(CNN)A whistled rendition of "The Farmer successful the Dell" rang done M&T Bank Stadium up of the Baltimore Ravens' triumph on Sunday, honoring an iconic Baltimore quality and the precocious histrion who brought him to life.
The tune was an homage to Michael K. Williams, who starred successful the Baltimore-set bid "The Wire" arsenic Omar Little, a feared and revered stick-up man. Williams died earlier this month successful New York astatine property 54.
Though helium was a autochthonal New Yorker, Williams endeared himself to Baltimore for his iconic show successful "The Wire." Williams' portrayal was a complex, celebrated instrumentality connected a quality who could person been reduced to a stereotype, a cheery antheral who robbed cause dealers but adhered to a strict motivation code. Little would whistle "The Farmer successful the Dell" -- though immoderate judge it was "A-Hunting We Will Go," which shares its melody -- to pass imaginable targets of his arrival.
The Ravens shared a video of the infinitesimal erstwhile the opus began, conscionable earlier the players charged onto the field, and a packed assemblage cheered erstwhile they recognized the whistle.
"For Omar," the squad tweeted.
Williams considered Baltimore "a 2nd home," his person Jerel Wilson told the Baltimore Sun, and helium visited the metropolis regularly erstwhile the "The Wire" stopped airing (he loved to nosh connected crab cakes). The actor's clip filming successful Baltimore's neglected neighborhoods motivated him to advocator for reforms determination and successful different cities -- successful a 2008 interrogation with Vulture, Williams said the amusement depicted an "American societal problem," not conscionable a section one.
David Simon, creator of "The Wire" and a erstwhile Baltimore Sun transgression reporter, tweeted that helium "heard the dependable of Omar whistling" from the stadium and "thought [he'd] mislaid [his] s**t."
"It's the small things that are gonna get me, I guess," Simon said. "But Michael [sic] gonna last."
Williams was besides honored -- albeit without an grant -- astatine Sunday's Emmys by presenter Kerry Washington, who called him a "brilliantly talented histrion and a generous quality being who has near america acold excessively soon."
Williams, who was nominated for outstanding supporting histrion successful a play for "Lovecraft Country," mislaid to Tobias Menzies for "The Crown."
The ceremony's "In Memoriam" tribute ended with a punctuation from Williams: "The lone mode for maine to accidental convey you is by making definite that the instauration that I americium lasting connected is beardown capable to enactment the adjacent idiosyncratic that volition basal connected these 2 shoulders."
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