He also appeared in ‘Tangerine,’ ‘The Black Phone,’ ‘Sinister’ and ‘Generation Kill.’

James Ransone Jon Kopaloff/Getty Images

James Ransone, the versatile character actor best known for his roles in The Wire, Tangerine, Generation Kill, It: Chapter Two and The Black Phone, died on Dec. 19. He was 46.

Ransone died by suicide, according to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner.

Born on June 2, 1979, in Baltimore, Ransone studied at the George Washington Carver Center for Arts and Technology before attending the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan for a year.

He earned his first onscreen credit in 2001’s The American Astronaut, but he scored his most notable role in The Wire in 2003. He played the impish Chester “Ziggy” Sobotka in season two of the HBO drama, which centered on street-level drug dealing to the Port of Baltimore. In the show, Ziggy was the goofy and brash failson of the respected union leader Frank Sobotka. Though the character, reportedly based on a real-life stevedore named Pinkie Bannion, only appeared in 12 episodes, he became one of the most memorable of the second season of the highly influential crime drama, and fan favorite scenes include Ziggy taking his duck to drink at the pub and also repeatedly exposing himself (Ransone wearing a particularly large prosthetic penis).

In interviews, Ransone has said playing the Ziggy character turned out to be a shadow on his life and career after The Wire ended, particularly after the show became such an enduring cult favorite with a dedicated fanbase.

Ransone would work again with The Wire creator David Simon on the HBO miniseries Generation Kill (2008), and the HBO drama series Treme (2010-13). In Generation Kill, the searing Iraq War drama based on Rolling Stone journalist Evan Wright’s non-fiction story, Ransone played Corporal Josh Ray Person a member of a Marines battalion during the 2003 invasion. Ransone’s witty character had some of the most memorable lines in the series, particularly in his interactions with Alexander Skarsgård’s character Sergeant Brad “Iceman” Colbert.

Ransone appeared in Anora director Sean Baker’s 2015 breakout film Tangerine, playing another character called Chester, the shady boyfriend and pimp of a trans sex worker.

In 2019, Ransone starred as Eddie Kaspbrak in It: Chapter Two, alongside Jessica Chastain, James McAvoy, Bill Hader and Bill Skarsgård. In the sequel, set 27 years after the first encounter with the terrifying Pennywise, the Losers Club had grown up and moved away, until a devastating phone call brings them back.

Ransone also played Max in 2021’s The Black Phone and 2025’s Black Phone 2, starring Mason Thames and Ethan Hawke. The first installment centered on a 13-year-old boy who’s being held in a soundproof basement by a sadistic, masked killer. When a disconnected phone on the wall starts to ring, he soon discovers that he can hear the voices of the murderer’s previous victims.

Among Ransone’s dozens of other acting credits were Poker Face, SEAL Team, Deadwax, The First, Mosaic, It Happened In L.A., Bosch, Sinister 2, Oldboy, Low Winter Sun, Empire State, Sinister, How to Make It in America, Hawaii Five-0, Generation Kill, Law & Order, Nola and Third Watch.

In 2021, in a social media post, Ransone revealed that he had been sexually abused as a child. The actor accused a former tutor of repeatedly sexually assaulting him in the early 1990s when he was 12. In the Instagram post, Ransome wrote that he had endured a “lifetime of shame and embarrassment” from the abuse and struggled with drug addiction in the years after.

Jamie McPhee, the wife of James Ransone, was nearly completely devastated as she faced the tragic death of her husband. In the room filled with silence and loss, she choked back sobs, her hands trembling as she spoke of James. Every word seemed to shatter in the overwhelming grief, her eyes brimming with tears, as if she were desperately trying to hold on to a part of his departing soul. Friends and family who witnessed the scene could not help but feel heartbroken; the sense of despair and loss seemed to envelop the entire space, leaving everyone with an indescribable sorrow.