Biography for
Maury Chaykin More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

27 July 1949, Brooklyn, New York, USA

Date of Death

27 July 2010, Toronto, Ontario, Canada (kidney trouble)

Birth Name

Maury Alan Chaykin

Height

6' 1" (1.85 m)

Mini Biography

The award-winning Canadian-American character actor Maury Chaykin was born on July 27, 1949 in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Professor Irving J. Chaykin and his wife Clarice. Irving Chaykin, an American citizen, taught accountancy at the City College of New York. The former Clarice Bloomfield, his mother, was born in Winnipeg, raised in Montreal, and educated at the Beth Israel Hospital nursing school in Newark, New Jersey. Because of his parents, Maury held dual Canadian and American citizenship.

He was raised in New York City but moved to Toronto after graduating from the State University of New York, Buffalo, where he studied drama. His uncle, George Bloomfield, made his name in Canada as a movie and television writer, director and producer. Maury would later star in two theatrical movies, one TV movie and 14 TV episodes directed by his uncle.

Maury made his debut in the 1975 Canadian film Me (1975). In his 35-year-long career, he appeared in over 150 parts in films and TV series shot in Canada and the U.S. He was bet known for his eccentric role as Kevin Costner's commanding officer in the Oscar-winning Dances with Wolves (1990), three films of Atom Egoyan, including The Sweet Hereafter (1997), and his role as Nero Wolfe on cable TV. (His uncle George Bloomfield directed some of the Nero Wolfe episodes.)

He won a Genie Award, the Canadian equivalent of the Oscar, as Best Supporting Actor for his performance as a has-been rock star in Whale Music (1994) and two Gemini Awards, the Canadian equivalent of the Emmy. Recently, he had a semi-recurring role as a movie producer based on Harvey Weinstein in the cable-TV series "Entourage" (2004) and a regular role on the Canadian TV series "Less Than Kind" (2008).

Chaykin was suffering from kidney disease in the last years of his life. He died on his 61st birthday, July 27, 2010, at Toronto General Hospital, surrounded by members of his family. He was married to the Canadian actress Susannah Hoffmann, by whom he had a daughter, Rose.

IMDb Mini Biography By: Jon C. Hopwood

Spouse

Ilana Frank	(? - 1993) (divorced)
Susannah Hoffmann	(? - 27 July 2010) (his death) 1 child

Trivia

Grew up in Brooklyn, New York.

Graduated from P.S. 197 on June 28, 1963.

Graduated from James Madison H.S. in June 1967.

His surname comes from the Russian word "Chayka" which means "Seagull."

His uncle is the director George Bloomfield.

He studied drama at the State University of New York in Buffalo which is now the University of Buffalo.

Was a founding member of Swampfox Theater, Buffalo NY 1968-?

After graduating from college, he moved to Toronto.

His daughter, with Susannah Hoffmann, is named Rose.

His mother, Clarice, was from Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada and raised in Montrea, Quebec, Canada and his father, Irving, was an American. He became a Canadian citizen and had dual citizenship with Canada and the United States.

Appeared in four movies with Diane Keaton: Mrs. Soffel (1984), Northern Lights (1997) (TV), Plan B (2001/I) and Crossed Over (2002) (TV), and appeared in her directorial debut Unstrung Heroes (1995).

He is survived by his brother, Dan Chaykin of Hoboken, New Jersey; his mother, Clarice Chaykin of Manhasset, Long Island, New York; his sister, Debra Chaykin Brandwein of Roslyn, Long Island, New York; his wife, Susannah Hoffmann, and their daughter, Rose Chaykin, both of Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Personal Quotes

[on the billboard for "The Golden Spiders"] There's an extraordinary billboard up on Sunset Boulevard right now, with a humongous photograph of my face. I drive by it constantly back and forth, back and forth.