David Margulies, an actor who successfully moved back and forth from stage to TV to film with memorable portraits of harried ethnic characters, died Jan. 11 at age 78, according to his agent, Harden-Curtis Associates. No cause of death was specified.

Margulies made 13 appearances on Broadway from 1973's The Iceman Cometh to 2003's Wonderful Town. He played Jewish characters in Cafe Crown, Conversations With My Father, 45 Seconds from Broadway, and Brighton Beach Memoirs, and the Greek landlord in a revival of Wonderful Town. He replaced Ron Leibman as Roy Cohn in both parts of Tony Kushner's award-winning Angels in America.

He worked even more extensively Off-Broadway, establishing Signature Theatre as one of his artistic homes. Among his credits there is Kushner's The Illusion. He also appeared at Public Theater, New York Theatre Workshop, and the Acorn Theatre. He was a recipient of Equity's Richard Seff Award for outstanding work by actors over age 50. His most recent New York stage appearance was in The Hatmaker's Wife at the Peter Jay sharp Theatre in 2013.

However Margulies is probably best known to the general public for this work on the two "Ghostbusters" films, playing the harried mayor of New York.

A more detailed appreciation of his career will be posted on Playbill.com shortly.