Steve Rannazzisi is best known for his role as Kevin MacArthur on the FXX sitcom The League.
After today, however, he might be better known as the character actor who never got work again after the world learned that he lied about nearly dying in the 9/11 attacks for an astonishing 14 years.
Over the course of his career, Rannazzisi has frequently told reporters that he had been working for Merrill Lynch in an office in the Twin Towers on the day of the attacks, and his narrow escape inspired him to move to Los Angeles to pursue acting.
“I was there and then the first tower got hit and we were like jostled all over the place,” he said, recalling the attacks in detail in a 2009 interview.
He claimed to have fled the building just minutes before the second plane struck.
Earlier this week, The New York Times confronted Rannazissi about the various holes in his story (Merrill Lynch never employed Rannazzisi or had an office in the World Trade Center), and yesterday, the actor finally admitted that he’d made it all up.
“I was not at the Trade Center on that day,” the actor said in a statement issued by his publicist. “I don’t know why I said this. This was inexcusable. I am truly, truly sorry.”
Rannazzisi has declined requests for interviews, but his statement offers a weak explanation for his actions:
“For many years, more than anything, I have wished that, with silence, I could somehow erase a story told by an immature young man,” the statement reads. “It only made me more ashamed. How could I tell my children to be honest when I hadn’t come clean about this?”
Many have pointed out that, far from “a story told by an immature young man,” the incident has become a major part of Rannazzisi’s public persona, and he has publicly recounted the tale as recently as 2012.
The actor’s inexplicable fabrication brings to mind Brian Williams lies about his involvement in the Iraq War, which he was forced to apologize for earlier this year.
It remains to be seen if the consequences for Rannazzisi will be as severe. The League is currently airing its final season, but it’s likely that the actor will be fired from his job as a spokesman for Buffalo Wild Wings.