Abe Vigoda
Actor
With hangdog face and rumpled suits, actor Abe Vigoda was a hit as Detective Sgt. Phil Fish on the 1970's TV sitcom Barney Miller. The show featured a ragtag band of New York City cops, with Vigoda as the comically world-weary grouch. Vigoda starred on the show from 1975-77, then left to star in the spinoff show Fish (1977-78). Vigoda wasn't always a specialist in curmudgeonly comedy -- his best-known film role is that of the treacherous Tessio in Francis Ford Coppola's film The Godfather (1972, with Marlon Brando). Vigoda's fame was renewed when he made frequent guest appearances on Conan O'Brien's Late Night show in the 1990s. He also earned a measure of ironic fame for persistent, and eventually humorous, rumors of his death, sparked by an erroneous People magazine story from the 1980s.Vigoda's vitality has earned him a spot alongside Richard Dawson in our loop I'm Not Dead Yet!
Blog posts mentioning Abe Vigoda:
Four Good Links
Barney Miller Fan Page
Nice fan-friendly background on Vigoda's hit show
Abe Vigoda Filmography
List of his movies and TV shows from Hollywood.com
The Godfather Trilogy
Not about Vigoda specifically, but a good big fan site for the films
Abe Vigoda's Broadway Credits
He's done more than TV and a couple of movies
Vital Stats
Birth
24 February 1921
(age 87)
Birthplace
Death
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Best Known As
Detective Fish on TV's Barney Miller
