DeAndre McCullough, whose experiences as a 15-year-old drug dealer in Baltimore inspired the writer David Simon and the former police officer Edward Burns to feature him in the book “The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner City Neighborhood,” which became an Emmy-winning mini-series on HBO, was found dead on Aug. 1 in Woodlawn, Md. He was 35.

Mr. Simon confirmed the death but did not specify a cause.

Focused on an open-air drug market at the corner of Fayette and Monroe Streets in West Baltimore in 1993, “The Corner” offered an intimate portrayal of Mr. McCullough and his two desperately addicted parents, Gary Castro McCullough and Denise Francine Boyd, known as Fran, as well as other impoverished people in the neighborhood.

“DeAndre and his contemporaries were 13, 14, 15, and they were sort of one foot on the corners and one foot on the playground,” Mr. Simon said in an interview. “We became fascinated by some of the kids, but especially DeAndre, because of his wit and his humor and how unguarded he was, at least as compared to a lot of kids on those corners.”

The mini-series won three Emmys and paved the way for “The Wire,” Mr. Simon’s critically acclaimed series, also on HBO, about urban life in Baltimore.