‘YOU CAN FOOL PEOPLE’

Michael K. Williams’ Nephew Issues Warning About Fentanyl

‘The Wire’ actor died of an overdose last year—and his nephew found his body.

The nephew of The Wire actor Michael K. Williams says he is trying to warn people about the dangers of hidden fentanyl in street drugs because he knows his uncle would have wanted that. Williams died of a fentanyl overdose in September after buying heroin on the street, and it was nephew Dominic Dupont who found his body. “I went upstairs, opened his door and it was quiet—Michael always played music. I stuck my head in and said ‘Uncle Mike? Are you in here?’” Dupont told Jada Pinkett Smith on Red Table Talk. “And I observed him deceased.” He says Williams, a recovering addict, did not seem to be relapsing. “But Michael also worked really hard not to have the things that he was going through weigh on other people. And he was an actor, right? I mean, you can fool people. You can convince people that you’re okay.”