Tall, dour faced & slouch shouldered character actor who has proven himself in both gritty dramatic roles, and as an actor with wonderful comedic timing. Vigoda was the son of a Lower East Side tailor, and actually made his first stage appearance at the age of 17 and plodded away in small theatre shows for over twenty years. For the majority of film goers, Vigoda first came to prominence as the do ...
show all Tall, dour faced & slouch shouldered character actor who has proven himself in both gritty dramatic roles, and as an actor with wonderful comedic timing. Vigoda was the son of a Lower East Side tailor, and actually made his first stage appearance at the age of 17 and plodded away in small theatre shows for over twenty years. For the majority of film goers, Vigoda first came to prominence as the double crossing Tessio in "The Godfather (1972)".....pleading with Robert Duvall to get him off the hook "for old times sake". Vigoda appeared in a few non-descript TV films after appearing in both Godfather I & II, before landing the plum role of Sgt. Phil Fish on the brilliant sitcom "The Barney Miller (1975)", which spun off to his own short lived series "Fish" (1977)". With his long face and unusual looks, Vigoda remained in high demand in mafioso type roles, and for a while in the mid 1980s , he was mistakenly believed to have been dead, leading producers to ask "I need an Abe Vigoda type actor", but not realising Vigoda was still alive and well. The 1990s & beyond became busy again for Abe with appearances in "North (1994)", "Misery Brothers (1995)", "Brooklyn State of Mind, A (1996)" and "Crime Spree (2003)". Still acting in his eighties, Abe Vigoda is continually surprising audiences with his entertaining style.
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