David Shankbone · CC BY-SA 3.0

A sleight-of-hand magician whom The New Yorker called perhaps the most gifted alive, known for card tricks precise enough to throw a playing card through a watermelon rind and for stage patter as carefully built as his hands. He wrote extensively on the history of magic and became a familiar character actor in David Mamet's films, along with roles in Boogie Nights, Magnolia, and Deadwood. In 2015 he became the only magician ever profiled by PBS's American Masters.