A well-known character actor and director, Mike Hagerty, best known for his roles as the building super Mr. Treeger on Friends and the surly owner of a secondhand store on Seinfeld, has died. His death was confirmed by Bridget Everett, who plays his daughter on HBO’s comedy series. He died at age 67. The cause was not disclosed.
“With great sadness, the family of Michael G. Hagerty announced his death yesterday in Los Angeles,” wrote Everett on Instagram. “A beloved character actor, his love of his hometown of Chicago and his family were the cornerstones of his life. … He will be sorely missed.”
Hagerty was born on May 10, 1954, in Chicago and began his career with bit parts in films such as Doctor Detroit, Brewster’s Millions, Nothing in Common, One More Saturday Night, Overboard, and Red Heat around the mid-1980s. He had a part in an episode of Cheers in 1986.
Hagerty also made his feature film debut in the early-1990s films Dick Tracy, V.I. Warshawski, and Wayne’s World. Hagerty subsequently appeared in Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me and So I Married an Axe Murderer, both of which were written by SNL alums Mike Myers and David Zucker.
Hagerty was a familiar and frequent TV celebrity by the 1990s, having made appearances in Married… with Children, Murphy Brown, Dear John, American Dreamer, The Wonder Years, Civil Wars, Martin, The Building, Star Trek: The Next Generation, The Wayans Bros., Sisters, The Drew Carey Show, Arli$$, Union Square, ER and Deadwood.
In 1993, he got his first series-regular part in The Building, an American comedy television program produced by David Letterman for CBS. The show aired only a few episodes before being canceled.
He then joined the cast of Fox’s The George Carlin Show, which aired from January 1994 to September 1995.
He also played a memorable role on Seinfeld in the classic 1994 episode “The Raincoats.” Hagerty played the role of Rudy, the owner of a city vintage clothing store (New Yorkers got the reference: Rudy’s Antique Boutique was a real-life second-hand shop popular with hipsters and NYU students in the ’80s and ’90s). He purchased some old cabana clothes (not knowing they were moths) from Jerry Stiller’s Frank Costanza. When Michael Richards’ Kramer and Barney Martin’s Morty Seinfeld offered to sell him some old beltless raincoats, he said no because the buggy cabana clothes had burned up (which he set on fire).
When Hagerty was cast to recur as the building super Mr. Treeger on NBC’s Friends in 1995, he became a pop-culture icon. He was introduced in the season one episode “The One Where Heckles Dies,” and he threatened to have Rachel and Monica (Jennifer Aniston and Courteney Cox) kicked out of their apartment for illegal subletting, before getting Joey (Matt LeBlanc) to teach him how to dance. When Monica told Chandler (Matthew Perry) in the series’ final scene that she almost forgot – she had promised Treeger that they would leave their key – it was implied that Treeger is the last character mentioned throughout the series.
He made his debut as a show-runner in 2013, when he joined the cast of Brooklyn Nine-Nine as Captain McGinley. He also appeared in the HBO comedy Someone Somewhere in 2022 as Ed Miller, Everett’s father.
HBO released a statement: “We are very saddened to hear about the sudden passing of Mike Hagerty. A member of the HBO family for many years, his most recent role as Bridget Everett’s father in Somebody Somewhere showed his special talent for bringing heart to a performance. Mike was a joy to work with and brought warmth and kindness to all who knew him. We send our deepest condolences to his family and friends.”
Hagerty is survived by his wife Mary Kathryn; his sister, Mary Ann Hagerty; her wife, Kathleen O’Rourke; and their daughter Meg.