James

James Ransone, a character actor who played an impulsive, drug-dealing dock worker in the iconic HBO series “The Wire” and later appeared in horror films “Sinister” and “It: Chapter Two,” died in Los Angeles on Friday. He was 46.

According to the L.A. County medical examiner’s office, Ransone died by suicide.

A native of Maryland, Ransone studied theater at the Carver Center for Arts and Technology in the Baltimore County community of Towson, before breaking into television a few years later.

Ransone appeared in several prominent horror films. He portrayed Max in “The Black Phone,” a film about a teen boy who is abducted by a serial killer. The movie was based on a short story written by Joe Hill — Stephen King’s son — and starred Ethan Hawke. Ransone reprised his role in the sequel, “Black Phone II.”

Ransone appeared in another horror film with Hawke, taking on the role of Deputy in “Sinister.” The movie centers around a writer who finds snuff films in his new house. Ransone also acted alongside Bill Hader, Jessica Chastain and Bill Skarsgård in the follow-up “It: Chapter Two,” playing Eddie Kaspbrak, one of several characters being tormented by killer clown Pennywise.

While promoting the film, he defended the horror genre against those who consider it a “throwaway” category.

“To those people I’ll say, ‘Tell that to William Friedkin or Stanley Kubrick,’” Ransone said in an interview with Anthem Magazine.

He also had roles in the shows “Generation Kill,” “Treme” and “Bosch.” His final TV appearance came in the a second-season episode of Peacock’s comedy crime show “Poker Face,” which aired in June.

But he will likely be remembered most for his turn as Ziggy Sobotka in “The Wire,” a dark and uncompromising drama — hailed as one of the best TV shows of all time — that explored various aspects of Baltimore and its institutions. Ransone appeared in all 12 episodes of the show’s second season, which focused on the decimation of the city’s docks.

He played the son of a dock union leader, whose scheming charisma got him into trouble with other low-level criminals — but also endeared him to some viewers. In one notable story arc, he bought a duck, which he paraded around with a diamond necklace; the bird later died because he fed it too much alcohol.

The critically acclaimed HBO series aired from 2002 to 2008 and starred Dominic West, Michael Kenneth Williams, John Doman, Idris Elba, Wood Harris, Lance Reddick, Wendell Pierce, Frankie Faison, Lawrence Gilliard Jr. and more.

In a statement released to the Baltimore Banner news site, “Wire” creator David Simon called Ransone’s death “grievous and awful.”

“He committed not only to the work but to the camaraderie that turns every good film production into something familial and caring,” said the statement by Simon, who also cast Ransone in “Generation Kill” and “Treme.”

In an interview on MSNBC after the release of the movie “Sinister 2,” Ransone said he was proud of the work he had done on “The Wire” but called it a “real double-edged sword” in that people would forever typecast him as Ziggy. He described himself as a horror film fan and spoke of how working with filmmakers such as Simon, Sean Baker and Spike Lee had opened his eyes to many social inequities.

It wasn’t immediately clear whether Ransone was living in L.A. at the time of his death. A man with his name is listed on the California secretary of state’s website as living in the 700 block of North Martel Avenue, in the Fairfax neighborhood.

LAPD spokesperson Officer Norma Eisenman said that around 2 p.m. Friday a police squad responded to a 911 call about an undetermined death at that location. Inside, she said, officers found a white male who appeared to have taken his own life.

Because foul play isn’t suspected, the case is being handled by the medical examiner’s office, Eisenman said, adding that she could not confirm that the man was Ransone or provide other details about the 911 call.

TMZ reported that Ransone was a married father of two, and wife Jamie McPhee posted a fundraiser for the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) in her social media profile.

In recent years, Ransone came out as a sexual abuse survivor and also spoke openly about his struggles with addiction.

In 2016, he told Interview Magazine that he had gotten sober at age 27 “after being on heroin for five years.”

“People think I got sober working on the ‘Generation Kill.’ I didn’t. I sobered up six or seven months before that,” he told the publication. “I remember going to Africa and I was going to be there for almost a year. I was number two on the call sheet and I was like, ‘I think somebody made a mistake. This is too much responsibility for me.’”

Ransone in 2021 disclosed that he had been sexually abused by a former tutor at his childhood home in Phoenix, Md. over a six-month span in 1992, according to the Baltimore Banner. He revealed the allegations on Instagram, where he shared a lengthy note that he had sent his alleged abuser, the Banner reported. A police investigation was later launched into the allegations but closed without any charges being filed.

