RIP Abe Vigoda : 1921-2016

Veteran character actor Abe Vigoda, best known for his role in the Godfather films as Sal Tessio, and on TV as Barney Miller's Detective Phil Fish, died this morning in his sleep at the age of 94 while under hospice care at his daughter's home in New Jersey.

Although throughout his career he had been plagued by various death hoaxes, which he always took with characteristic good humor, this time it's really true.

I can't claim to have seen everything Abe Vigoda ever did. I'm generally not one of those bloggers who spends an hour on IMDb or YouTube and comes away a world expert on anything or anyone. But both those resources are good for a quick fact check or a memory gap.

But I have seen the Godfather films, and I was always struck by the way that Vigoda as Tessio was able to express volumes of emotion with just a very direct stare and a few well-chosen lines, as Tessio wearily and resignedly accepts his fate for past sins.






Just a few years later Vigoda was back, employing that same direct stare, and even fewer well-chosen lines, as Detective Phil Fish on the groundbreaking sitcom Barney Miller. It was a role for which he was Emmy-nominated three times, and it is easy to see why. Fish lets his colleagues have all the wordy glory, then steals everything with just that look. It is a damn shame that, just as now, there was so much outstanding television being made in the 1970s that Abe Vigoda had to forgo the recognition of his peers for his stellar talents.

But the work lives on forever.

And that's all that matters in the end.

Rest in peace, Mr. Vigoda.

MTMG