Omar Little

See also: Omar Little and associates

Omar Little
First appearance	"The Buys" (episode 1.03)
Last appearance	"Clarifications" (episode 5.08)
Created by	David Simon
Portrayed by	Michael K. Williams
Information
Gender	Male
Family	Josephine, grandmother; "No heart"-Anthony, brother; Butchie, uncle

Omar Devone Little is a fictional character on the HBO drama The Wire, portrayed by Michael K. Williams. Omar is a renowned stick-up man who lives by a strict moral code and never deviates from his rules, foremost of which is that he never robs or menaces people who are not involved in 'the game'. Omar, who is gay, has had three partners on the show. Omar makes a point of disliking profanity; he disapproves when his partners curse, and rarely does so himself.

Biography

Omar was orphaned at a young age, and raised by his grandmother Josephine, who is largely responsible for his strict moral code, despite his criminal occupation. He attended Edmondson High School in West Baltimore, a few years behind Bunk Moreland. For more than ten years, Omar has made his living holding up drug dealers, and staying alive "one day at a time." He is legendary around Baltimore for his characteristic shotgun, trench coat, facial scar, and whistling "The Farmer in the Dell", or "A Hunting We Will Go." Every time people see or hear him coming they run, even the children. He repeatedly demonstrates exceptional skill at surveillance and as a stick-up man and shooter, further contributing to his feared status as an efficient professional. He is highly intelligent and cunning, consistently executing well-laid plans, anticipating moves, and outsmarting his adversaries. Once a month, he accompanies his elderly grandmother to church. He has a brother, "No Heart" Anthony, who is incarcerated for a jewelry store robbery in the early '90s. Omar has a fondness for Newport cigarettes and Honey Nut Cheerios, though several episodes indicated that he often had difficulty in locating the latter. He often carries a shotgun or large caliber handguns in .44 Magnum (Desert Eagle or Colt Anaconda), .45 ACP semi-automatics, and .50 Action Express.

Season 1

After Omar, his boyfriend Brandon, and John Bailey rob a stash house, Avon Barksdale puts out a contract on the trio (doubling the reward once he discovers Omar is gay). Bailey is killed, and Brandon is tortured, mutilated, and killed for keeping silent on Omar's whereabouts. He is then left in a public place so as to be seen and quickly found. In response to this, Omar cooperates with Detectives Jimmy McNulty and Bunk Moreland, providing key information leading to the arrest of Barksdale's soldier Bird, and agrees to be a witness against him at his trial (though it is unlikely that Omar was an actual witness to the crime). While meeting with the police, he observes information which he used to exact further revenge against the Barksdale Organization, killing Stinkum and wounding Wee-Bey Brice.

Omar even gets a shot at Barksdale himself, by giving stolen drugs to Eastside drug kingpin Proposition Joe for Avon's pager number. He tails Avon to Orlando's strip club, pages him and waits for him to emerge into the open. Avon narrowly escapes when Wee-Bey arrives and shoots Omar in the shoulder. Afterward, Stringer Bell offers Omar a truce, planning to kill him when he relaxes his guard. Omar realizes Stringer's duplicity and leaves town, temporarily relocating to New York City. In the last scene of the first season, he is seen robbing a New York drug dealer, merely saying it's "all in the game, yo. All in the game."

Season 2

Omar returns to Baltimore with a new boyfriend, Dante. He quickly returns to his old business, targeting the Barksdales exclusively, and connects with Tosha and Kimmy, stick-up artists who join his crew.

Omar provides false testimony against Bird in open court as he had promised to do. Unabashed and unapologetic about who he is, he wins over the jury with his wit; when Barksdale attorney Maurice Levy calls him a parasite who thrives on the drug trade, Omar points out that Levy is essentially the same thing. In the end, the jury accepts Omar's testimony, and Bird is sent to prison for life. Assistant State's Attorney Ilene Nathan promises Omar a favor as a thank you for his testimony. While waiting to be called to the witness stand, Omar helps the bailiff with a crossword puzzle clue, explaining that the Greeks referred to the God of war as Ares. He mentions that he was fascinated by Greek mythology in middle school, implying that he was a precocious and intelligent student as a youth.

