Michael K Williams honored at the Emmys 2021

Williams, who died at the age of 54, earned a nomination for ‘Outstanding supporting actor’ in a drama series for his performance on HBO’s Lovecraft Country. Before presenting the award, a moment was taken to pay tribute to the late actor.

Though Williams has been considered the front runner to posthumously win the Emmy, which would have been the first of his career, the award ultimately went to ‘Tobias Menzies’ for his role as ‘Prince Phillip’ on The Crown.

Williams was also remembered during the show’s Memoriam segment as Neon bridges performed his melancholic tune ‘River’, making the moment memorable. Michael K Williams’s iconic role of ‘Omar Little’ in HBO’s the wire, broad walk empire, body brokers superfly, robocop, critical thinking, when they see us, among others, has earned him five times Emmy nominations before this year’s.

Before his untimely passing, Williams struggled with substance abuse and talked openly about it in several interviews. In 2020 he told Men’s health that he had begun using due to pain. “Pain in a word, a lot of pain. A lot of trauma early, so that I didn't have the tools to deal with it. Drugs were there. And I was already self-medicating”.

Sadly the star had recently entered into therapy. Telling Tamron Hall February, “Drugs and alcohol are not the problems, they are merely symptoms of the problem; once those things go away, the real work begins. Those are the things that need to be addressed. Those are the reasons we get high in the first place and our inability to deal with life on life’s terms”.

Michael K Williams was a widely charismatic stick-up artist who stole every scene and shows he was a part of as he embodied characters that will continue to live on in cinema legend. We’ll miss him.

Israel Olorunnisola is a freelance creative. When he is not writing about Film, Music, TV or Pop culture he is telling stories on Wattpad.

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