Actor and master magician Ricky Jay has died. The New Yorker called Ricky Jay "the most gifted sleight of hand artist alive." Jay also acted in films and television, including Boogie Nights and Deadwood.
Steve Martin, with whom he appeared in “The Spanish Prisoner,” described Jay in the New Yorker profile, “I sort of think of Ricky as the intellectual élite of magicians. He’s expertly able to perform and yet he knows the theory, history, literature of the field.”
Neil Patrick Harris remembered Jay on Twitter: "Master magician and historian Ricky Jay has passed away. The breadth of his knowledge and appreciation for magic and the allied arts was truly remarkable. Such sad news, such a profound loss."
His manager says Ricky Jay died of natural causes in Los Angeles Saturday at the age of 72.
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