Around this time, as Stringer Bell extends his control over the Barksdale operation, Avon hires Brother Mouzone from New York as new muscle. With the threat to his secret takeover apparent, Stringer arranges a meeting through Proposition Joe and Omar's advisor and confidant Butchie, where Stringer tells Omar that Mouzone was the one who had tortured and killed Brandon. Omar finds Mouzone and shoots him once, but when Mouzone reveals that Omar had been given false information, Omar realizes he had been duped and lets Mouzone live, even calling the paramedics for him. He redirects his murderous intent at Stringer himself.^[1][2]

Season 3

Omar and his crew continue robbing Barksdale stash houses, even though they are more difficult and riskier than other potential targets. Tosha is killed during a raid on a Barksdale house, and Omar contemplates giving up his war against the Barksdale organization. Detective Bunk Moreland, investigating the deaths, makes Omar feel further guilt over the incident, giving a speech about how the neighbohood used to be closer-knit and with less violence. "And now all we got are bodies. And predatory motherfuckers like you." Bunk mentions that when he went to the scene he found children arguing about whose turn it was "to be Omar." Omar provides him with a lost police pistol as a way of making amends.

Under orders from Stringer Bell, two of Avon's soldiers fire weapons at Omar while he is taking his grandmother to church. Omar forces her into a taxi, but she loses her best hat in the gunfire. This blatant violation of the longstanding "Sunday truce" between rival gangs, combined with the risk Omar's grandmother was put in during the incident, leads Omar to re-dedicate himself to war with the Barksdales, though Kimmy opts out. Avon, outraged at Stringer, forces the men responsible for the attack to buy Omar's grandmother a new hat.

Meanwhile, Brother Mouzone captures Dante, and forces him to reveal Omar's hiding place. Dante gives in, in contrast with Brandon, who never cracked. Mouzone suggests an alliance against Stringer. Together, Omar and Mouzone ambush Stringer during a meeting with Andy Krawczyk and murder him. Brother Mouzone sets Dante free and returns to New York, while Omar is tasked with getting rid of Mouzone's gun, as well as the shotgun that killed Stringer. Both weapons are later thrown into the harbor. Omar is shown to be suspicious of the severity of Dante's injuries and his release by Mouzone is the last time he is seen; it is implied that Omar left him for giving him up so easily.

Season 4

Omar feels dissatisfied with how easy work has become after the collapse of the Barksdale organization and worries that pursuing easy thefts would make him soft, ("How you expect to run with the wolves come night when you spend all day sporting with the puppies") so he and new boyfriend Renaldo pull a robbery of one of Marlo Stanfield's dealers, Old Face Andre, who runs a westside corner convenience store that was actually a drug front. At Proposition Joe's suggestion, they proceed to rob a poker game, not knowing that Marlo Stanfield was one of the men at the game. While committing the robbery, Omar makes a point to take a large ring from Marlo, who had earlier taken the same ring from Old Face Andre as a debt for money owed. Though Marlo vows revenge, his right hand man Chris Partlow convinces him to take a subtler approach. Chris shoots an innocent woman during a staged robbery at Old Face Andre's store. He instructs Andre to call the police and falsely implicate Omar as the culprit. Omar is subsequently jailed. During the arrest, he is robbed by Officer Eddie Walker, who takes the ring that Omar had stolen from Marlo. Before Omar is taken away in a police van, he is questioned by Officer Jimmy McNulty, who thought it out of character for Omar to have murdered an ordinary citizen not involved in the drug trade. While imprisoned in Baltimore City's Central Booking, Omar is recognized by other inmates, a number of whom want to kill him for the bounty that had been placed on his head. In retaliation for an attempt on his life, he brutally stabs an adversary in the rectum as a means of warning the other inmates not to attack him.

Omar reaches out to Detective Bunk Moreland for help. Omar convinces Bunk that he would never kill a "citizen". After having Omar transferred to a safer prison in Harford County (calling in the favor from Ilene Nathan), Bunk manages to prove that Old Face Andre had lied. The charge against Omar is dropped and Bunk transports him out of Harford County with a warning: no more murders against anyone. Bunk threatened to bring up the unsolved murders at Omar's hands that he knew about, such as Stringer Bell, Stinkum Artis, or Tosha if Omar was caught killing anyone else.

Omar learns that Marlo had framed him and was the one he had robbed at the card game. Omar demands that Proposition Joe help him rob Marlo, and Joe agrees to alert Omar when Joe's soldier Cheese was dropping off Marlo's package. Omar orchestrates an elaborate and successful hijacking of Joe's entire shipment of heroin as it enters port. As he had no wish to sell drugs on the street, he sells the heroin back to Proposition Joe. Although the heist makes Omar a lot of money, it has all of the drug kingpins ready to put a contract on his head.

