Michael K Williams’ gay role on ‘The Wire’ voted one of UK’s favourite Black Star performances
By Will Stroude
Michael K Williams’ star turn as gay criminal Omar Little on The Wire has been voted on of the UK’s favourite Black Star performances.
The 49-year-old’s portrayal of the notorious openly gay Baltimore stick-up artist, who he played across all five seasons of the hit HBO crime drama between 2002-2008, came third in a BFI poll of the nation’s favourite Black Star performances, released to mark the official launch of the film festival’s Black Star season this week.
The enigmatic and controversial character, who US President Barack Obama once cited as his favourite character on the show, was considered to be one of the show’s strongest assets, and remains a rare portrayal of a black LGBT character on mainstream US television.
Sidney Poitier’s star turn in In the Heat of the Night topped the BFI poll, which saw Chiwetel Ejiofor’s performance in 2013’s 12 Years a Slave and Morgan Freeman’s role in The Shawshank Redemption round out the top five.
Running alongside the public poll, a separate poll of 100 industry experts voted for Angela Bassett’s Oscar-nominated performance as Tina Turner in 1993’s What’s Love Got to Do with It as their favourite Black Star performance of all time.
Check out top 10 favourite Black Star performances, as voted by the public below, and see the full results here.
1. Sidney Poitier (In the Heat of the Night, 1967)
2. Pam Grier (Jackie Brown, 1997)
3. Michael K. Williams (The Wire, 2002-2008)
4. Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years a Slave, 2013)
5. Morgan Freeman (The Shawshank Redemption, 1994)
6. Samuel L. Jackson (Pulp Fiction, 1994)
7. Denzel Washington (Malcolm X, 1992)
8. Whoopi Goldberg (The Color Purple, 1985)
9. Angela Bassett (What’s Love Got to Do with It, 1993)
10. Sidney Poitier (Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, 1967)