Early life and education
Margulies was born on February 19, 1937, in Brooklyn, New York City, into a Jewish family. His father, Harry David Margulies, was a lawyer, and his mother, Runya Zeltzer, worked as a nurse and museum employee.2 He graduated from the City College of New York, then began his acting career on the New York stage almost immediately, making his off-Broadway debut in Golden 6 in 1958 and joining the American Shakespeare Theatre as an apprentice the same year. He earned his Actors' Equity contract for the 1960 season.2
Career
Stage
Margulies was first and foremost a New York stage actor, working steadily in theater from the late 1950s into the 2010s. He made his Broadway debut in 1973 as Hugo Kalmar in Theodore Mann's Circle in the Square revival of Eugene O'Neill's The Iceman Cometh. Over the following decades his Broadway and off-Broadway credits accumulated to include Comedians (1976), The West Side Waltz (1981), Neil Simon's Brighton Beach Memoirs (1983), Herb Gardner's Conversations With My Father (1992), Tony Kushner's Angels in America (1993, in which he played Roy Cohn), the 1996 revival of A Thousand Clowns, 45 Seconds From Broadway (2001), and the 2003 revival of Wonderful Town. He was also a member of the original Broadway cast of Yasmina Reza's God of Carnage (2009), which won the Tony Award for Best Play.2 He was performing in Cafe Crown on Broadway in the late 1980s, immediately before reporting for film work.
Film
On screen, Margulies built a long run of supporting roles in major films. His feature work included A New Leaf (1971), The Front (1976), All That Jazz (1979), Dressed to Kill (1980), 9 1/2 Weeks (1986), Sidney Lumet's Running on Empty (1988), Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994), Fading Gigolo (2013), and A Most Violent Year (2014). He continued acting in films up to the end of his life, with the feature Adam Bloom released in 2016.2
Television
Margulies was a recognizable presence on television, much of it shot in New York. His best-known recurring role was Neil Mink, Tony Soprano's attorney, who appeared in eight episodes of HBO's The Sopranos between 2000 and 2007.2 He also appeared in Kojak, Tales from the Darkside, Northern Exposure, NYPD Blue, multiple episodes of Law & Order and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, The Good Wife, and Blue Bloods. One of his final roles was playing Holocaust survivor and author Elie Wiesel in the 2016 miniseries Madoff.2
Ghostbusters
Margulies played the Mayor of New York City in both Ghostbusters films, the role for which he is best remembered by the fan community.3 In Ghostbusters: The Inside Story, the character's surname is given as "Clotch," though the films themselves never assign the Mayor a last name on screen, so he is most often referred to simply as Mayor Lenny.4
Ghostbusters (1984)
Margulies auditioned for the part in New York with director Ivan Reitman present, and learned the next day that he had won the role. He has credited co-star Bill Murray with shaping the character on set, including the idea of putting the Mayor and the Archbishop on a first-name basis and coming up with the name "Lenny." In the film, the Mayor is pressed by both the Ghostbusters and EPA official Walter Peck during the climactic city crisis, and ultimately sides with the team.
Ghostbusters II (1989)
Margulies reprised the Mayor for the sequel. He has recounted finishing a run of Cafe Crown on Broadway and flying to California the next morning to begin filming. His role originally included a larger sequence: a scene in which ghosts "bled" through the walls, shot outside the U.S. Customs House in New York with several hundred extras and an Industrial Light & Magic crew on hand. When the effects shot ultimately proved unworkable, the production devised a replacement, the scene in which the Mayor mentions having spoken with the ghost of former mayor Fiorello La Guardia, which was filmed only about four weeks before the movie's release.
Ghostbusters: The Video Game
Margulies was initially set to return as the Mayor for Ghostbusters: The Video Game. As development progressed, his contract was terminated and the part was recast with Brian Doyle-Murray, a move connected to the studio's effort to secure Bill Murray's involvement in the project.
The Mayor is a recurring favorite among Ghostbusters fans for his exasperated, plain-spoken role in both films, and Margulies remains the definitive on-screen face of the character. GBFans.com does not track any official autograph or convention appearances specific to Margulies at this time; fan recognition centers on his film and stage legacy.
Death
David Margulies died on January 11, 2016, in Manhattan at the age of 78, of cancer.5167 He was survived by his partner, actress Lois Smith, and by a son, Johnathon, and a grandson from an earlier marriage to Carol Grant.2
References
Some content on this page was researched using the Ghostbusters Wiki on Fandom.
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Variety, "David Margulies, 'Ghostbusters' and 'Sopranos' Actor, Dies at 78" (January 12, 2016), https://variety.com/2016/film/news/david-margulies-dead-ghostbusters-sopranos-1201678302/.
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"David Margulies," Wikipedia, accessed 2026-06-13, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Margulies.
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Ghostbusters (1984), Columbia Pictures, and Ghostbusters II (1989), Columbia Pictures. Margulies appears as the Mayor of New York City in both films.
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Spook Central, "Ghostbusters: The Inside Story Book Review." Cites Ghostbusters: The Inside Story for the Mayor's surname "Clotch." Via Spook Central, accessed 2026-06-13, https://theraffon.net/~spookcentral/.
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CNN, "David Margulies, 'Ghostbusters' actor and Broadway star, dies at 78" (January 12, 2016), https://www.cnn.com/2016/01/12/entertainment/david-marguiles-obit-feat.
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Deadline, "David Margulies Dies: Mayor Lenny Clotch Of 'Ghostbusters' Was 78" (January 12, 2016), https://deadline.com/2016/01/david-margulies-actor-in-ghostbusters-dead-at-78-1201681229/.
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TheaterMania, "David Margulies, Ghostbusters Mayor and New York Stage Veteran, Dead at 78" (January 2016), https://www.theatermania.com/news/david-margulies-ghostbusters-mayor-and-new-york-stage-veteran-dead-at-78_75561/.