Season 5

Omar retires with Renaldo following the heist and moves to San Juan, Puerto Rico. Marlo Stanfield has Butchie tortured and killed, seeking revenge on Omar.^[3] Word reaches Omar and he returns to Baltimore to punish those responsible. Omar ambushes Slim Charles and confronts him. Omar knows that Slim Charles' employer "Proposition Joe" Stewart knew of his connection to Butchie and believes Proposition Joe may have been responsible. Slim Charles is able to convince Omar of Proposition Joe's innocence and Omar targets Stanfield. Along with Butchie's friend Donnie, Omar decides to go after Stanfield's people as Stanfield himself has gone into hiding and Omar targets Monk.^[3] Stanfield's soldiers spot Omar outside of Monk's apartment and bait Omar and Donnie into an ambush. Once inside they are attacked by Chris Partlow, Snoop, Michael Lee, and O-Dog. During the shootout, O-Dog is wounded in the leg and Donnie killed by a gunshot to the head. Out of bullets, Omar is forced to jump from the fourth-story window, breaking his leg in the process.

He continues his mission around the city in search of Marlo with a makeshift crutch. He terrorizes and robs many of Marlo's corners and shoots or kills several members of Stanfield's crew including Savino Bratton. All the while, Omar calls for Marlo to meet him on the streets. During "Clarifications," a young boy from Michael's crew, Kenard, follows Omar to a Korean-owned convenience store. Omar sees Kenard walk in, but seeing just a little boy, pays no attention to him. Kenard shoots Omar in the side of the head, killing him. This brings closure to some of the foreshadowing in Season 3, as Kenard was the young boy Bunk witnessed imitating Omar at the Barksdale stash house shootout. His death has several parallels with that of Errol Barnes in writer Richard Price's Clockers.

Legacy

News of Omar's death is received with mild amusement and indifference by various characters. Bunk Moreland initially shows some sympathy, which he brushes aside when he learns Omar was once again "on the hunt". McNulty and Freamon react with mere curious interest and instead focus on a lead on their case found on Omar's body. The newspaper staff drop any mention of the incident for lack of printing space. In his final appearance, an employee at the morgue realizes the identification tag on Omar's body has been accidentally switched with that of the white deceased male on the neighboring table and corrects the error by swapping the tags. The scenes signal the unceremonious transition of Omar from a mythical figure into a crime statistic in the course of one day. However, various people in the street were shown to increasingly exaggerate the details of his shooting in order to glorify his death.

Omar's infamy and influence on the next generation is portrayed in Michael Lee's transition from Chris Partlow's protegé to a heavily armed independent stick-up artist who targets the reigning drug kingpins of the day, just like Omar.

Prequels

A brief prequel released before season five and on the season five DVD set features a young Omar, his brother Anthony, and an unidentified older boy planning and executing a robbery of a man at a bus stop in 1985 Baltimore. Even as a young boy, Omar shows remarkable intelligence, morality, and force of character by first questioning the value of robbing the man and then compelling the unidentified older boy (at gunpoint) to return the money. Anthony expresses tired amusement at Omar's actions, demonstrating his familiarity with his brother's forceful personality. Omar is shown with his characteristic facial scar, indicating that he somehow received it as a child.

At the end of this segment, the unidentified boy tells Anthony that his brother is not "cut out" for their line of work, an ironic foreshadowing of what would happen to Anthony some years later. After bungling a jewelry store heist, Anthony was pursued by police. Apparently sensing he was about to be caught, and unwilling to do hard time, Anthony put a gun to his chest and pulled the trigger. He survives the suicide attempt, however; only receiving a contact wound. After this incident, he earned the derisive nickname "No Heart" Anthony.

Production

Casting

Michael K. Williams received the part of Omar after only a single audition. Williams has stated that he pursued the role because he felt it would make him stand out from other African Americans from Brooklyn with acting talent because of its contradictory nature.^[4]

Williams expressed that his relationship with and love of off-broadway New York theatres, such as the National Black Theater in Harlem gave him the skill set needed for his portrayal of Omar; in particular using the Meisner technique to create Omar from the ground up, immersing himself by researching details of inner city Baltimore. The role presented a particular challenge as it was the first major recurring television character he had played.^[5]

Origins

David Simon has said that Omar is based on Shorty Boyd, Donnie Andrews, Ferdinand Harvin, Billy Outlaw and Anthony Hollie, Baltimore stickup men between the 1980s and early 2000s who robbed drug dealers.^[6] Donnie Andrews later reformed, is married, and now helps troubled youths.^[7] In season 4 of The Wire Andrews plays one of the two men Butchie sends to help Omar in prison, in the episodes "Margin of Error" and "Unto Others" and Omar later meets up with him at Blind Butchie's in "That's Got His Own" while planning the big drug robbery.

