Abe Vigoda
Acting
Born 1921-02-24
Died 2016-01-26
New York City, New York, USA
104 credits
Awards
Nominated for 2 Primetime Emmy Awards
Primetime Emmy Awards 2 nominated
- 1977 Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series Nominated Barney Miller
- 1976 Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series Nominated Barney Miller
Award data from Wikidata (CC0). Coverage may be incomplete.
Read biography
Tall, dour-faced and slouch-shouldered character actor Abraham Charles Vigoda (February 24, 1921 – January 26, 2016) proved himself in both gritty dramatic roles, and as an actor with wonderful comedic timing.
Vigoda was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Lena (Moses) and Samuel Vigoda, both Russian Jewish immigrants. His father was a tailor on the Lower East Side. He made his first stage appearance at the age of 17 and plodded away in small theater shows for over 20 years. For the majority of film-goers, Vigoda first came to prominence in The Godfather (1972) as the double-crossing Tessio, pleading with Robert Duvall to get him off the hook "for old times' sake." He also appeared in its sequel.
Vigoda had roles in a few nondescript TV films before landing the plum part of Sgt. Phil Fish on the brilliant sitcom Barney Miller (1974). Perhaps his best known role, Sgt. Fish proved popular enough to be spun off to his own (short-lived) series Fish (1977).
With his long face and unusual looks, Vigoda remained in high demand in mafioso-type roles, and for a while in the mid-1980s, he was mistakenly believed to have been dead, leading producers to remark, "I need an Abe Vigoda type actor," not realizing Vigoda was still alive and well. The 1990s and beyond became busy again for him, with appearances in North (1994), The Misery Brothers (1995), A Brooklyn State of Mind (1998), and Crime Spree (2003). He continued acting into his 90s, surprising audiences with his entertaining style.
Abe Vigoda died in his sleep on January 26, 2016 in Woodland Park, New Jersey.
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Filmography
— top 60 of 104
Acting
44 credits
Law & Order
Family Guy
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
Saturday Night Live
The Godfather
The Mike Douglas Show
The Love Boat
Diagnosis: Murder
Murder, She Wrote
MacGyver
Hawaii Five-O
Wings
The Godfather Part II
Mannix
Mad About You
Love, American Style
Late Night with Conan O'Brien
The Rockford Files
Touched by an Angel
Barney Miller
Cannon
Studio One
Tales from the Darkside
The Bob Hope Show
Kojak
Dinah!
Monsters
Supertrain
Mario Puzo's The Godfather: The Complete Novel for Television
Batman: Mask of the Phantasm
Good Burger
Look Who's Talking
Deadline
B.L. Stryker
Tony Orlando and Dawn
$weepstake$
Lucky Luke
The Captain and Tennille
Joe Versus the Volcano
Cannonball Run II
The Stuff
North
Fish
Sugar Hill
Other credits
16 credits
Dark Shadows
The Bionic Woman
The Rookies
Vega$
Suspense
Weird Science
Eight Is Enough
Promised Land
B. J. and the Bear
The Norm Show
The Littlest Hobo
Toma
Superboy
The Adventures of the Black Stallion
Harper Valley
The Sandy Duncan Show
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