Nowadays he’s better known for his roles in “Luther,” “Beast,” and “The Harder They Fall,” but before Idris Elba was A-list royalty, he was playing Russell “Stringer” Bell in “The Wire.” Appearing on the show from the first to the third season, Stringer was second in command to big-time drug dealer Avon Barksdale (Wood Harris), later using his instinctive business acumen to invest in real estate and develop political contacts. Fans have given his character kudos for being the toughest yet most respectable figure of the lot, priming him up to become a classic tragic archetype in life and in death.
Sadly for Stringer, he died exactly how he lived — with nothing and nobody by his side. After Avon and Stringer have both unknowingly betrayed the other in Season 3, Omar Little (Michael K. Williams) and Brother Mouzone (Michael Potts) track him down to offer him money. With Stringer realizing that he can’t get them to change their minds, Omar eventually opens fire, fatally wounding Stringer in the process. It’s the narrative lynchpin for the Barksdale gang dismantling, completely changing the direction “The Wire” takes from that moment on. Fans recognize that there is a sadness in Stringer becoming too big for his boots, with his ongoing failures perhaps veering his death toward being devastatingly pathetic rather than heroic.