Englishman James Wade began his PDC World Darts Championship campaign with a 3-0 triumph over Ryusei Azemoto, while Raymond van Barneveld suffered a shock first-round exit.

Five-time world champion Van Barneveld looked out of sorts as he went down in straight sets to Stefan Bellmont, the first Swiss winner at Alexandra Palace.

Seventh seed Wade only let one leg slip in a dominant victory against Japan’s Azemoto.

“Tonight showed the practice I’ve been doing. It wasn’t spectacular but when I really needed to hit something, it happened,” said four-time semi-finalist Wade.

He finished with an average of 94.75, compared to Azemoto’s 84.42, and the 42-year-old will take on Ricky Evans in the second round on Monday.

Van Barneveld looked a shadow of the player who won four BDO world titles before lifting the PDC crown in 2007.

The 58-year-old Dutchman took the opening leg but then lost eight in succession.

Despite a higher average than his opponent, he checked out just 25% of his doubles while Bellmont hit 39%.

American debutant Adam Sevada came out on top in the the first game on Wednesday, seeing off Canadian Matt Campbell 3-1.

It was tight for much of their encounter but Sevada’s marginally better performance on doubles made the difference as he won 11 legs to Campbell’s six.

James steered the Los Angeles Lakers to a narrow victory over the Phoenix Suns after blowing a 20-point lead.

LeBron James gave Los Angeles the lead on two free throws with three seconds left, then blocked Grayson Allen’s potential game-winning three-pointer at the other end, and the Lakers survived a wild finish to defeat the hosts Phoenix Suns 116-114 on Sunday night.

Luka Doncic finished with 29 points, James 26 and Deandre Ayton 20 as part of a double-double with a game-high 13 rebounds for the Lakers, who trailed 77-71 before holding Phoenix scoreless for 8:05 bridging the third and fourth periods, using a 24-0 flurry to vault into a 95-77 lead.

The Suns regained the lead at 114-113 when Dillon Brooks buried the third of his fourth-quarter three-pointers with 12.2 seconds left. But Brooks, who had drawn an earlier technical foul for jawing with James, was nailed with a second “T” while celebrating his success and was ejected.

James missed the subsequent free throw, but then pulled up from beyond the arc with three seconds left and drew a three-shot foul on Devin Booker. He made the last two of the attempts to retake the lead.

Down one, the Suns got one final shot, but James blocked Allen’s potential game-winning three-point attempt and Marcus Smart, fouled after snatching the rebound, added a free throw to make it a two-point margin of victory.

The Suns led 77-71 after two free throws by Booker with 5:28 remaining in the third period before not scoring again until the third minute of the final period, falling behind 95-77 in the process. Phoenix missed 14 straight shots and mixed in seven turnovers during its scoreless spell.

Doncic was the game’s leading scorer despite missing 12 of his 14 attempts from behind the three-point line. The Lakers shot just 7 for 37 from deep.

Jaxson Hayes added 12 points for Los Angeles, which avenged an earlier 125-108 home loss to the Suns.

Booker had 27 points, Mark Williams 20 and Brooks 18 for Phoenix, which lost despite outshooting the Lakers 48.8 percent to 43.2 percent overall and 35.1 percent to 18.9 percent on three-pointers.

Allen, who shared game-high assist honours with Booker with seven, chipped in with 13 points for the Suns, while Royce O’Neale went for 12 and Collin Gillespie 10.

Netflix viewers have just uncovered a surprising link between the Knives Out thriller series and Daniel Craig’s famous James Bond franchise.

Netflix viewers have just spotted a surprising link between the beloved Knives Out trilogy and Daniel Craig’s iconic 007 films.

The streaming giant has just released Wake Up Dead Man, which marks the third thriller in the Rian Johnson whodunit franchise.

Craig reprises his role as eccentric detective Benoit Blanc and takes on a seemingly impossible murder case.

Wake Up Dead Man has bagged a stellar 92% Rotten Tomatoes score, with many viewers already crowning it as the best thriller in the series.

This comes as no surprise considering its talented cast, which includes Josh O’Connor, Glenn Close, Josh Brolin, Kerry Washington, and Mila Kunis.

But the ensemble cast has caught moviegoers’ attention with more than just their acting chops. Many have pointed out that each instalment in the franchise has featured at least one actor that Craig worked with during his James Bond days.

Taking to Reddit, one fan posted a series of images of Bond actors who have also appeared in the Knives Out trilogy.

They shared their discovery, writing: “Something interesting I noticed after watching the movies back to back. With Wake Up Dead Man featuring Andrew Scott and Jeffrey Wright , Daniel Craig has worked again with at least one other actor from his James Bond movies on all 3 Knives Out films.”

