Beloved journeyman actor John Capodice died at the age of 83 on December 30, 2024, with no cause of death given. With a face that has shown up in hundreds of titles across television and film, Capodice embodied the role of a character actor, making many viewers search for his name as they say, “I’ve seen that guy before.” Diehard fans of the so-called “show about nothing” can add Capodice’s death to one of the many tragic details about the cast of “Seinfeld.” For them, Capodice might be instantly recognizable as the laundromat owner from the episode “The Revenge.” Or, others may recall him enduring Jimmy Carrey’s sometimes bizarre acting methods as his ornery superior in “Ace Ventura: Pet Detective.”
As for how he wound up as an actor, Capodice said in a 2020 short documentary by Diego Productions on YouTube, “I never kind of had this vision of, I got struck by a thunderbolt that I wanted to be an actor.” Nevertheless, he found his calling; Capodice’s acting career began with the 1978 film “Rush It.” His role wasn’t a large one, as he was credited as “pedestrian.” But from there, he went on to have a short-lived role on “Ryan’s Hope,” a soap opera that ran from 1975 to 1989, after which Capodice would remain busy for nearly the rest of his life, showing up in notable films such as “Speed,” “Jacob’s Ladder,” and “Independence Day,” and episodes of popular TV series including “General Hospital” and “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.”
A life beyond and within the screen
Outside of his prolific presence on screens, according to an obituary posted on the Pizzi Funeral Home website, Capodice is survived by his wife, Jane, and their daughters, Tess De Pierro and Cassandra Hansen, who together gave Capodice four grandchildren. He was born in Chicago in 1941, with Chicago, Los Angeles, and Blauvelt, New York, listed as notable living places in the write-up. The obituary also notes that Capodice was a U.S. Army veteran who served in Korea from 1964 to 1966 and mentions that he was a member of the Blauvelt Sons of Italy, a local chapter of the fraternal organization of Italian Americans.
Capodice looked back fondly on his life and acting career, saying in Diego Productions’ short documentary, “I got to do something that I had no idea what I wanted to do in life. I was lost, swimming, nowhere to go, nothing to do, and no direction, and at 25, I found something that meant something to me. And that was a blessing.” Unlike some scandalous “Seinfeld” actors, Capodice lived a drama-free life, and as for his legacy as a hard-to-place character actor, we’ll let Capodice have the last word, as he ends the short documentary by saying, “Hey, you see this face but you don’t know the name, right? Yeah. John Capodice, and I’m that guy.”
