Devin Ratray

The Weight of the Bad Guy's Face

Devin Ratray was born in New York in 1977. His parents were actors, which put him in front of a camera before he knew what a script was. His first appearance was in Where Are the Children? back in 1986. But everything changed when Chris Columbus was looking for a thug for a Christmas comedy.

That audition earned him the role of Buzz McCallister.

Home Alone grossed 476 million dollars in 1990. Ratray played the older brother everyone hated, and that image stuck to him for decades. The public didn't want to see an actor, but the kid who kept a tarantula in his room. The success of the sequel in 1992 only served to cement that prejudice in the minds of casting directors.

In the late nineties, he tried to shake off the stigma of the juvenile bully. He worked on Dennis the Menace in 1993 and appeared in procedural series such as Law & Order. But the industry kept offering him very specific supporting roles due to his imposing build and heavy stare.

In 2013, critics started to see him in a different light.

Top-Tier Supporting Roles and Auteur Cinema

Alexander Payne cast him in Nebraska, where he played one of the twins and proved he could handle silence better than shouting. That same year he shot Blue Ruin under director Jeremy Saulnier. In this revenge thriller he brought Ben Gaffney to life, and the indie scene took notice of his talent for restrained tension.

Bigger-budget projects came along, too. In 2017 he joined the cast of Mosaic, Steven Soderbergh's experimental series. Ratray played a local detective, and his work was one of the most talked-about aspects of the storyline. His name then started to surface for large-scale productions on digital platforms.

In 2019, he appeared in Hustlers alongside Jennifer Lopez, and in 2022 he showed up in an episode of Better Call Saul. But his career came to an abrupt halt due to serious personal problems that ended up in court.

In December 2021, the Oklahoma City police arrested him after an incident with his partner.

The Shadow of the Courts

Accusations of domestic violence and a court case that dragged on until 2024 took a toll on his public image. Ratray pleaded guilty to two counts of assault in February 2024 to avoid prison. The judge sentenced him to three years of probation and required him to complete an intervention program for abusers.

His last appearance in the franchise that made him famous was in Home Sweet Home Alone, released in 2021. In that production he once again played Buzz McCallister, this time in a police uniform. The movie had an estimated budget of $15 million.