RIP Abe Vigoda...Seriously

Screencap from The Godfather with Abe Vigoda (left) and Al Pacino

Not known for being the best looking actor in Hollywood, hard working actor Abe Vigoda, passed away today at his daughter's home at the age of 94...really. Best known for his roles in the Godfather movies and as Fish in Barney Miller, perhaps one of the longest roles he had was weather he was really dead or alive.

As far back as 1982, news sources had accidentally reported Vigoda as having passed on. People magazine was the first to do so, but he quickly debunked this by posing with a picture of the issue that declared him dead for a picture in a Variety magazine ad. On Late Night with David Letterman, they had a skit where they tried to communicate with Abe Vigoda's ghost only to have Vigoda come out on stage and call him a Pinhead. Unfortunately, this time it's for real.

Vigoda had an acting career which included film, television, and stage work, dating all the way back to 1949.

“‘The Godfather’ changed my life,” he told The New York Times in 2001. That was the role that solidified him in mainstream entertainment. As Tessio in The Godfather movie, he was the trusted mobster and friend to Don Vito Corleone, only to become a betrayer to the family after Vito's death. Tessio, interested in filling the hole left by Corleone's death, he becomes one of the many steps Michael Corleone has to step over to rise to power after he plots Michael's murder. Even though Tessio is murdered in the first movie, he makes an appearance in The Godfather Part II during flashbacks.

He moved on to sitcom fame as Detective Fish in Barney Miller. As Fish, he was nominated three times for an Emmy for best supporting actor. Constantly battling hemorrhoids, his character gained so much of a following that he was spun-off into his own short-lived series, Fish.

Afterward, he would make appearances in Santa Barbara; Murder, She Wrote; Law & Order, Wings, Touched by an Angel, and many other shows. Even at that, he stated many times that film was his first love. He would act in small roles in movies such as Joe Versus the Volcano, Good Burger (where he would mock his own premature death announcements), Jury Duty, and Sugar Hill. He would also go on to reprise his role as Tessio in The Godfather video games.

A blue collar type of actor, there aren't too many actors like Vigoda anymore.