Robert Chew, actor on 'The Wire,' dies

BALTIMORE -- Robert Chew, who played Proposition Joe on the HBO series "The Wire," has died. He was 52.

His sister, Clarice Chew, said he suffered a heart attack and died at his Baltimore home Thursday.

Robert Chew grew up in Baltimore and studied music at Morgan State University for two years.

The character Prop Joe was a highly intelligent and ruthless yet polite and diplomatic Baltimore drug lord. Another sister, Maureen Brown, said strangers would approach Chew on the street in Baltimore and tell him what a great job he did in the role. He also appeared in TV shows "The Corner" and "Homicide: Life on the Street" and the 2004 TV movie "Something the Lord Made."-- AP