Actor Abe Vigoda, best known for his roles as mobster Sal Tessio in “The Godfather” and as detective Phil Fish on television’s “Barney Miller”, died Tuesday.
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The Phish song “Wombat” with its lines, “It’s kinda like the theme from the Fish TV show/ You know, with Abe Vigoda” was not the only contemporary reference to this actor. He told Vanity Fair about the role in 2009.
And that, perhaps, was one reason why the actor, who was only 51 when he played Tessio, was presumed dead, decades before he passed away.
Mr. Vigoda was cast as the worn-out Detective Fish on the station-house sitcom Barney Miller, opposite Hal Linden in the title role.
It all began in 1982 when People mistakenly referred to the “Barney Miller” actor as “the late” Abe Vigoda.
“Abe was responsible for as much of the success of “Barney Miller” as I was – easily”. “We’re asking for what we feel I’m entitled to”, he said, sounding just like Det.
Vigoda apparently died of old age.
Among his last performances prior to his death was in a Snickers commercial, which was first shown during the 2010 Super Bowl, featuring his fellow octogenarian Betty White.
He often told the story of his agent getting a call from a producer seeking “an Abe Vigoda type”, unaware that the original was still around and available.
“Abe was a huge part of our show in NY”, O’Brien told his audience.
Like so many great character actors, including Charles Lane and Beaulah Bondi (both of whom were in the holiday classic, “It’s a Wonderful Life”), Vigoda always looked older than he actually was.
“So you’re anything but dead”, Letterman responded, and then asked Vigoda to breathe on a mirror, to which Vigoda graciously obliged.
Eventually, the Internet brought the joke to a whole other level, allowing anyone who may wonder about Vigoda to check in on the actor on multiple platforms. AbeVigoda.com has only ever included the text “Abe Vigoda is –“, with “alive” in a different font at the end, until Tuesday. Mr. Vigoda continued making occasional guest appearances on “Barney Miller”, quitting over billing and salary differences.
Later, he appeared on Broadway in The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade, in Robert Shaw’s The Man in the Glass Booth and, as Abe Lincoln, in the comedy Tough to Get Help. In this romantic comedy, Kirstie Alley and John Travolta star as New Yorkers who have an affair and accidentally have a baby together.
Other movies Vigoda appeared in include Joe vs. the Volcano, Look Who’s Talking and Jury Duty.
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Mr. Vigoda’s Tessio is an old friend and ally of the Godfather, Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando).
