Sleight Of Hand Expert Richard Jay Potash AKA ‘Ricky Jay’ Dead In Los Angeles At 72

LOS ANGELES, CA. (THECOUNT) — Sleight of hand expert, Ricky Jay, who also appeared in films including “Boogie Nights” and “Magnolia,” has died, according to Variety. He was 72.

The famed sleight-of-hand artist died of natural causes on Saturday in Los Angeles, the entertainment outlet has reported.

Ricky Jay was born in 1948 in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA as Richard Jay Potash. He is known for his work on Magnolia (1999), Boogie Nights (1997) and Tomorrow Never Dies (1997). He is married to Chrisann Verges.

He was frequently cast in ‘David Mamet’ and Paul Thomas Anderson movies.

Trivia:

Famous for his astounding ability to throw playing cards, and is listed in the Guiness Book of World Records for throwing a playing card a hundred and ninety feet at ninety miles an hour. From ten paces he can throw a playing card into the flesh of a watermelon.

Serious scholar of unusual performances and the author of ‘Learned Pigs & Fireproof Women’ which chronicles the bizarre performers found in circuses, sideshows, and other odd places – a copy of which appears prominently amongst Stanley’s volumes on a table in Magnolia (1999). Also the author of ‘Extraordinary Exhibitions’, ‘Dice: Deception, Fate & Rotten Luck’, ‘Jay’s Journal of Anomalies’, and ‘Cards as Weapons’.

He is noted as one of magic’s expert card technicians. He was the curator of the Mulholland Library of Conjuring and the Allied Arts.

Sleight of hand expert.

Frequently casts into David Mamet’s movies.

In 2005, the Christine Burgin Gallery in Manhattan hosted an exhibit of his “extensive collection of material related to the history of deception” — particularly his collection of “spirit” photographs. In conjunction with the exhibit at the Burgin Gallery, he also gave a talk at the Metropolitan Museum of Art called “Sleight and Shadow.”. source

With Michael Weber, Ricky Jay runs a consulting firm called Deceptive Practices that advises movie, TV, and theater directors on various illusions, magic secrets, and con artistry techniques that may be needed during their productions.