Abe Vigoda, of ‘Godfather’ and ‘Barney Miller,’ Dies at 94

Abe Vigoda, who found outstanding fame in the late 1970s through his role as an earnest mobster Tessio in “The Godfather” and the dyspeptic Detective Phil Fish on the hit sitcom “Barney Miller,” died on Tuesday morning in Woodland Park, N.J. He died at the age of 94 and was a cult figure even for today’s generation.

Abe Vigoda is survived by her daughter

His daughter, Carol Vigoda Fuchs, told The Associated Press that Vigoda had died in his sleep at her home. Vigoda was 50 years old when he got his big Hollywood break, the role of Salvatore Tessio in Francis Ford Coppola’s epic 1972 adaptation of the Mario Puzo novel “The Godfather.” At that time, Abe Vigoda was playing Shakespeare on Broadway.

“I’m really not a Mafia person,” Vigoda, who was of Russian-Jewish descent, told Vanity Fair magazine in 2009. “I’m an actor who spent his life in the theatre. But Francis said, ‘I want to look at the Mafia not as thugs and gangsters but like royalty in Rome.’ And he saw something in me that fit Tessio as one would look at the classics in Rome.”

To prepare himself for the role — a high-ranking mobster, or capo, who runs a crew of his own — Vigoda frequented the Lower East Side and other New York neighbourhoods that are backdrops in the story. He told Vanity Fair that he “practically lived in Little Italy during the shoot.”

Tessio was an old friend of the Godfather, Vito Corlene. But as the story progresses, he becomes the very figure of disloyalty and betrayal, and pays a heavy price for it.

A year after that, Abe Vigoda was cast as the worn-out Detective Fish on the station-house sitcom “Barney Miller,” opposite Hal Linden in the title role. Vigoda stayed with the series for two seasons, 1975-76 and 1976-77, and the opening episodes of a third, earning three Emmy nominations for best supporting actor in a comedy series. (The show continued without him until 1982.)

Vigoda faked his own death 32 years ago

In 1982, People Magazine reported that Vigoda had died. Instead of getting angry about it, Vigoda responded by placing an ad in Variety with a photo showing him sitting up in a coffin and holding a copy of the offending issue of the magazine.

After that, his ‘fake death’ became a running joke. “I have nothing to say about Abe,” Billy Crystal said at a roast of Rob Reiner at the Friars Club, where Vigoda was a regular. “I was always taught to speak well of the dead.” Conan O’Brien and David Letterman invited him on their late-shows to prove that he was indeed alive.

He acted in many other movies, including “Cannonball Run II” (1984), “Look Who’s Talking” (1989), “Joe Versus the Volcano” (1990), “Sugar Hill” (1993) and “Underworld” (1996). One of his last performances was in a Snickers commercial, first shown during the 2010 Super Bowl, which also featured his fellow octogenarian Betty White.

Apart from his daughter, Vigoda is survived by three grandchildren and a great grandson