Bruce MacVittie, ‘The Sopranos’ and ‘Blue Bloods’ Alum, Dead at 65

Bruce MacVittie, a popular New York character actor, died on May 7. He was 65. MacVittie appeared in episodes of Bull, The Neighbourhood, Manifest, The Deuce, three Law & Order shows, and Blue Bloods. His best-known television role was Danny Scalercio on The Sopranos.

The actor‘s wife, Carol Ochs, told The New York Times on Thursday he died in a Manhattan hospital. She said his cause of death has not been determined. In addition to Ochs, he is survived by his daughter, Sophia Olivia Ochs MacVittie.

I met Bruce MacVittie more than forty years ago. We worked and played together repeatedly, as actors, and as friends, throughout the ensuing decades.

Overshadowing his illustrious career, for me, were… https://t.co/e9DjRYObz9

— Evan Handler (@EvanHandler) May 12, 2022

“I loved Bruce MacVittie,” Al Pacino, who acted alongside MacVittie in the 1983 Broadway production of David Mamet’s American Buffalo, told the Times. “His performances were always glistening and crackling; a heart and a joy to watch. He was the embodiment of the struggling actor in New York City, and he made it work. We will miss him.”

MacVittie was beloved for playing tormented characters with street smarts, but he was also respected among actors. In the mid-1980s, he co-founded Naked Angels, a troupe of young actors that included Marisa Tomei and Matthew Broderick. Edie Falco told the Times Naked Angels was a “club that was too cool” for her to join. “Bruce and I traveled through our actor travails together. We were young together and got less young together,” she said.

MacVittie was born in Providence, Rhode Island on Oct. 14, 1956, and grew up in Cranston. After earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Boston University, he moved to New York City to begin his acting career at Ensemble Studio Theater in 1980. He served as Pacino’s understudy for American Buffalo and starred in the national tour and the London production.

MacVittie made his television debut in an episode of Barney Miller in 1981 and would go on to have a small part in Francis Ford Coppola’s The Coton Club. He quickly became an in-demand character actor for one-episode TV roles. He starred in seven Law & Order episodes between 1991 and 2006, playing different roles in each episode. He also appeared in two Law & Order: Criminal Intent episodes and two Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episodes, never playing the same character twice.

In 2002, he had a recurring role in The Sopranos Season 4 as Danny Scalercio. His more recent credits include When They See Us, A Christmas Wish, Manifest, The Deuce, Chicago Med, Call Jane, and Bull. In 2018, he appeared in the Blue Bloods episode “Second Chances.”