Fans of the series will remember that the first film featured Oscar nominee Ana de Armas as nurse Marta Cabrera.

Craig and de Armas also collaborated in No Time to Die, in which the actress played CIA agent Paloma.

However, as some fans on Reddit pointed out “Ana de Armas was a Knives Out actor in a Bond movie, not the other way around,” since she joined the Bond universe two years after starring in the mystery film.

Craig later reunited with fellow Bond star Dave Bautista in Glass Onion, the Knives Out sequel.

Spectre fans will remember Bautista as terrifying henchman Hinx, a character worlds away from his light-hearted Glass Onion role as gamer Duke Cody.

Irish actor Andrew Scott also featured in the same 2015 Bond film as intelligence agent Max Denbigh.

Scott plays misguided writer Lee Ross in Wake Up Dead Man, though he sparingly shares scenes with Craig.

Another No Time to Die star, Oscar nominee Jeffrey Wright also reunites with Craig in the new Knives Out film.

Wright plays Bishop Langstrom, who serves as something of a mentor for main character Father Jud Duplenticy (O’Connor).

Fans were especially thrilled to see this duo collaborating again, four years after Wright played Bond’s ally Felix Leiter.

Responding to the Reddit thread, one fan penned: “God I love Jeffery Wright,” with someone else agreeing: “Was the best surprise seeing him!”

And a third added: “The Jeffrey wright one really made me happy. Didn’t know he was in it!”

Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery is streaming now on Netflix

Film fans like to lament: They don’t make them like they used to, specifically the kind of wry, life-affirming dramedies that director James L. Brooks perfected back in the 1980s and ’90s like “Terms of Endearment,” “Broadcast News” and “As Good as It Gets.” Movies of that tone and character are rare these days, so it’s worth noting when a new one comes along. But with Brooks’ latest, the deeply strange “Ella McCay,” he doesn’t make them like he used to either.

“Ella McCay” is a portrait of a lady on fire, from stress. The quirky, twitchy Ella (Emma Mackey, horrifically bewigged) is the youngest lieutenant governor in her unnamed state, an awkward policy wonk serving under her mentor, Gov. Bill Moore (Albert Brooks). When he’s tapped for the Cabinet, Ella gets the promotion that she craves, sworn in as the youngest female governor of her state, even as her family life descends into chaos. But Ella’s family life has always been chaotic, as we see in flashbacks to her teenage years, wherein our narrator describes how Ella experiences seeing other happy families — as a stab in the heart.

Our narrator is Estelle (Julie Kavner, best known as the voice of Marge Simpson), Ella’s secretary, who explains that she’s biased, claiming “I’m nuts about her.” The year, by the way, is 2008, “when we could still talk to each other.” So Brooks sets this political film in the recent past, giving a wide berth to the third rail that is MAGA. But by shrinking away from political hot buttons, he renders the whole gambit frustratingly vague and meaningless. Ella lives in the “state,” she runs afoul of the “party,” but skirting these details feels too timid. It’s clear that Ella’s politics are liberal, as she champions a bill designed to support parents and kids in early childhood (she tears up over “tooth tutors”). But why play coy with the specifics?

All Ella wants to do is run her policy meetings, but the men in her life keep getting in the way. First there’s her dad (Woody Harrelson), an inveterate philanderer who would like to make amends — in order to please his new girlfriend. Then there’s Ella’s agoraphobic brother (Spike Fearn), over whom she frets (the less said about his bizarrely tacked-on romantic entanglement with an ex-girlfriend played by Ayo Edebiri, the better). Then there’s her husband (Jack Lowden), a seemingly nice if cocky guy who suddenly starts to love the warmth of the spotlight as Ella ascends.

Again and again, Ella runs in circles trying to put out fires with these men without ever getting to her meetings or doing the job she claims she loves so much (and when she finally does get to her meeting, it’s a flop). The entire movie is about how men are always getting in the way of women’s work, but it’s not entirely clear that Brooks knows this is what his film is about, as Ella happily embarks on pointless side quests with her dad and brother and becomes embroiled in the tamest political sex scandal of all time. The real scandal here is why she entertains any of these losers at all.

It never feels like Brooks has a grasp on the material, which careens aimlessly through Ella’s harried day-to-day in a handsomely bland, serviceable style. The thread about Ella’s childhood trauma resulting from her parents’ messy relationship is lost — and was never that convincing to begin with. She has an unconventional family but her aunt Helen (Jamie Lee Curtis), who helped raise her, is a fierce protector and confidant. Their relationship is fun to watch, so why bother with all these men and their inane storylines? The only worthy one in Ella’s life is her designated security detail (Kumail Nanjiani). In another movie, they’d have a romance, some sexual tension or at least a heartfelt and wise conversation. Here, his character is denied any chance of that.

