Entertainment briefs 2/17/16

Man who inspired 'The Wire' dies

BALTIMORE -- A drug kingpin who inspired characters on HBO's "The Wire" has died while serving a term in federal prison in North Carolina. Baltimore Health Department spokesman Sean Naron confirmed Tuesday 54-year-old Nathan Barksdale died in a medical prison in Butner. Naron did not know exactly when Barksdale died or how. The death first was reported in The Baltimore Sun. Barksdale ran a heroin-dealing operation in Baltimore in the 1980s and served 15 years in state prison on a battery charge. "The Wire" creator David Simon has said Barksdale served as inspiration for aspects of some of the show's characters. In recent years, Barksdale worked with Safe Streets, an anti-violence program run by the Health Department. In 2014, however, he pleaded guilty to participating in a drug conspiracy and was sentenced to four years.

Writer of 'Perfect Crime' play dies

NEW YORK -- Playwright and director Warren Manzi, whose cat-and-mouse thriller "Perfect Crime" is the longest-running play in New York history, died Thursday of pneumonia in Lawrence, Massachusetts, according to the show's publicist, Daniel DeMello. Manzi was 60. "Perfect Crime," which opened in April 18, 1987, is in its 29th year, led by actress Catherine Russell, who has played the role of a wealthy psychiatrist -- and potential killer of her husband -- over 11,800 times. Manzi, a 1980 graduate of the Yale School of Drama, wrote "Perfect Crime" in 1980, while working as Tim Curry's understudy as Mozart on Broadway in "Amadeus." He later directed plays by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. and Samm-Art Williams. "Perfect Crime" is at The Anne L. Bernstein Theater on Broadway at 50th Street.

-- From wire reports