At a surprise 80th birthday party in New Jersey in 2001, he gave a spirited recital of the monologue to the delight of the 100 guests.
Instead of delivering the tired soliloquies that most actors performed, he wrote his own, about a circus barker. Vigoda attributed his high percentage in winning roles to his performance in auditions.
#Barney actor tv#
In the early 1950s, he appeared as straight man for the Jimmy Durante and Ed Wynn TV comedies.įor 30 years, he worked in the theatre, acting in dozens of plays in such diverse characters as John of Gaunt in Richard II (his favourite role) and Abraham Lincoln in a short-lived Broadway comedy Tough to Get Help. Abe Vigodaīorn in New York City in 1921, Vigoda attended the Theater School of Dramatic Arts at Carnegie Hall. My experiences have taught me that if you deeply believe in what you are doing, success can come at any age. (The murderous character in the black comedy is famously said by other characters to resemble Boris Karloff, a great joke back when the real Karloff was playing him.) When I was a young man, I was told success had to come in my youth. His resemblance to Boris Karloff led to his casting in the 1986 New York revival of Arsenic and Old Lace, playing the role Karloff originated on the stage in the 1940s. Vigoda continued making occasional guest appearances on Barney Miller, quitting over billing and salary differences.īut he remained a popular character actor in films, including Cannonball Run II, Look Who's Talking, Joe Versus the Volcano and North. This file photo shows Abe Vigoda playing Phil Fish in the television show Fish. "What are you - a doctor or a producer?" Vigoda asked. "You know, you look like you might have hemorrhoids," Arnold said. An exercise enthusiast, Vigoda had just returned from a five-mile jog when his agent called and told him to report immediately to the office of Danny Arnold, who was producing a pilot for a police station comedy.Īrnold remarked that Vigoda looked tired, and the actor explained about his jog. He liked to tell the story of how he won the role of Detective Fish. The great success of the film and The Godfather Part II made his face and voice, if not his name, recognizable to the general public and led to numerous roles, often as hoodlums.īut it was his comic turn in Barney Miller, which starred Hal Linden and ran from 1975 to 1982, that brought Vigoda's greatest recognition. "Tell Mike it was only business," Sal mutters to consigliere Tom Hagen (Robert Duvall) as he's led away. But Michael anticipates that Sal's suggestion for a "peace summit" among crime families is a setup and the escorts Sal thought were taking him to the meeting turn out to be his executioners. Vigoda played Sal Tessio, an old friend of Vito Corleone's (Marlon Brando) who hopes to take over the family after Vito's death by killing his son Michael Corleone (Al Pacino). Vigoda worked in relative obscurity as a supporting actor in the New York theatre and in television until Francis Ford Coppola cast him in the 1972 Oscar-winning The Godfather. Vigoda's daughter, Carol Vigoda Fuchs, told The Associated Press that Vigoda died Tuesday morning in his sleep at Fuchs' home in Woodland Park, New Jersey.
#Barney actor series#
Character actor Abe Vigoda, whose leathery, sunken-eyed face made him ideal for playing the over-the-hill detective Phil Fish in the 1970s TV series Barney Miller and the doomed Mafia soldier in The Godfather, died Tuesday at age 94.
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