Maury Chaykin was a renowned Canadian-American character actor born on July 27, 1949, in Brooklyn, New York, to Professor Irving J. Chaykin and his wife Clarice.
Irving Chaykin, a naturalized American citizen, taught accountancy at the City College of New York, while Clarice Bloomfield, Maury's mother, was born in Winnipeg, raised in Montreal, and educated at the Beth Israel Hospital nursing school in Newark, New Jersey.
As a result of his parents' dual citizenship, Maury held dual Canadian and American citizenship.
Maury 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, was a notable figure in Canada as a movie and television writer, director, and producer.
Maury made his film debut in the 1975 Canadian film Me (1975) and went on to appear in over 150 parts in films and TV series shot in Canada and the U.S.
He was best known for his eccentric role as Kevin Costner's commanding officer in the Oscar-winning Dances with Wolves (1990),as well as his roles in three films by Atom Egoyan, including The Sweet Hereafter (1997),and his portrayal of Nero Wolfe on cable TV.
Maury won a Genie Award as Best Supporting Actor for his performance as a has-been rock star in Whale Music (1994) and two Gemini Awards.
In his later years, 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).
Maury was married to the Canadian actress Susannah Hoffmann, with whom he had a daughter, Rose.
Sadly, Maury was suffering from kidney disease in the last years of his life and passed away on his 61st birthday, July 27, 2010, at Toronto General Hospital, surrounded by his family.
