David Simon (born 1960) is an
American author, journalist, and a writer/producer of television series. He worked for the
Baltimore Sun City Desk for twelve years (
1982–95) and wrote
Homicide: A Year on the Killing
Streets (
1991) and co-wrote
The Corner:
A Year in the Life of an Inner-City
Neighborhood (
1997) with
Ed Burns. The former book was the basis for the
NBC series Homicide:
Life on the
Street (
1993–99), on which
Simon served as a writer and producer. Simon adapted the latter book into the
HBO mini-series The Corner (
2000).
He is the creator of the HBO television series
The Wire (
2002–2008), for which he served as executive producer, head writer, and show runner for all five seasons. He adapted the non-fiction book
Generation Kill into an HBO mini-series and served as the show runner for the project. He was selected as one of the
2010 MacArthur Fellows and named an
Utne Reader visionary in
2011. Simon also co-created the
HBO series Treme with
Eric Overmyer, which aired its fourth and final season in
2013.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Simon
The casting of The Wire has been praised for avoiding big-name stars and providing character actors who appear natural in their roles.[10] The looks of the cast as a whole have been described as defying TV expectations by presenting a true range of humanity on screen.[11] Most of the cast is African-American, consistent with the demographics of
Baltimore.
The initial cast was assembled through a process of auditions and readings.
Lance Reddick received the role of
Cedric Daniels after auditioning for several other parts.[12]
Michael K. Williams got the part of
Omar Little after only a single audition.[13]
Several prominent real-life Baltimore figures, including former
Maryland Governor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.;
Rev. Frank M. Reid III; former police chief, convicted felon, and radio personality
Ed Norris;
Virginia Delegate
Rob Bell; Baltimore Sun reporter and editor
David Ettlin;
Howard County Executive Ken Ulman; and former mayor
Kurt Schmoke have appeared in minor roles despite not being professional actors.[14][15] "
Little Melvin" Williams, a Baltimore drug lord arrested in the
1980s by an investigation that Ed Burns had been part of, had a recurring role as a deacon beginning in the third season.
Jay Landsman, a longtime police officer who inspired the character of the same name,[16] played
Lieutenant Dennis Mello.[17]
Baltimore police commander
Gary D'Addario served as the series technical advisor for the first two seasons[18][19] and has a recurring role as prosecutor
Gary DiPasquale.[20] Simon shadowed D'
Addario's shift when researching his book Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets and both D'Addario and Landsman are subjects of the book.[21]
More than a dozen cast members previously appeared on HBO's first hour-long drama Oz.
J. D. Williams,
Seth Gilliam, Lance Reddick, and
Reg E. Cathey were featured in very prominent roles in Oz, while a number of other notable stars of The Wire, including
Wood Harris,
Frankie Faison,
John Doman,
Clarke Peters,
Domenick Lombardozzi,
Michael Hyatt,
Michael Potts, and
Method Man appeared in at least one episode of Oz
.[22]
Cast members
Erik Dellums,
Peter Gerety,
Clark Johnson,
Clayton LeBouef,
Toni Lewis and
Callie Thorne also appeared on Homicide: Life on the Street, the earlier and award winning network television series also based on Simon's book;
Lewis appeared on Oz as well.[23][24][25][26][27] A number of cast members, as well as crew members, also appeared in the preceding HBO miniseries The Corner including Clarke Peters, Reg E. Cathey, Lance Reddick,
Corey Parker Robinson,
Robert F. Chew and
Delaney Williams.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wire
Image Courtesy of the
John D. and
Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation [
CC BY 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/
4.0)], via
Wikimedia Commons
- published: 08 May 2015
- views: 623