Omar admits to an interest in Greek mythology in the season two episode "All Prologue".^[8] Omar's nascent love of Greek mythology has some truth in real life; according to a passage The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood, a non-fiction book written by David Simon and Ed Burns, children in Baltimore schools pay little attention to most classes and stories (as seen in the fourth season of The Wire), but are often interested by and appreciative of Greek mythology.^[9]

Reception

For his portrayal of Omar, Michael K. Williams was named by USA Today as one of ten reasons they still love television. The character was praised for his uniqueness in the stale landscape of TV crime dramas and for the wit and humor that Williams brought to the portrayal.^[10] Other commentators applauded the many dimensions of the character with his appearances in various story lines as "...a sawed-off shotgun toting terror, a vulnerable jailbird whose life lies in the balance, and a double crossing mastermind who outsmarts Baltimore’s biggest drug dealers time and time again."^[5] Omar was named as one of the first season's richest characters, not unlike the Robin Hood of Baltimore's west side projects, although his contradictory nature was questioned as a little too strange.^[11] The Baltimore City Paper named the character one of their top ten reasons not to cancel the show and called him "arguably the show’s single greatest achievement."^[12]

Williams has stated that he feels that the character is well liked because of his honesty, lack of materialism, individuality and his adherence to his strict code.^[4] In January 2008 then-presidential candidate Barack Obama told the Las Vegas Sun that Omar was his favorite character on The Wire (which, in turn, is his favorite television show), adding, “That’s not an endorsement. He’s not my favorite person, but he’s a fascinating character.”^[13]

Omar Little is Number 2 on Bravo's 100 Greatest TV Characters of All-Time, only behind Tony Soprano.^{[citation needed]}

References

1. ^ "Character profile - Omar". HBO. 2004. http://www.hbo.com/thewire/cast/characters/omar.shtml. 
2. ^ Dan Kois (2004). "Everything you were afraid to ask about "The Wire"". Salon.com. http://dir.salon.com/story/ent/feature/2004/10/01/the_wire/index.html?pn=4. 
3. ^ ^{a b} "Transitions". Dan Attias, Writ. Ed Burns (story and teleplay), David Simon (story). The Wire. HBO. 2008-01-27. No. 4, season 5.
4. ^ ^{a b} Joel Murphy (2005). "One on one with... Michael K. Williams". Hobo Trashcan. http://www.hobotrashcan.com/interviews/michaelkwilliams.php. Retrieved 2006-07-21. 
5. ^ ^{a b} Francesca Djerejian (2008). "Michael K. Williams: Omar Never Scares". Hip Hop DX. http://www.hiphopdx.com/index/lifestyle-features/id.1026/title./p.1. Retrieved 2008-02-19. 
6. ^ Richard Vine (2005). "Totally Wired". London: The Guardian Unlimited. http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/theguide/archives/tv_and_radio/2005/01/totally_wired.html. Retrieved 2006-07-19. 
7. ^ Urbina, Ian (2007-08-09). "From Two Broken Lives to One New Beginning". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/09/us/09baltimore.html?ex=1187323200&en=6ff91cea148c50cf&ei=5070&emc=eta1. Retrieved 2007-08-11. 
8. ^ "All Prologue". David Simon, Ed Burns. The Wire. HBO. 2003-07-06. No. 6, season 2.
9. ^ The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood, p.283
10. ^ Robert Bianco (2004-05-26). "10 Reasons we still love TV". USA Today. http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2004-05-26-tv-mvps_x.htm. Retrieved 2006-07-21. 
11. ^ Chris Barsanti (2004). "The Wire - The Complete First Season". Slant Magazine. http://www.slantmagazine.com/dvd/dvd_review.asp?ID=481. Retrieved 2006-07-20. 
12. ^ Bret McCabe and Van Smith (2005). "Down to the wire: Top 10 reasons not to cancel the wire.". Baltimore city paper.. http://cpgo.citypaper.com/film/story.asp?id=9538. Retrieved 2006-07-21. 
13. ^ J. Patrick Coolican (2008). "Obama goes gloves off, head-on". Las Vegas Sun. http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2008/jan/14/obama-gloves-off/. Retrieved 2008-02-27.