James Colby

James Leo Colby (September 20, 1961 – February 23, 2018) was an American actor whose work spanned stage, film, and television over several decades. Born in Arlington, Massachusetts, he studied at Bridgewater State University and Brooklyn College before relocating to Manhattan in the 1980s to pursue a career in the theater.

Colby's Broadway career extended from 1992 to 2017 and included two notable productions. He appeared in the 1992 Broadway staging of Hamlet and originated the role of Stan in Lynn Nottage's Sweat during its Off-Broadway run at The Public Theater in 2016, subsequently reprising the role when the Pulitzer Prize-winning play transferred to Broadway. Beyond Broadway, he performed extensively at Off-Broadway institutions including the Roundabout Theatre Company, Manhattan Theatre Club, Playwrights Horizons, New York Theatre Workshop, Westside Theatre, and Symphony Space. His Off-Broadway stage credits include Blade to the Heat (1994), The Food Chain (1995), The Devils (1997), The Butterfly Collection (2000), The Day Emily Married (2004), and Dividing the Estate (2007). He also maintained a long association with Hartford Stage, where his productions included Tennessee Williams's A Streetcar Named Desire, Camino Real, The Night of the Iguana, and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. He additionally appeared in stage productions in Connecticut.

On screen, Colby accumulated a substantial list of film credits, among them The Peacemaker (1997), Tower Heist (2011), Safe (2012), The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014), and Patriots Day (2016), in which he portrayed William B. Evans of the Boston Police Department alongside Mark Wahlberg. Additional film appearances included Demolition, Solitary Man, The Company Men, The Opponent, and Gotham, where he played Lieutenant Bill Cranston in 2014. In television, he appeared in Chicago P.D. as Sergeant Ray Dwyer and in Empire as Burleson, a role he held from 2017 to 2018. He also starred as Ed Manion in the 2016 miniseries Madoff and appeared in Tell Me a Story as FBI SWAT Jackson in season two. His other television credits included Taxi Brooklyn, Law & Order, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Limitless, Jessica Jones, Blue Bloods, Deception, and The Blacklist. His final screen appearance was in Season 2, Episode 11 of the television series Taken.

Colby met his wife, actress Alyssa Bresnahan, during a 1998 production of A Streetcar Named Desire at Hartford Stage, in which he played Stanley opposite her Stella. The two married in December 2008 and had one daughter together. Colby died on February 23, 2018, in New York City at the age of 56.