Get me Cyrus Bills at the Post. The Mothman Prophecies, 2002

“Cyrus Bills” was a character, a Washington Post reporter, in the movie The Mothman Prophecies, played by Bob Tracey of Carnegie, Pennsylvania.

Tracey died on January 26, 2007, exactly five years to the same weekend that The Mothman Prophecies opened in theaters across the United States.

Bob Tracey, a former disc jockey, passed away from complications of pneumonia, said his wife, Marjorie Michel. Tracey was born Robert Charles Michel in Rutherford, New Jersey, in 1923.

Still involved in local broadcasting and theater, Tracey had appeared in several films, including The Mothman Prophecies (2002), Black Dahlia (1998), Houseguest (1995), Only You (1994), and The Prince of Pennsylvania (1988) according to the Internet Movie Database. Tracey’s appearance in The Mothman Prophecies was his last in any film.

A formalized obituary was published in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on January 28, 2007. A tribute on his old radio station’s website mirrors the Post-Gazette’s obituary, here.

For more information on other deaths associated with Mothman research and movies, please see here and here.