Son of NYC Mobster Mickey Spillane Falls to Death
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The actor son of infamous mobster Mickey Spillane died Saturday after falling from the sixth floor of his Hell’s Kitchen apartment in New York.
Robert “Bobby” Spillane, 45, was discovered by his lawyer brother, Michael, 46, about 8:00am on the sidewalk outside his Eighth Avenue apartment building, police sources and witnesses told the New York Post.
Spillane was leaning against a screen when it gave way and he fell through an open window, his uncle James McManus said.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}“Michael was coming from Starbucks this morning and he crossed the street and saw Robert lying there,” witness John, who manages of the nearby Cosmic Diner, said.
“He was the one who called 911, you know? It’s just so sad.”
Spillane is survived by his wife Heather.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}“Michael saw him as he was crossing the street, he panicked you know, he was in shock. It’s so sad,” said Judith, 50, a waitress at the diner.
“Rest In Peace Robert,” read a sign that Spillane’s friends posted, along with flowers, on a telephone booth outside the Cosmic Diner.
As police pored over Spillane’s apartment and the street below, “Saturday Night Live” comedian Colin Quinn -- whose production company produced Spillane’s first play, “All Dolled Up” -- was seen talking with detectives before leaving in a police car.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The two are close friends and Spillane had played various roles on the comedian’s self-titled series, “The Colin Quinn Show.”
Spillane starred in award-winning TV series “NYPD Blue,” “Law and Order” and “Rescue Me,” and also had a minor role in 1999’s “Thomas Crown Affair” movie remake starring Pierce Brosnan.
The youngest of three children, he was the son of Mickey Spillane, an Irish-American mobster who ran the rackets for the "Westies" Irish gang for decades before it was taken over by more violent gangsters.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The mobster, who was called the "last of the gentleman gangsters" in contrast to the violent "Westies" who succeeded him, was shot dead in 1977 when Bobby Spillane was just 12 years old.
During an interview with the Post’s Steve Dunleavy, Spillane recalled his father’s murder.
“I was a kid. We were living in Woodside (Queens). Someone buzzed on the door. It was Friday the 13th, 1977,” he said. His father answered the door and was gunned down in a hail of bullets.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Bobby grew up in the family’s huge Hell’s Kitchen apartments and his play “All Dolled Up” -- about the mob using cross-dressing gangsters to muscle in on Greenwich Village gay bars in the 1960s -- opened in 2006 in the neighborhood’s Acorn Theatre.
Bobby -- who is also survived by a sister, Denise -- was most recently being considered for an open freelance seat on the Writers Guild of America East (WGAE) council.
In 2004, Bobby sold comedian Adam Sandler’s production company a screenplay for $200,000.