James Ransone, an actor best known for his role as Ziggy Sobotka in the HBO series The Wire , died on Friday. He was 46.
According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s office, he died by suicide.
Born on June 2, 1979, in Baltimore, Ransone studied at George Washington Carver Center for Arts and Technology in Maryland and briefly at the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan. He failed out of SVA after his freshman year.
According to a biography on his personal website , Ransone spent the early 2000s working for nightlife photographer Patrick McMullan “while splitting his time playing in various punk bands throughout New York City.”
Ransone’s first onscreen credit came in 2001‘s The American Astronaut, according to his IMDb page , He went on to appear in dozens of television shows and movies, including Generation Kill , Bosch , Poker Face , Treme , Tangerine , Sinister , Sinister 2 , The Black Phone and Black Phone 2 .
But it was his breakout performance in Season 2 of The Wire , a crime drama set in Baltimore, that brought him the most acclaim.
Fellow actors and directors pay tribute
