Stringer Bell
Russell "Stringer" Bell is a fictional character on the HBO drama The Wire, played by British actor Idris Elba. Bell served as drug kingpin Avon Barksdale's second-in-command, assuming direct control of the Barksdale Organization during Avon's imprisonment. Bell attends economics classes at Baltimore City Community College and maintains a personal library, including a copy of Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations. He attempts to legitimize the Barksdale Organization and insulate himself from direct criminality through money laundering and investments in housing development, aided through his buying of influence from politicians.
Biography
The Stringer Bell character is imagined to have been born September 17, 1969, and, like fellow characters Avon Barksdale and Wee-Bey Brice to have grown up in the West Baltimore projects where these three are described as having been childhood friends.
Season one
Stringer is first seen attending the trial of Avon's nephew and lieutenant, D'Angelo Barksdale, for the murder of rival drug dealer "Pooh" Blanchard. Avon has tasked Stringer with ensuring that D'Angelo is acquitted. To this end, Stringer has enforcers Roland "Wee-Bey" Brice, Anton "Stinkum" Artis, and Savino intimidate and bribe witnesses over the course of the trial. When D'Angelo is released, Avon has Stringer demote him to running the operation in the low-rise projects known as "the pit."