As we move from broken home to political scandal to another broken home, Ella finally realizes that a woman’s place is not in the capital, but rather in the nonprofit sector (not that she has much choice in the matter). What, exactly, is Brooks trying to say? We spend two hours watching men mess things up for Ella and then she just accepts it and moves on? Even if that message weren’t profoundly weird, dramatically it falls flat, despite Estelle trying to tie it up with a positive final message: “The opposite of trauma is hope.” Whatever that means. It’s apt that this closing phrase makes as much sense as the rest of the movie, which is to say, very little.

Katie Walsh is a Tribune News Service film critic.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — A grand jury declined for a second time in a week to re-indict New York Attorney General Letitia James on Thursday in another major blow to the Justice Department’s efforts to prosecute the president’s political opponents.

The repeated failures amounted to a stunning rebuke of prosecutors’ bid to resurrect a criminal case President Trump pressured them to bring, and hinted at a growing public leeriness of the administration’s retribution campaign.

A grand jury rejection is an unusual circumstance in any case, but is especially stinging for a Justice Department that has been steadfast in its determination to seek revenge against Trump foes such as James and former FBI Director James Comey. On separate occasions, citizens have heard the government’s evidence against James and have come away underwhelmed, unwilling to rubber-stamp what prosecutors have attempted to portray as a clear-cut criminal case.

A judge threw out the original indictments against James and Comey in November, ruling that the prosecutor who presented to the grand jury, Lindsey Halligan, was illegally appointed U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia.

The Justice Department asked a grand jury in Alexandria, Va., to return an indictment Thursday after a different grand jury in Norfolk last week refused to do so. The failure to secure an indictment was confirmed by a person who was not authorized to publicly discuss the matter and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

It was not immediately clear Thursday whether prosecutors would try for a third time to seek a new indictment. A lawyer for James, who has denied any wrongdoing, said the “unprecedented rejection makes even clearer that this case should never have seen the light of day.”

“This case already has been a stain on this Department’s reputation and raises troubling questions about its integrity,” defense attorney Abbe Lowell said in a statement. “Any further attempt to revive these discredited charges would be a mockery of our system of justice.”

James, a Democrat who infuriated Trump after his first term with a lawsuit alleging that he built his business empire on lies about his wealth, was initially charged with bank fraud and making false statements to a financial institution in connection with a home purchase in 2020.

During the sale, she signed a standard document called a “second home rider” in which she agreed to keep the property primarily for her “personal use and enjoyment for at least one year,” unless the lender agreed otherwise. Rather than using the home as a second residence, prosecutors say James rented it out to a family of three, allowing her to obtain favorable loan terms not available for investment properties.

Both the James and Comey cases were brought shortly after the administration installed Halligan, a former Trump lawyer with no previous prosecutorial experience, as U.S. attorney amid public calls from the president to take action against his political opponents.

But U.S. District Judge Cameron McGowan Currie threw out the cases last month over the unconventional mechanism that the Trump administration employed to appoint Halligan. The judge dismissed them without prejudice, allowing the Justice Department to try to file the charges again.

Halligan had been named as a replacement for Erik Siebert, a veteran prosecutor in the office and interim U.S. attorney who resigned in September amid Trump administration pressure to file charges against both Comey and James. He stepped aside after Trump told reporters he wanted Siebert “out.”

James’ lawyers separately argued the case was a vindictive prosecution brought to punish the Trump critic who spent years investigating and suing the Republican president and won a staggering judgment in a lawsuit alleging he defrauded banks by overstating the value of his real estate holdings on financial statements. The fine was later tossed out by a higher court, but both sides are appealing.

Comey was separately charged with lying to Congress in 2020. Another federal judge has complicated the Justice Department’s efforts to seek a new indictment against Comey, temporarily barring prosecutors from accessing computer files belonging to Daniel Richman, a close Comey friend and Columbia University law professor whom prosecutors see as a central player in any potential case against the former FBI director.

Prosecutors moved Tuesday to quash that order, calling Richman’s request for the return of his files a “strategic tool to obstruct the investigation and potential prosecution.” They said the judge had overstepped her bounds by ordering Richman’s property returned to him and said the ruling had impeded their ability to proceed with a case against Comey.

Richer and Kunzelman write for the Associated Press. Richer reported from Washington. AP reporter Eric Tucker in Washington contributed to this report.