Collaboratively responsible for some of the truest grit of the past twenty years of television, the centerpiece of which could arguably be The Wire, sitting next on the shelf to NYPB Blue, where he worked with mainstream avant-gardist David Milch (Deadwood), and The Corner (winning two Emmys for his work on the show), where he first collaborated with David Simon before moving on to The Wire.

Mills died at the age of 48 of a brain aneurism in New Orleans as he was working on Treme, a new drama he was developing with David Simon about New Orleans’ music, culture, and the struggle of post-Katrina life.

From HBO’s statement:

“He was rushed to the downtown Tulane Medical Center where he died without regaining consciousness. Doctors there said he suffered what appeared to be a brain aneurism. Mills was on the film set as a writer and executive producer, monitoring filming of an episode of the series, which is slated to premiere on HBO in little more than a week.

Mills won two Emmy awards for television writing and was nominated for three other Emmys for his writing on “NYPD Blue” and “E.R.” As a newspaperman, his coverage of race and popular culture for the Style Section of the Washington Post in the 1990s was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize by the newspaper.”

Ken Tucker, writing for Entertainment Weekly, mentions Mills’ Parliament fanzine and encyclopedic funk brain: “I knew Mills slightly, mostly via e-mail and a mutual love for all things George Clinton and funk music. Before he became an important TV writer, Mills and some friends put out a newsletter called Uncut Funk that celebrated Clinton and P-Funk in all its forms. I’m proud to say Mills allowed me to contribute an entry or two to this enterprise. David was an endless source of funk knowledge and deep trivia.”

A clip from The Corner: