Michael Clancy, who served as the longtime costume designer on the hit TV series Blue Bloods as well as several James Gray movies, has died. His passing was announced July 29 on Instagram by his friend and fellow costume designer, Naomi Wolff Lachter.
Clancy got his start on the Disney Channel series Avonlea before making the jump to features in 1993 with Ang Lee‘s The Wedding Banquet and Abel Ferrara‘s Body Snatchers. The following year, Clancy worked with James Gray on the latter’s directorial debut Little Odessa. They would work together again on The Yards, We Own the Night and Two Lovers.
Clancy’s other feature credits include the box office smash My Big Fat Greek Wedding, the indie comedies The Wackness starring Ben Kingsley and Party Girl starring Parker Posey, and the indie dramas All Good Things starring Ryan Gosling and Blood Ties starring Clive Owen.
Clancy was particularly proud of his work on Party Girl, where he met a young actor by the name of Liev Schreiber. When it came time for Schreiber to make his own directorial debut with 2005’s Everything Is Illuminated, he called upon Clancy’s skills. Clancy would reunite with Schreiber more than a decade later on Season 6 of the actor’s hit Showtime series Ray Donovan.
Clancy was born in Ireland and grew up in Kenya before moving to Toronto as a teen, though he spent his later years living in New York and London. His friend Wolff Lachter, who worked with him on the 2010 series Running Wilde, remembered him as “a true original, a brilliant artist, [and] a treasured friend.”
Below the Line will update Clancy’s obituary should more information become available.
