Actor Nicky Katt, best known for roles in the film Dazed and Confused and the television series Boston Public, died by suicide, law enforcement sources confirmed to TMZ on Monday (April 14).

Katt, 54, was found by his landlord hanging inside his Los Angeles area apartment on April 8, the sources confirmed. The landlord reportedly visited Katt's apartment five days prior and told him rent was due, returning to find him hanging inside his bathroom.

Katt reportedly didn't leave a suicide note and is believed to have been dead for more than a day prior to being found.

Katt played high school bully Clint Bruno in the iconic 1993 film Dazed and Confused and geology teacher Harry Senate during the first three seasons of the FOX drama Boston Public. The actor also appeared on an episode of Friends and is credited for roles in Behind the Candelabra, Boiler Room, The Sound and the Fuhrer, and Full Frontal, which earned him praise from director Steven Soderbergh during a 2002 feature on the actor published by the Los Angeles Times.

“He’s absolutely fearless. No idea is too outrageous. He’ll try anything," Soderberg said at the time.

Katt told the newspaper that his Boiler Room role allowed him to pour out the frustrations he had as an actor.

“There’s so much desperation in the air, in Los Angeles especially. You don’t notice it in New York as much,” he said during the same 2002 interview. “Everybody plays it a little cooler there, and people have a lot more interaction with each other. I think Stanley Kubrick called the vibe in LA a ‘low-level malevolence.’ It eats away at you at some point.”

Podcasts