Maury Chaykin – the Canadian character actor best known for playing Rex Stout’s irascible, housebound detective genius, Nero Wolfe for two seasons [back when A&E stood for Arts & Entertainment] – has died after battling kidney problems. He was 61.
Chaykin appeared in over one hundred and fifty movies and episodes of television, racking up credits on cult hits like Overdrawn at the Memory Bank, the Canadian TV series Seeing Things and Night Heat; indie films like Whale Music, The Piano and Hostage; hit TV series like CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Eureka [as Sheriff Carter’s predecessor, no less] and Entourage, and hit movies like Dances With Wolves.
In Nero Wolfe, though, Chaykin found his signature role, playing the quarter-ton sleuth with even more eccentricities than weight problems. The gourmet, agoraphobic, curmudgeonly detective has been played by a number of different actors [Thayer David and William Conrad among them], but Chaykin made the impossible to live with – or work with – character not only real, but relatable. The series only ran for twenty-seven episodes before its budget became too much for A&E to sustain, but Chaykin’s Wolfe remains the definitive version.