The man who inspired one of the greatest and most fascinating characters in modern television has died.

Donnie Andrews, the inspiration behind The Wire's Omar Little, died after going through emergency surgery in New York on Thursday, his former attorney told The Baltimore Sun. Andrews was 58 years old and although he was once a stickup man who robbed drug dealers, much like the character he inspired, in recent years he had founded an organization called Why Murder?, which offered outreach to inner-city youth.

Omar Little, played with chilling deftness on the HBO show by Michael Kenneth Williams, was known for being a Robin Hood character in the show's Baltimore streets – robbing drug dealers instead of more innocent victims. Known for now-classic phrases like, "It's all in the game, yo" and "You come at the king, you best not miss," Little was one of the most beloved characters on creator David Simon's drama.

"R.I.P. to the original gangsta and a stand up dude Mr. Donnie Andrews the man who was the inspiration for Omar Little," Williams wrote on Twitter on Friday. "Sending out prayers."

Andrews served 18 years in prison on a murder charge and after he was paroled in 2005 married Fran Boyd, a woman he met while incarcerated and who was one of the subjects in Simon's book The Corner.