Ricky Jay was an incredible character actor — an incredible magician, as this New Yorker profile recounts — and a favorite of Paul Thomas Anderson, also appearing in "Boogie Nights." He had exactly the right combination of showmanship and whimsy for his dual role in "Magnolia," where he plays both Burt Ramsey — Jimmy Gator's colleague and confidant — and the Narrator.
Jay did a lot of excellent work after "Magnolia" — much of it around his deceptively warm, commanding voice, taking on narrating gigs in films like "The Brothers Bloom" and TV series like "Teen Titans Go!" Ricky Jay was a favorite of David Mamet, masterfully executing his iambic pentameter dialogue in films like "House of Games," "The Spanish Prisoner," State and Main," "Redbelt," and "Heist." It's important to note that he did all this while serving for decades as the go-to Hollywood expert on magic, gambling, sleight-of-hand and con games — his one-man shows "Ricky Jay and his 52 Assistants," "Ricky Jay: On the Stem" and "Ricky Jay: A Rogue's Gallery" played to awestruck crowds, while he served as a consultant on everything from "The Prestige" and "Ocean's Thirteen" to "The Great Buck Howard" and "Sneakers." he also held the Guinness World Record for throwing a playing card at 90 miles per hour, and his card-throwing prowess never failed to impress.
As card-dealer Eddie Sawyer on "Deadwood," he mastered a combination of a charm, shadiness, weakness, and humanity, all traits that made him a good foil for his boss. He also filmed eight episodes of the clever crime drama "Sneaky Pete," playing T.H. Vignetti, making up part of an intriguing arc, before his death in 2018. Like all great performers, he left the audience wanting more.
