Rio Hackford, a club owner and actor known for roles in The Mandalorian and American Crime Story, has died. He was 51. Hackford died April 14 in Huntington Beach, California, after an undisclosed illness, his brother Alex Hackford told Variety. The son of An Officer and a Gentleman director Taylor Hackford and the stepson of Helen Mirren, Hackford’s acting career started with an uncredited appearance in Pretty Woman in 1990. He owned several bars and clubs, including Los Angeles’ Monty, San Francisco’s Homestead, and Pal’s Lounge and One-Eyed Jacks in New Orleans.
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Hackford most recently appeared as a manager on an episode of Pam & Tommy and was the on-set performance artist for IG-11, the fan-favorite assassin droid voiced by Taika Waititi, in the first season of hit Star Wars series The Mandalorian. He also made a cameo as the bounty hunter Riot Mar that same season.
“El Rio,” Mirren captioned a photo of Hackford published on Instagram. Screenwriter D.V. DeVincentis, who wrote Lay the Favorite and an episode of American Crime Story: The People v O.J. Simpson in which Hackford appeared, remembered his friend with a tribute posted to Instagram.
“Rio was more attuned to experience than anyone I’ve ever known,” DeVincentis wrote in part. “He would stop what was happening to point it out, compel you to pay attention. He would order you a must-have experience from a beloved menu and hold your eye as you paid attention to what was happening in your mouth. ‘Right, Guy? I mean… right?’ He would put an experience for you on the stereo, then start it over and play it again for you because we were talking over it the first time and ‘Pal, you really have to listen to it.’”
He added of Hackford, “Rio gave it to you, all of it, and if it was tough, he put it softly into your hand. He was on the phone, or on a plane without a word when that’s what friendship called for.”
Along with his role as real-life investigator Pat McKenna in FX’s American Crime Story, Hackford appeared in episodes of True Detective, the Mirren-narrated funny animal series When Nature Calls, WGN America’s Underground Railroad drama Underground, and HBO dramedy Togetherness. Hackford had a recurring role as Toby on HBO’s Treme.
Since his first on-screen appearance as an unnamed “street junkie” in Pretty Woman, Hackford appeared in such films as Fred Claus, DC’s Jonah Hex, and Swingers, the 1996 film written by and co-starring The Mandalorian creator and showrunner Jon Favreau.
Image credit: John Sciulli / Getty Images
