James McCaffrey, the “Rescue Me” star and actor who introduced vigilante police detective Max Payne to life within the eponymous online game, has died. He was 65.
McCaffrey died Sunday at residence in Larchmont, N.Y., after being recognized with a number of myeloma — a most cancers that kinds in white blood cells — his expertise agent David Elliott confirmed Monday to The Instances.
The native of Albany, N.Y., was surrounded by household and buddies when he died. The Actor’s Studio-trained performer was billed by his agent as “one in all Dick Wolf’s proteges” after starring in 13 episodes of the famed producer’s 1996 crime thriller “Swift Justice.”
“[H]e by no means misplaced his love for creating characters; nonetheless, his attractiveness typically pushed him towards main man roles,” Elliott mentioned.
McCaffrey racked up dozens of TV and online game credit throughout his 35-year profession, together with many in legislation enforcement-related dramas and video games. He additionally starred in seven seasons of “Rescue Me” as firefighter and 9/11 sufferer Jimmy Keefe, haunting Dennis Leary’s Tommy Gavin throughout seven seasons of the acclaimed FX drama. McCaffrey advised Saratoga Dwelling in 2020 that enjoying the ghost was his favourite position.
He additionally performed a specialised driver within the short-lived Nineteen Nineties NBC drama “Viper” and extra lately appeared in two episodes of the CBS procedural “Blue Bloods” and three episodes of the USA Community drama “Fits.”
However one in all his most enduring roles stays that of the gruff Payne in each installment of the noir third-person shooter franchise that launched in 2001. Though he voiced the fictional agent in solely the primary two installments of the sport, he additionally supplied movement seize for the character within the third and remaining installment in 2012. McCaffrey labored on the large units of the Rockstar recreation that transplanted the New Yorker to Brazil. “Bringing that physicality into the character made issues movement extra naturally,” he advised VideoGamer in 2012. The work, he mentioned, was extra bodily demanding than he anticipated.
“I’m not a giant fan of video video games, and I by no means have been,” he famous in 2020. “The primary time I did ‘Max Payne,’ it was, like, six hours a day in a sound sales space, and it was about 400 pages of script. However, I’ve by no means seen it, I’ve by no means performed it, I’ve no want to. I lack the right appreciation for video video games.”
McCaffrey is survived by his spouse, actor Rochelle Boström, and daughter Tiernan McCaffrey.
