, vulnerable. I'm not alpha, in any sense the word of the title. And so I got picked on a lot," he explained. "I was 17. I was lost. I was very awkward with the ladies. Drugs were there. And I was already self-medicating. And I just got lost."
Rodin Eckenroth/FilmMagic
Michael K. Williams in 2021
Fame and Fentanyl is hosted by Ice-T, who called Williams "a friend of mine. We had never worked together, but we had planned to work together. I hoped to work with him."
Reflecting on the fentanyl-related deaths of friends like Williams; the rapper Coolio, who died of an overdose in 2022; and others, the legendary rapper and longtime Law & Order: Special Victims Unit star reflects, "When people die of fentanyl, it's like they got hit by a car, like they got shot. This is a person who's healthy, and tomorrow they're outta there."
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Chambers says Williams' death is still hard on her, but she's able to find solace by imagining telling her brother, "I do know you're in no more pain, and that you're happy now, and you don't have to deal with the struggles of this world, this mean world. And you're not alone anymore."
Fame and Fentanyl premiered on Aug. 25 at 9 p.m. ET/PT on A&E.
on Entertainment Weekly
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
