Charles Cioffi Dies: ‘Klute’, ‘Shaft’, ‘All The Right Moves’ Actor Was 90
He was not on the list.
Charles Cioffi, a prolific character actor in TV, film and the Broadway stage perhaps best known for memorable turns as Tom Cruise’s blue-collar dad in All the Right Moves and a sadistic killer stalking Jane Fonda in Klute, died May 22 of natural causes at his home in Marina del Rey, California. He was 90.
His death was announced by family and first reported by TMZ.
Born on October 31, 1935, in New York City, Cioffi launched his show business career on the stage of the the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis in the early 1960s. He’d make his Broadway debut later that decade in a 1968 production of King Lear starring Lee J. Cobb. In all, he’d perform in seven Broadway shows, including the original 1969 production of 1776; a 1975 production of Hamlet with Sam Waterston in the title role and Jane Alexander as Gertrude; and, in his final Broadway credit, the 1992 two-hander Chinese Coffee with Al Pacino.
He began a busy, decades-long career in television with a
role on the 1969 CBS soap Where the Heart Is and, in 1971, found an early
signature role as Lt. Vic Androzzi in the feature Shaft.
That same year, in what was his film debut, he appeared in the hit thriller Klute, starring Fonda as New York City prostitute Bree Daniels and Donald Sutherland as the amateur sleuth John Klute investigating the disappearance of a businessman who also might have been one of Bree’s clients. Cioffi played an executive at the company where the missing man worked, hiring Klute to trail Fonda’s character and solve what appears to be a murder. In the film’s climactic scene, Cioffi’s character, revealed as the killer, attempts to murder Bree before dying by suicide in a dramatic plunge from a skyscraper. (In one haunting scene, Cioffi sits in his penthouse New York office, with the World Trade Center towers being constructed just outside his window).
Numerous TV roles followed, including episodes of Bonanza, The Bold Ones, The FBI, a recurring role on Get Christie Love!, Cannon, Medical Center, Kojak, Wonder Woman, The Six Million Dollar Man, Little House on the Prairie, Hawaii Five-0, Lou Grant, Taxi, St. Elsewhere, The Equalizer, Thirtysomething, The X-Files, Law & Order, The Practice and the daytime soaps Ryan’s Hope, Days of Our Lives, All My Children and Another World, among others.
Other film credits include 1979’s Time After Time, 1982’s Missing and 1992’s Newsies.
Cioffi is survived by wife Anne, two sons and other extended
family, according to TMZ.
Filmography
Film
Year Title Role Notes
1971 Klute Peter Cable
Shaft Vic Androzzi
1973 The Thief Who
Came to Dinner Henderling
Lucky Luciano Vito
Genovese
The Don Is Dead Luigi
Orlando
1974 Crazy Joe Coletti
1976 The Next Man Fouad
1977 The Other Side
of Midnight Chotas
The Accuser Mac
Ganter
1978 Gray Lady Down Admiral Barnes
1979 Time After Time Lt. Mitchell
1982 Missing Captain Ray Tower
1983 All the Right
Moves Pop
1984 Terror in the
Aisles Peter Cable Archival footage
1985 Remo Williams:
The Adventure Begins George Grove
1992 Newsies Seitz
Used People Paolo
1997 Shadow
Conspiracy General Blackburn
2001 Amy's Orgasm Amy's Dad
Television
This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing
items. (April 2025)
Charles Cioffi television credits
Year Title Role Notes
1972 Bonanza Dr. Shanklin 1 episode
1974 Hawaii Five-O Dean Lyman Episode:
"Right Grave, Wrong Body"
1977 Just a Little
Inconvenience Major Bloom TV movie
1977 ”Kojak” Arnie Brace Episode: The Queen of Hearts Is Wild
1977 The New
Adventures of Wonder Woman Raymond
Manta Episode: "The Bermuda
Triangle Crisis"
1977 Hawaii Five-O Jack Fabian Episode:
"Head to Head"
1979 Little House on
the Prairie Bret Harper Episode: "Someone Please Love Me"
1979 Hawaii Five-O Norman Klane Episode:
"The Skyline Killer"
1986–1987 The
Equalizer Lieutenant Kramer
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