Sully Boyar

Irving "Sully" Boyar (December 14, 1923 – March 23, 2001) was an American character actor of Russian-Jewish descent who worked across stage, film, and television. He was born and raised in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, one of seven children, and had a twin brother named Samuel. Several of his siblings went on to careers in law and business. Boyar himself initially pursued law before redirecting his professional life toward acting.

Boyar built his early theatrical foundation through off-Broadway and experimental productions, among them work with the Judson Poets Theater. He became a life member of the Actors Studio and went on to appear on Broadway in 1977 in The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel. His stage work ran alongside a substantial screen career that spanned three decades.

On film, Boyar accumulated credits beginning in the early 1970s, appearing in The Panic in Needle Park (1971), The King of Marvin Gardens (1972), The Gambler (1974), and Car Wash (1976). His most prominent film role came in Sidney Lumet's Dog Day Afternoon (1975), in which he played bank manager Mulvaney opposite Al Pacino. Subsequent film appearances included Oliver's Story (1978), Night of the Juggler (1980), The Jazz Singer (1980), Fort Apache, The Bronx (1981), The Entity (1982), Too Scared to Scream (1985), Prizzi's Honor (1985), Best Seller (1987), The Lemon Sisters (1989), Betsy's Wedding (1990), In the Soup (1992), and Just the Ticket (1999).

His television work was equally consistent. He portrayed Tom Feeney in the 1977 television movie The Deadliest Season and played Judge Maurice Sanderling in the CBS series The Equalizer during the 1980s. He appeared four times across the first four seasons of Law & Order, three of those appearances as Judge Harvey Sirkin in a cameo capacity. His final television credit came in 2001 on The Sopranos, where he guest starred as Dr. Krakower, a psychiatrist who consults with Carmela Soprano.

Boyar died of a heart attack on March 23, 2001, at the age of 77, while waiting for a bus in Whitestone, Queens.