ABE VIGODA Biography - Actors and Actresses

 
 

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ABE VIGODA

Born: 24-Feb-1921                                                       
Birthplace: New York City                                               
                                                                         
Gender: Male                                                             
Race or Ethnicity: White                                                 
Sexual orientation: Straight                                             
Occupation: Actor                                                       
Nationality: United States                                                                 
Abe Vigoda was a struggling actor for decades. His first big break       
was a small, occasionally recurring role on Dark Shadows, the 1960s     
low-budget haunted house soap opera. A much bigger break was the         
role of the doomed mobster Tessio in 1972's The Godfather. In 1975,     
Vigoda landed "Fish," his most famous role, the perpetually             
complaining, decrepit senior citizen cop on as Barney Miller. Vigoda     
was only 54 at the time, and off-camera he was still in good shape,     
regularly jogging and playing handball. After playing the ancient       
detective on Barney Miller and its lukewarmly-received spin-off,         
Fish, Vigoda played old age for laughs in Look Who's Talking (1989)     
and an ongoing series of even more forgettable films. He played "Sal     
the Wheezer" in the cartoon Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (1993).         
People magazine mistakenly reported Abe Vigoda's death in 1982.         
Twenty years later, people still stop Vigoda on the street and tell     
him he looks like the late Abe Vigoda.                                   
Father: (tailor)                                                         
Wife: Beatrice Schy (m. 25-Feb-1968, d. 1992)                           
Daughter: Carol