James McCaffrey, ‘Rescue Me’ and ‘Max Payne’ Actor, Dies at 65
Max Payne #MaxPayne
James McCaffrey, who portrayed the firefighter and 9/11 victim Jimmy Keefe on Rescue Me and provided the voice of the title character in Max Payne video games, has died. He was 65.
McCaffrey died Sunday at his home in Larchmont, New York, after a battle with myeloma, his wife, actress Rochelle Boström, told The Hollywood Reporter.
McCaffrey also starred in the 1990s as expert driver Michael Payton/Joe Astor on the first and fourth seasons of the NBC drama Viper and as Capt. Arthur O’Byrne on the Fox crime series New York Undercover.
McCaffrey’s Jimmy was killed on 9/11, and his vision hounded friend and fellow New York firefighter Tommy Gavin (Denis Leary) over all seven seasons (2004-11) of the acclaimed FX drama Rescue Me. He said it was his favorite role.
He voiced Max Payne — the avenging former NYPD officer turned DEA agent whose wife and daughter were murdered by junkies — in video game installments released in 2001, 2003, 2008 and 2012.
“I’m not a big fan of video games, and I never have been,” he said in a 2020 interview. “The first time I did Max Payne, it was, like, six hours a day in a sound booth, and it was about 400 pages of script. But, I’ve never seen it, I’ve never played it, I have no desire to. I lack the proper appreciation for video games.”
Still, he also voiced FBI agent Alex Casey in Alan Wake video games in 2010 and this year.
Raised in Albany, New York, McCaffrey was a member of The Actors Studio since 1987 and started his own theater company, The Workhouse Theatre, in Tribeca.
The veteran actor also showed up on episodes of Civil Wars; Dick Wolf’s Swift Justice, Law & Order: Criminal Intent and SVU; As the World Turns; Madam Secretary; Bull; Jessica Jones; She’s Gotta Have It; and Blue Bloods and in such films as The Truth About Cats & Dogs (1996), Nick & Jane (1997), The Tic Code (1998), American Splendor (2003) and She Hate Me (2004).
In addition to his wife — they worked together on Viper and on the stage — survivors include their daughter, Tiarnan.