Ghostbusters Actor David Margulies Dead at 78

David Margulies, a prolific character actor of stage and screen, died Jan. 11 after a long illness. He was 78.

He was best known for his role as Mayor Lenny Clotch in the Ghostbusters movies, where he delivered the classic line, "Being miserable and treating people like dirt is every New Yorker's God-given right."

Margulies was a quintessential New York actor who appeared on The Sopranos, NYPD Blue, The Good Wife, and four episodes of Law & Order, among many other shows. Other film credits include Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, A Most Violent Year, and Brighton Beach Memoirs. He recently completed filming a role as Nobel Prize-winning author Elie Wiesel in the upcoming ABC miniseries Madoff.

His longest and most prolific career was as a Broadway and Off Broadway actor, starting in the 1950s. His Broadway debut came in 1973 in Eugene O'Neill'sThe Iceman Cometh. He played Roy Cohn during Angels in America's original Broadway run.

Margulies was born in Brooklyn in 1937. He lived in Manhattan.

Our condolences to the Margulies family.