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Originally Posted by Festered

Do you remember the part Hickey had in The Boston Strangler, a pervert suspect who sleeps on bare wire bed springs? Shades of DaVinci Code. Never really noticed the guy till he got nominated for Prizzi's Honor.

I actually DON'T remember that part! I saw him first in a NET (National Educational Television - the forerunner of PBS) production called "Between Time & Timbuktu- a compendium of Kurt Vonnegut plots thrown together in one story. Hickey played boy inventor Stoney Stevenson, who wins a breakfast food jingle contest. His prize is a trip through the cronosynclastic infedebulum- Vonnegut's version of a space/time warp. Stoney is shot into space and lands on several different worlds, each with a different Vonnegut plot going on. Kevin McCarthy appears as Bokkonon in one, and memorable appearances are made by Bob & Ray as mission control, trying to remember the first words said by man on the moon.

After that, Hickey amazed me as Looseleaf Harper in Happy Birthday Wanda June- so much I desperately wanted to play the part. I never got a chance. After that he always seemed to show up in small parts- the drunk in the bar in The Producers, the uncle in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation who sets the tree on fire. It wasn't until Prizzi's honor that the public in general became acquainted with his unique quality.