{"id":180692,"date":"2025-07-15T00:00:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-15T00:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2025\/07\/15\/this-is-spinal-taps-david-kaff-dies-aged-79\/"},"modified":"2025-07-15T00:00:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-15T00:00:10","slug":"this-is-spinal-taps-david-kaff-dies-aged-79","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2025\/07\/15\/this-is-spinal-taps-david-kaff-dies-aged-79\/","title":{"rendered":"This Is Spinal Tap&#8217;s David Kaff dies aged 79"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"byline\">\n<p>        <time itemprop=\"datePublished\" content=\"2025-07-15\" datetime=\"1752537610\" pubdate=\"\">15 July 2025<\/time>\n    <\/p>\n<p>David Kaff has died aged 79.<\/p>\n<p>                            <\/p>\n<p class=\"image-caption landscape\">David Kaff and his This Is Spinal Tap co-stars<\/p>\n<p>The actor and musician &#8211; who was best-known for playing keyboardist Viv Savage in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.femalefirst.co.uk\/rob-reiner\/\" class=\"exposure-link \" data-linktrack=\"LinkTracker,articleExposure,rob-reiner\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Rob Reiner<\/a>&#8216;s This Is Spinal Tap &#8211; passed away on Friday (11.07.25).<\/p>\n<p>Mutual of Alameda\u2019s Wild Kingdom, his band, said in a Facebook post: &#8220;Our brother David Kaffinetti passed away peacefully in his sleep. We are devastated by this event. David always had a kind word and a quick wit that would slay you where you stand. Then he\u2019d make you smile doing it! RIP dear brother (sic)&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Kaff&#8217;s cause of death has not yet been revealed.<\/p>\n<p>The musician &#8211; whose real name was David Kaffinetti &#8211; was a founding of the progressive rock band Rare Bird, which released five studio albums between 1969 and 1975.<\/p>\n<p>\nSympathy, the band&#8217;s 1970 single, is estimated to have sold one million copies globally. <\/p>\n<p>\nKaff was cast as a Viv Savage in This Is Spinal Tap, the mockumentary comedy film co-written and directed by Rob Reiner, which was released in 1984 to critical acclaim. <\/p>\n<p>\nKaff starred in the movie alongside the likes of Christopher Guest, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer, and he even appeared in the band\u2019s Saturday Night Live performance in 1984.<\/p>\n<p>\nThe musician had a relatively small role in the film, but he still became well-known for some of his memorable lines, like &#8220;Have a good time \u2026 all the time&#8221; and &#8220;Quite exciting, this computer magic!&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>\nKaff admitted in 1991 that he actually shared a lot of traits with his on-screen character.<\/p>\n<p>\nHe told BAM: &#8220;I played him very close to my heart, just a little bit dimmer. If people like that character, chances are they&#8217;ll like me.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>\nAfter cutting ties with Spinal Tap, Kaff went on to star in the bands Model Citizenz and Mutual of Alameda\u2019s Wild Kingdom.<\/p>\n<p>\nAnd while a sequel to This Is Spinal Tap &#8211; entitled Spinal Tap II: The End Continues &#8211; is slated to be released later this year, Kaff is reported to have had no involvement with the project.<\/p>\n<p><!-- Pagination --><\/p>\n<p><!-- playbuzz --><br \/>\n<!-- end playbuzz--><\/p>\n<p><!-- \n\n<div data-cn-project=\"femalefirst\">\n    \n<\/div>\n\n --><\/p>\n<p><!-- Outbrain { date: 2018\/06\/08 } --><br \/>\n<!-- Outbrain { date: 2018\/06\/08 } --><\/p>\n<p>    <!-- Outbrain { date: 2018\/06\/08 } --><br \/>\n    <!-- Outbrain { date: 2018\/06\/08 } --><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.femalefirst.co.uk\/celebrity\/spinal-taps-david-kaff-dies-aged-79-1421994.html?f=rss\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>15 July 2025 David Kaff has died aged 79. David Kaff and his This Is Spinal Tap co-stars The actor and musician &#8211; who was best-known for playing keyboardist Viv Savage in Rob Reiner&#8216;s This Is Spinal Tap &#8211; passed away on Friday (11.07.25). Mutual of Alameda\u2019s Wild Kingdom, his band, said in a Facebook [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":180693,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[11899,6336],"class_list":{"0":"post-180692","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-make-up","8":"tag-david-kaff","9":"tag-rob-reiner"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180692"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180692\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/180693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}