R.I.P. Willie Garson, actor from Sex And The City and White Collar
The actor, who was set to reprise his role as Stanford in HBO's upcoming Sex And The City revival, was 57.
Aux News Sex and the City
As reported by Variety, Willie Garson—best known as Carrie’s best friend Stanford Blatch on Sex And The City and as con artist Mozzie on USA’s White Collar—has died. The news was confirmed by an Instagram post from his son, Nathen, who he adopted in 2009. In the post, Nathen Garson referred to his father as “the toughest and funniest and smartest person I’ve known.” A cause of death has not been released, but People says he died “following a short illness.” Garson was 57.
Born in New Jersey in 1964, Garson got a theater degree from Wesleyan University and later graduated with a Masters Of Fine Arts from the Yale Drama School. He first started acting on TV in the ‘80s, popping up on Cheers, Family Ties, and My Two Dads. His first semi-regular gig came near the end of the decade when he appeared on Mr. Belvedere a few times, followed by more one-off roles in shows like Twin Peaks and Quantum Leap (where he played Lee Harvey Oswald) as well as in movies like Groundhog Day and The Rock.
By the later half of the ‘90s, more recurring TV roles started to come in, like on Ask Harriet, Party Of Five, and NYPD Blue (alongside single episode appearances on Friends, Early Edition, Just Shoot Me, Spin City, and The X-Files). His big breakout came right alongside all of those, though, when he got the job playing Stanford on Sex And The City. Garson reprised the role in the two Sex And The City Movies and had reportedly been filming recently on HBO’s revival series, And Just Like That.
Garson stayed in the HBO family after Sex And The City, playing Meyer Dickstein on the short-lived John From Cincinnati, but his second big breakout role came shortly after that when he joined White Collar as lovable con man Mozzie (he appeared in all 81 episodes of the show). In more recent years, Garson had recurring roles on Hawaii Five-0 and Supergirl, and he recently had a voice appearance on Netflix’s Big Mouth.
39 Comments
Aw, no mention of his role on “Stargate SG-1″ as the alien who stayed on Earth and helped produce the show-within-a-show “Wormhole X-Treme”? I know he had an illustrious career as a character actor, but that’s neck and neck with his role on “Sex in the City” for me.
Good time to mention he was a Star Trek alien alum as well.
If you think back through the various guest stars on SG-1, there really were very few who completely dominated their episodes. That’s exactly what he did in 200.Go for Marty!
He killed it in each of the episodes he was in.
RIP Martin Lloyd.
My first thought. Those were two fantastic and silly episodes.
I’m doing an SG1 series rewatch — it’s on Netflix — and I just rewatched the first Martin episode like two days ago. This is such sad news and 57 is way too young.
Cliff Simon (Ba’al) passed away recently, too. It sucks.
I remember watching through SATC for the first time and getting really excited that Martin Lloyd had shown up. His three episodes on SG-1 are among my favorites.
Sad to hear about this. He was too young. I loved him as Mozzie on White Collar.
The whole cast on that show was great. My intro to Alexandra Daddario as Bomer’s deceased girlfriend!
He was Oswald in my favorite Quantum Leap episode, Lee Harvey Oswald. Terrific character actor and I loved him as Blatch. Love his and Cantone’s nervous, almost abortive New Year’s Eve kiss in the first movie. Rest in peace, dude. We’ll miss you.
Wait – the Lee Harvey Oswald episode is your favorite Quantum Leap episode? You’re probably the only person who would say that, since the other person who would say that just died.
I’m pretty sure I’m alive. But don’t qoute me on that.
I love your username! One of my favorite Mad Men moments, I love how annoyed Pete is when he says that, as though he’s had to rehash the Glencoe Massacre all the time!
Vincent Kartheiser’s line deliveries were a real shining star on that show. Of course, “not great, Bob!” comes to mind immediately.
Oh yes, I love that episode! I have a history blog and I’m currently writing an apologia of LHO (the episode, not the person)—I love it because you can feel how shattered Bellisario was from the assassination, as were my parents. It wears its heart on its sleeve. (And the music! God, the score is incredible.) It was also the first QL episode I ever watched, because it was the first that was about History, as opposed to history. (I didn’t get into the show until much later.)
