Character actor Maury Chaykin died 27 July 2010 (his 61st birthday) of complications from a heart valve infection. Born in Brooklyn, New York, he immigrated to Canada after graduating from the State University of New York at Buffalo (his father was from the States, his mother from Canada), and had dual US-Canadian citizenship. In announcing his death, The New York Times said he “specialized in comic roles with disturbing undertones and disturbing roles with comic undertones.”
Among his best-known roles were Major Fambrough in Kevin Costner’s Dances with Wolves (1990), the witness talking about preparing grits in My Cousin Vinny (1992), and Harvey Weingard in the HBO series Entourage. A character and supporting actor in the US, he earned leading roles in Canada, including the Canadian tv series Less than Kind.
His genre roles include: Glitch (2008), The Grift (2008), Superstorm (2007), Eureka (2006), two episodes of Stargate SG-1 (2005 and 2006), Andromeda (2003), two episodes of Jacob Two Two Meets the Hooded Fang (1999), Lexx (1999), PSI Factor (1998), A Life Less Ordinary (1997), Josh and S.A.M. (1993), Mr. Destiny (1990), Millennium (1989), The Twilight Zone (1989), The Vindicator (1986), Def-Con 4 (1985), Overdrawn at the Memory Bank (1983), Of Unknown Origin (1983), and Curtains (1983).
He is survived by this third wife, actress Susannah Hoffmann, a daughter, a sister, a brother, and his mother.