Character Actor Abe Vigoda Dies At 94

Actor Abe Vigoda, who played the decrepit Detective Phil Fish in the television sitcom “Barney Miller” and Mafia lieutenant Sal Tessio in the original “Godfather” movie, died Tuesday, according to his manager, Sid Craig.

Born in Brooklyn in 1921, Vigoda was best known for his role as Tessio, the treacherous Corleone family capo in Francis Ford Coppola’s 1972 masterpiece The Godfather (he also appeared briefly in the 1974 sequel) and as Sergeant Philip K. Fish on the long-running ABC police sitcom Barney Miller.

Vigoda’s death had been falsely reported before, but his real passing came Tuesday morning in his sleep at his New Jersey home, his daughter, Carol Vigoda Fuchs, told The Associated Press. But it was the 1982 report of his premature death that caused him some consternation and was the basis of many jokes during his later years. “This man was never sick”, she said. His work on the show earned him Emmy nominations in 1976, 1977 and 1978, as well as a short-lived spinoff, Fish. His character was doomed for betraying the Corleone family in the film but had a cameo role in the flashback scenes of The Godfather Part II two years later.

But it’s far from the first time Vigoda has died. I said, ‘You must be joking.’ She said, ‘No, I’m not.

“He took it in good humour and so on, and so I went and met him and chatted with him and took a picture of him jogging down the street denying he was dead”, said Geddes, now senior digital producer at CBC Edmonton.

But he remained a popular character actor in films, including “Cannonball Run II, ” “Look Who’s Talking, ” “Joe Versus the Volcano” and “North.”.

The Godfather was shortlisted for four Academy Awards in the acting categories, but Vigoda was bypassed: Brando won – and refused – the Best Actor Oscar; Al Pacino (actually the film’s lead), James Caan, and Robert Duvall were nominated in the Best Supporting Actor category.

Vigoda’s widespread recognition was a testament to his patience, having toiled in near-obscurity for the first half of his life.

His similarity to Boris Karloff prompted his throwing in the 1986 NY recovery of “Arsenic and Old Ribbon”, assuming the part Karloff began on the stage in the 1940s. “I will not say anything bad about Abe Vigoda because I was always taught to speak well of the dead”. Younger fans may recognize the actor from a 2010 Super Bowl commercial he appeared in alongside Betty White.

Vigoda’s wife, Beatrice, died in 1992. Those of us who grew up in the 70s and 80s also remember Vigoda for his role in Barney Miller and Fish, where he played a character exceedingly different from the serious and deadly Salvatore Tessio.

“I’m the same Abe Vigoda”, he told a questioner.