Well here’s a fun fact: Bellasario wrote it as a direct rebuttal to Oliver Stone’s JFK, having met Oswald at some point when he was in the military. It was the highest rated episode of QL since the show had premiered (probably owing to the fact that NBC thought it would be fun to move it to a different time slot every two weeks or just preempt the show for emmys, football, etc.).It’s still kind of boring, IMO – but I suppose it was not the worst episode (the earnest, but cringy, 90s liberal “wokeness” in many episodes alone makes my insides hurt when I watch it now). The Great Spontini and Rebel Without a Clue both suck very, very hard.
Oh, I know! And I’m sure you know this as well but he wrote himself into the episode—the Marine who talks to Oswald about reading the Communist newspaper. You can see “Lieutenant Bellisario” on the name label on his fatigues.I think my two least favorite are The Wrong Stuff (He leaps into a chimp? Like, seriously? The only thing that redeems that episode for me is seeing so much of Scott Bakula’s body) and Ghost Ship, mainly because the guy who plays the other pilot is really not a great actor and they’re in a plane for the entire episode which is just not interesting.Yes, Rebel was cringe-inducing (that Kerouac. Oh God, he was awful). But I like seeing the motorcycles.
He played Oswald twice. Prior to Qua tum Leap he portrayed Oswald in “Ruby”. For those who don’t remember (and that is mostly everyone) “Ruby” was the movie where Danny Aiello played Jack Ruby. Sherilyn Fenn is in it to, and this was in 1992, Ah, 1992 Sherilyn Fenn….eases the pain.
The only straight man who’d be allowed to play a gay character in 2021. RIP Stanford.
Well, there’s always Richard E. Grant…
Too damn young. He was such a vibrant character actor. A scene stealer.
Aw man, that’s a bummer. My wife as binged “White Collar” a couple times through the pandemic and I’ve caught the odd episode, and his character was pretty memorable.
He also showed up in a few episodes of “Boy Meets World” – another show that we’ve started watching with the kids recently. Too young to go, I wish his family the best.
This eulogy for Willie Garson forgot to mention he also had a short, but memorable, role in Being John Malkovich, as the Guy in Restaurant who stops by Malkovich’s table to thank him for his sensitive portrayal of a “retard”(!). It was three minutes of pure cringe comedy….Vale, Mozzie.
Well, there goes my idea for a SATC spin-off about him adopting and raising a child on his own. The world will never get to see the potential masterpiece that would have been “Stanford and Son.”
With the inevitable sequel where he supports his grown son, who has come out of the closet, Stan By Your Man.
See above.
(Norm MacDonald voice)Darn you 2021. First Norm MacDonald and now… Willie Garson. The guy from that one show… then there’s the Better Call Saul guy… actually, I guess he’s okay now. (Shakes fist half-heartedly)
When will you stop, 2021?
He also had a completely unexplained cameo in the end credits montage of one of the Jackass films.Will miss the guy as enjoyed his work on Stargate and White Collar which was a criminally underrated show which makes the news sadder as there were rumours of a short revival the last couple of years.Never seen a guy do the line between lovable and annoying so well.
Mozzie was annoying but they put up with him because he was also incredibly loyal, not to mention very talented and willing to go deeper into the gray area than the rest of the characters. A great character and always fun when he was onscreen.
Plus he played three different roles on “Boy Meets World” over its run and and in “Girl Meets World.” I always liked to think that must have been because he was great to work with.
Stanford was one of a long line of “gay BFFs,” but he – and Willie’s performance – were a perfect fit for vibrant and punchy first few seasons. As the show became way too self-serious, he was still a highlight. I was happy to see, in the last few seasons, that they let him find love and happiness elsewhere, and slowly move away from Carrie, even as they were still friends. Willie always made everything seem believable and I never felt like he was a straight actor doing a stereotype. I know he did many other things, but that’s where I will remember him most, and fondest.
Not to mention small parts in both Kingpin and There’s Something About Mary!
This is one of those actors I immediately recognized from their many, many, many TV appearances, but never knew their name. RIP, Mr. Garson.
Stanford was responsible for my favorite Sex and the City scene; when he finally calls out Carrie for doing nothing but talk about herself and her relationships when he’s trying to gush about how happy he is with his new boyfriend.
He gets extra points for rightfully hating on Ross in his ‘Friends’ appearance.And being in ‘There’s Something About Mary’But most of all, I loved him as Mozzie on ‘White Collar’
I’m so sorry for his son.57 is no age any more.RIP Willie Garson. You were terrific in Sex and the City and your character was the heart of the show on White Collar.