James Ransone known for role on The Wire

James Ransone, a character actor who starred in Season 2 of The Wire (2003) and appeared in horror films including It Chapter Two (2019) and The Black Phone (2021), died on Dec 19 in Los Angeles.

- Jonathan Abrams

He was 46.The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office confirmed his death and, according to the office’s website, was investigating it as a suicide.

Representatives for Ransone did not immediately reply to requests for comment.

Ransone was born in 1979 in Baltimore, an advantage in the early 2000s when The Wire, then a little-watched drama on HBO, was looking to cast actors from the city for the show’s second season.

He was living in New York at the time and knew of The Wire, which focused largely on a group of Baltimore drug dealers and the police officers pursuing them, from having seen subway posters advertising the show. A friend, actor Leo Fitzpatrick, had appeared in a couple of episodes.

“You have to remember, no one cared about that show until the fourth season,” Ransone said in a 2016 interview.

“I was 21 or 22, and it was probably my third legit job and definitely the biggest.”