James Ransone’s Wife Posts Emotional Tribute After Actor’s Death by Suicide: “We Are Forever”

James Ransone’s wife posted an emotional tribute to her husband following his death by suicide.

The actor, known for roles in The Wire, Tangerine, Generation Kill, It: Chapter Two and The Black Phone, died Dec. 19 at age 46. Ransone died by suicide, according to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner.

His wife, Jamie — who was known as Skipper, according to a GoFundMe page set up to help the family — posted of photo of herself with Ransone on Instagram.

“I told you I have loved you 1000 times before and I know I will love you again,” his wife, Jamie, posted on Instagram. “You told me – I need to be more like you and you need to be more like me – and you were so right. Thank you for giving me the greatest gifts – you, Jack and Violet. We are forever.”

According to the GoFundMe page, Ransone was called PJ by his friends.

“James, who his friends called PJ, was funny, magnetic, brilliant, and endlessly alive. Above all else, he was an extraordinary father,” the page reads. “His wife, Jamie, known by her friends as Skipper, and their children, Jack and Violet, were the center of his world. They loved him infinitely, and he loved them just as fiercely in return. Their bond was deep, joyful, and unmistakable to anyone who witnessed it.”

Later, she shared another post, noting she took her kids to the park and the mall.

“For the first time in my life, it was clear that people recognized me. I heard someone behind me in the food court say, ‘ask her.’ But they didn’t. And thank you for not. I was with my kids,” she wrote. “I told a friend later, and she said, ‘It makes you realize you never really know what people are going through.’ And that’s true. Because in many moments we looked… happy. Normal. Laughing. Smiling. How? Not because we aren’t grieving. We are. But because I have two beautiful, incredible children who force me *daily* to see all the love and all the light that still exists inside of this.”

She then addressed her late husband, writing that “the outpouring of love for you is truly beyond anything you could ever imagine. But more than that this devestating loss has also given so many an unbelievable gift. I have been told countless stories. And there are probably a hundred thousand more I still haven’t heard of people reconnecting. Of friendships healing after years of silence. Of truths finally being spoken. Of old pain being brought into the light and somehow… softening. Sometimes almost instantly. I know this is real because I’ve done it myself in these past few days.

“In the weeks before you left us, after months of telling me nearly every regret you’d ever carried: every mistake, every fuck-up, every hurtful thing you thought you’d wrote or said, you burst into tears and said:
‘Babe, you know the most fucked-up thing of all?’ ‘I actually love everyone.’ Well babe, it turns out that despite all of it, everyone actually loves you too.”

After news of his death broke Sunday, several of Ransone’s co-stars, collaborators and friends took to social media to post their own tributes, including filmmakers Sean Baker, Larry Clark and Spike Lee. 

6:02 a.m. Dec. 23: Updated with Jamie Ransone’s second post about her husband.