Dan Ziskie, a prolific TV character actor whose abundant credits stretch from 1980 episodes of The Edge of Night to central roles on HBO’s Treme and Netflix’s House of Cards, died July 21 in New York of arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease, his family announced. He was 80.
“Dan was a man of remarkable talent and a keen observer of life,” the family wrote. “He was as vibrant and multifaceted as the characters he portrayed on stage and screen.”
Born August 13, 1944, in Detroit, Michigan, Ziskie in college at the University of Michigan focused on athletics and the arts, and after graduation he sought out Chicago’s Second City comedy club, which he joined and worked with some of the most creative performers of the era.
The Second City training would hold him in good stead during a career that included the stage, film and television. He made his Broadway debut as an understudy in 1980’s Morning’s at Seven starring Nancy Marchand, Maureen O’Sullivan and Elizabeth Wilson. In 1985 he joined the Broadway cast of I’m Not Rappaport starring Judd Hirsch, and in 2004 appeared in After The Fall starring Peter Krause, Carla Gugino and Jessica Hecht.
On television, Ziskie was a familiar face to anyone who watched the hundreds of series in which he made many appearances over his four-decade-plus career. Just a sampling: American Playhouse, Paper Dolls, O.C. and Stiggs, Remington Steele, Newhart, The Equalizer, Highway To Heave, St. Elsewhere, Murphy Brown, L.A. Law, Quantum Leap, The Practice, ER, Sex and the City, The West Wing, Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, Chappelle’s Show, NCIS, The Blacklist, Blue Bloods and Bull.
Most if not all of those credits – and many more – were the single-episodes appearances of the true journeyman actor, but there were longer, more prominent stops along the way. In 2011 he began a three-season, 18-episode arc on Treme, appearing as C.J. Liquori, a New Orleans construction magnate and political fundraiser who often worked alongside Jon Seda’s Nelson Hildalgo as they sought to profit off the rebuilding of the Katrina-devastated city.
After his storyline resolved during the 2013 season, Ziskie was cast as Vice President Jim Mathews on House of Cards. Over two seasons he recurred in six episodes.
Film credits include 1987’s Adventures in Babysitting (he played the dad) and 1989’s Troop Beverly Hills, among others.
Ziskie was also a dedicated and busy photographer, and in 2017 his first monograph of photos, called Cloud Chamber, was published.
He is survived by brother David, sister-in-law Cynthia, nephews Jesse, Brett, and Austin, and other extended family.
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