Dan Ziskie, the character actor known for his work on dramas like Treme and House of Cards as well as comedies like Chappelle’s Show, died July 21 in New York City. He was 80.
The cause was arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease, according to a death notice.
Born in Detroit 1944 in, Ziskie was a track and field athlete at the University of Michigan, where he studied English. He worked as a crewman on a freighter on the Great Lakes and as a journalist before joining the Second City comedy troupe in Chicago, where he performed alongside the likes of John Belushi, Brian Doyle-Murray, and Joe Flaherty.
Patrick Harbron/Netflix
Dan Ziskie on ‘House of Cards’
After finding success performing in Chicago, Ziskie moved to New York and made his Broadway debut as an understudy in Morning’s at Seven in 1980. He acted opposite Judd Hirsch in the play I’m Not Rappaport in 1985.
After appearing in several minor TV roles in the early 1980s, Ziskie began booking bigger projects in 1985, when he appeared in films like The Man with One Red Shoe opposite Tom Hanks, Twisted opposite Christian Slater, and Robert Altman’s O.C. and Stiggs. Over the next several years, he appeared in single episodes of shows like Remington Steele, St. Elsewhere, The Equalizer, Newhart, and Murphy Brown. He also played supporting roles in the comedy films Adventures in Babysitting and Troop Beverly Hills.
In the 1990s, Ziskie acted on shows such as Quantum Leap, Law & Order, Ghostwriter, ER, and DEA, primarily portraying politicians and military figures. He also appeared in The Jackal, which starred Bruce Willis and Richard Gere.
Ziskie continued with similar roles in the 2000s, playing authority figures in movies like Thirteen Days starring Kevin Costner, Bad Company with Anthony Hopkins and Chris Rock, and Eight Below featuring Paul Walker. On the small screen, he played judges, doctors, law enforcement officers, and more military personnel on series like Sex and the City, 24, NCIS, and Ugly Betty. He also played small roles in Steven Spielberg’s War of the Worlds and Charlie Kaufman’s Synecdoche, New York.
Perhaps Ziskie’s most memorable performance of the aughts came from a provocative sketch on Chappelle’s Show in 2004, which saw the actor play the patriarch of a white family whose surname is a homophone of a racial slur.
Ziskie’s most prominent roles arrived in the last decade of his career. He portrayed construction magnate C.J. Liquori in 18 episodes of HBO’s Treme, and played the vice president of the United States in six episodes of House of Cards. He also appeared in three episodes of the Oscar Isaac–starring miniseries Show Me a Hero; acted in five eps of Zero Hour; and guested on shows like The Blacklist, Blue Bloods, The Good Wife, and Madam Secretary.
Comedy Central
Dan Ziskie on ‘Chappelle’s Show’
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Ziskie was also an accomplished photographer. He released Cloud Chamber, a book collecting his portraits of everyday New Yorkers, in 2017, and saw his work featured in The New York Times, The Guardian, the Financial Times, and more.
Ziskie is survived by his brother David, his sister-in-law Cynthia, and their three children, as well as other extended family.
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