Rio Hackford, Swingers and Treme actor, dies at 51

Rio Hackford, the actor and nightclub owner who played a brief but memorable role as a belligerent bro in Swingers and worked on such TV series as The Mandalorian and Treme, died Thursday after a long illness. He was 51.

His brother, Alex Hackford, confirmed the news to The Hollywood Reporter.

A native of Los Angeles, Hackford was the son of Oscar-winning filmmaker Taylor Hackford and his first wife, Georgie Lowres. Following his father into show business, he scored his first film role with a small part in Pretty Woman and would go on to appear in Jonah Hex, Treasure Island, Raising Helen, Fred Claus, and Trumbo. Swingers fans will no doubt remember Hackford as Skully, a.k.a. "House of Pain," a rowdy club patron who clashed with Patrick Van Horn, Vince Vaughn, and Jon Favreau's characters outside the Dresden.

Hackford's TV credits included True Detective, Underground, American Crime Story: The People vs. O.J. Simpson, and Pam & Tommy. He played Toby, a local record store clerk, on Treme, and performed motion capture work for IG-11, the droid voiced by Taika Waititi, on The Mandalorian.

Off screen, Hackford owned several nostalgia-centric dive bars in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New Orleans. He first met Vaughn, Favreau, and Swingers producer Nicole LaLoggia while working the door at the L.A. nightclub Three Clubs.

Helen Mirren, Hackford's stepmother, paid tribute to him over the weekend on Instagram, posting a photo of him with the caption "El Rio."

Fellow actor Cary Elwes commented on Mirren's post, "So sorry for your loss. May his memory always be a blessing." Lake Bell added, "This is a massive loss."

Hackford is survived by his wife, Elisabeth; sons Waylon and Buck; and his brother, father, and stepmother.

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