Ricky Jay

Ricky Jay (born 1948, Brooklyn, New York, U.S.—died November 24, 2018, Los Angeles, California) was an American magician, actor, author, and historian, widely regarded as the most gifted sleight-of-hand artist of his generation.

(Read Harry Houdini’s 1926 Britannica essay on magic.)

He made his performing debut at age four during a backyard barbecue held by his grandfather Max Katz, then the president of the Society of American Magicians. By age seven, Jay was appearing on local television shows in New York City. After apprenticing with Los Angeles-based magicians Dai Vernon and Charlie Miller in the early 1970s, he worked as an opening act for such prominent performers as comedians Cheech and Chong and singer Tina Turner, quickly moving up the professional ladder to become a headliner in his own right, achieving his greatest fame as a card manipulator.

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Generally disdaining what he regarded as “overelaborate theater,” Jay preferred to work intimately and with a minimum of props, never allowing his talents to be dwarfed by ostentatious stage effects. He also strove to overcome the “children’s entertainer” onus so often attached to magicians, insisting that no one under age 17 be admitted to his performances. In 1992 he launched his one-man show Ricky Jay and His 52 Assistants, which played for several years in New York City and on tour, winning numerous awards in the process. The production was directed by playwright and film director David Mamet, who also cast Jay in prominent character roles, usually shady or sinister in nature, in motion pictures such as House of Games (1987), The Spanish Prisoner (1997), and The Heist (2001). Jay’s other acting credits included a recurring role on the television western Deadwood in 2004 and the films The Great Buck Howard and The Brothers Bloom (both 2008).

Jay wrote several books and articles on the subject of professional entertainment. His best-known literary efforts included Cards as Weapons (1977) and an affectionate study of “unique, eccentric and amazing entertainers” titled Learned Pigs and Fireproof Women (1986). He served as a technical adviser on such films as The Escape Artist (1982) and Forrest Gump (1994), for which he provided the special wheelchair that enabled actor Gary Sinise to portray a double amputee, as well as The Illusionist and The Prestige (both 2006), in the latter of which he also had a small acting role. He was the subject of the documentary Deceptive Practice: The Mysteries and Mentors of Ricky Jay (2013).