Beloved Sitcom Star and Character Actor Dies

“I was always taught to speak well of the dead”. “He was a great star”. People don’t seem to stop and ask me anymore.

Vigoda died in his sleep at the age of 94 on Wednesday, and is survived by his daughter, Carol, three grandchildren and a great-grandson.

For Ross, Vigoda’s legend as “a beloved prince of primetime television and movies” is already set in stone and the deadpan amusing man will be remembered fondly at next month’s Academy Awards memoriam tribute. In a segment about possible ratings-grabbing, sweeps periods stunts, O’Brien even toyed with the idea of doing an all-Vigoda edition of the show.

Performers like Vigoda may not typically become household names, tabloid sensations or haul home the hardware on Oscar night. “More so than me”, Linden told CNN.

Tall, lanky, comically grim, with a perpetual hangdog expression on his face and a moan in his voice, Vigoda, who died Tuesday at 94, got his show-business start in the theater. And aside from being an actor, he was also a dedicated handball player and jogger, CNN noted. Fans assumed he had the same ailments, he said.

“When I was a young man, I was told success had to come in my youth”. “You know, you look like you might have hemorrhoids”, Arnold said. The actor then took out an ad in a trade publication that showed him holding a lily – a flower commonly displayed at funeral services – and a copy of People.

“Barney Miller” brought Vigoda a comfortable income for the first time in his life, and he splurged on a Cadillac. “Like Fish, we all meet with rejection, and things are seldom easy, no matter what we do”, he said.

Vigoda, who was adept at drama and comedy with a hang-dog face, slouched posture and slow delivery, played mobster traitor Salvatore Tessio in The Godfather in 1972, his first credited movie role.

He got a kick out of the chance to recount the narrative of how he won the part of Analyst Fish.

But it was with Conan O’Brien that Vigoda made his most memorable late-night appearances.

At a 2004 Friars Club roast of developer Donald Trump, Vigoda was introduced with the words, “If Abe Vigoda were alive today”. People could quickly find out whether he was living through a website dedicated to answering that question.

Nevertheless Vigoda lived the fullest of lives and had fun until the very end.

Abe Vigoda as seen as Det.

Corkery, Richard, New York Daily Abe Vigoda was often the target of a Jeffrey Ross joke, and he took them well. One of Olmeda’s favorite posts: “Let the joyous news be spread: Abe Vigoda is still not dead!”

Abraham Charles Vigoda was born on Feb 24, 1921, in NY and was the son of a tailor on Manhattan’s Lower East Side.

Other film and RTV appearances included Cannonball Run II, Look Who’s Talking, Joe Versus The Volcano, Law & Order, Murder, She Wrote, MacGyver, and The Bionic Woman. He also appeared in 1997’s “Good Burger”.

Vigoda apparently died of old age.

His resemblance to Boris Karloff led to his casting in the 1986 NY revival of “Arsenic and Old Lace“, playing the role Karloff originated on the stage in the 1940s.