We’re just hearing about the death of Rob Riley, Chicago actor, writer, director, improviser, singer, and teacher, a quintessential Chicago multi-hyphenate whose career embodied the city’s “workhorse” ethos across comedy and drama. He died on August 8, 2025, in Los Angeles at 80, from complications of a stroke suffered in 2018.
Born April 6, 1945, in Long Grove, Illinois, Riley came up through Chicago’s improv lineage, studying with Del Close before cutting his teeth with the Reification Company. In 1980 he joined The Second City mainstage, working alongside Tim Kazurinsky, Jim Belushi, George Wendt, and Danny Breen, part of a cohort that would help define an era of Chicago comedy. He later wrote for Saturday Night Live during the 1984–85 season.
During this period, Riley also collaborated with Jim Belushi and filmmaker John Davies to establish Eggboy Productions, Inc., producing a slate of comedy shorts for the emerging cable networks of the 1980s, including HBO, Cinemax, Showtime, and Saturday Night Live. The company went on to create original half-hour comedies such as V.T. The Videotape, featuring Dan Aykroyd, John Kapelos, Megan Fay, and Del Close for WTTW, and Tab Lloyd: Investigative Reporter for the NBC owned-and-operated stations, with performers Al Franken, Tom Davis, Tim Kazurinsky, Mike Hagerty, Moira Harris, Shuko Akune, and Bruce Jarchow among the ensemble.
He moved fluidly between comedy and straight drama. On screen, Riley’s instantly recognizable voice is heard in Groundhog Day as the radio DJ who woke up weatherman, Bill Murray every morning. On Chicago stages he made lasting impressions at the Goodman (Blind Date, The Crowd You’re In With, Moonlight and Magnolias, The Beard of Avon), earned a Jeff nomination for Good for Otto at The Gift, and was noted for Cadillac at Chicago Dramatists. He also co-wrote, directed, and starred in Wild Men, a satirical musical that bowed at the Body Politic in 1992.
Riley split time between Chicago and Los Angeles after 2013 but remained, a Chicago actor, equally at home in storefronts and on major stages, in sketch rooms and rehearsal halls. He also devoted many years to teaching and mentoring young improvisers in Chicago.
Riley is survived by his wife, actor Nonie Newton Riley, his son William Riley, stepchildren Spencer Breen and Riley Breen, and grandchildren.
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