Enjoyed him in many flicks...
Posted on 11/29/2018 10:13:49 AM PST by Rummyfan
Here is Hollywood, where the young, the beautiful and the inspired come to live lives of disappointment marbled with betrayal.
They spin gold into flax, striving to placate the unworthy sufficiently so as, one day, to be admitted to their number. Who might be immune? Only a philosopher.
Ricky Jay came to Hollywood as an acolyte in 1972. He was 26 years old, and had been practicing magic since childhood. He was a world-class card manipulator and thought to be the youngest performer ever to play “The Ed Sullivan Show.”
He came to study with the masters of close-up. They were Dai Vernon and Charlie Miller. Close-up is card magic practiced, eye-to-eye, across a table.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Enjoyed him in many flicks...
I got his book “Cards as Weapons” when it came out in the mid-70s. Funny book and I learned a number of things. I’m out of practice, but I used to be pretty good at card manipulation, thanks to Ricky Jay.
I was sorry to hear of his passing. He always seemed like an interesting character.
Ricky Jay was one of those actors most people knew by face but probably could not name...at least I couldn’t. But when you saw him in a movie you know it would probably be entertaining. The movie Heist with Gene hackman stands out for me.
RIP MR. Jay
RIP.
“Everybody plays, everybody pays” — Jay in Mamet’s “House of Games”
House of Games is a great flick.
Ricky Jay turned in a memorable performance in one of my favorite movies.
It has to be over 50 years since I first saw Ricky Jay on an episode of “What’s My Line” where he threw cards like blades into a watermelon and cut a cigarette out of someone’s mouth.
I remember thinking his performance in "The Spanish Prisoner" was kind of odd; as if he were suffering from Asperger's. But the more I think about it, the more I think that character needed to be that way.
Just watched a very entertaining YouTube video of him at a poker table with friends amazing them with his card manipulation. He was not just a great magician, but a great entertainer with a warmth and wit that few could match.
Ricky Jay Plays Poker
RIP Ricky. The greatest magician I ever saw.
Movies he made with Mamet, especially Heist and House of Games, are among a very short list of my favorites.
Great film. I did not know David Mamet wrote it. He’s a kick ass writer.
ping
I used to hang with Rick Potash (his name then) back in the early seventies, before he went to LA. We spent a lot of time playing pool along with Stanley Chow, Mike Cooper and Cecily Dexter. Rick was relentless at billiards, beating all comers on the 9 foot tables. Little known, but he was a Jujutsu devotee and he could disarm anyone of their billiard cue, lol. No kidding.
He wrote and directed it. It was his first film (as a director).
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