American
magician and actor Ricky Jay has died of natural causes in Los Angeles, his
manager has confirmed.
A 1993
profile of Jay in the New Yorker described him as "perhaps the most gifted
sleight-of-hand artist alive", able to baffle even fellow magicians with
his skills.
The
performer also appeared in films like Boogie Nights, Magnolia and Tomorrow
Never Dies.
Tributes
have already begun to flood in from fellow magicians and actors.
Penn
Jilette, of magic duo Penn & Teller, described him as "one of the best
who ever lived", while How I Met Your Mother star Neil Patrick Harris
called his death a "profound loss".
Born Richard
Jay Potash in Brooklyn, Jay did not publicly discuss his childhood, and his
date of birth is not exactly known, ranging from 1946 to 1948.
He
reportedly first performed in public at the age of four, and played a number of
comedy clubs and nightclubs - thought to be one of the first magicians to do
so.
Jay was also
well known for his card throwing ability. In shows, he was able to throw cards
into the rind of a watermelon from 10 paces.
Guinness
World Records once reportedly listed Jay as throwing a playing card 190ft (58m)
at 90mph (145km/h).
Jay acted in
several major Hollywood films.
In 1997, he
played terrorist Henry Gupta in Tomorrow Never Dies, and appeared in director
Paul Thomas Anderson's film Boogie Nights. Jay also narrated parts of Anderson's
1999 work, Magnolia.
More
recently, he played Eddie Sawyer in season one of the television programme
Deadwood. He wrote the episode Jewel's Boot Is Made for Walking for the show.
He also
worked as a consultant in Hollywood. He and collaborator Michael Weber founded
the firm Deceptive Practices in the early 1990s to advise film and television
productions on "arcane knowledge", and helped out on films like
Forrest Gump, Congo, The Prestige and The Illusionist.
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