This page uses content from the Abe Vigoda biography page on the English version of Wikipedia and is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. This list of authors can be seen in the page history. Rotten Tomatoes disclaims any and all warranties as to the accuracy or reliability of the content.

Abe Vigoda, born Abraham Charles Vigoda on February 24, 1921, in New York City, is an American movie and television actor. Born to a Jewish-Mexican father and an Italian mother, Vigoda gained fame through his supporting character roles, notably as mobster Sal Tessio in the 1972 movie The Godfather. He later played Detective Sgt. Fish on the television series Barney Miller and its spinoff Fish. Before Barney Miller, he made a few appearances on the ABC-TV soap Dark Shadows.

He has been mentioned in popular works by artists such as the Beastie Boys. He makes regular appearances as himself on the television show Late Night with Conan O'Brien.

In 1982, Vigoda enjoyed a little extra publicity when People magazine erroneously declared him dead. Vigoda took the error with good humor, posing for a photograph showing him sitting up in a coffin, holding the magazine in question. Since then his erroneous death has remained a running joke for Vigoda; for example, a November 2006 Conan O'Brien sketch shows an audience member "summoning the dead." The "deceased person" turns out to be Vigoda. This rumor was nearly started again in 1987 when a reporter for Secaucus, New Jersey television station WWOR, Channel 9 erroneously referred to him as "the late Abe Vigoda." She corrected herself on the air the next day.

In 1999 Vigoda experienced a potentially life-threatening situation. While he was a passenger aboard American Airlines Flight 180 from San Diego to New York, the plane experienced a burst compressed air line in the passenger cabin. Oxygen masks were deployed, and the plane made an emergency descent and landing in Palm Springs. Vigoda and five other passengers were listed as "slightly injured."

In 2006, Vigoda reprised the role of Tessio in The Godfather: The Game.

Web humor

Greg Galcik created the website abevigoda.com in May 2001, which was a single page displaying "Abe Vigoda's status" which reports whether Abe Vigoda is currently alive or dead. In 2002, Galcik recorded a gothic rock song Abe Vigoda's Dead, a parody of Bela Lugosi's Dead by Bauhaus.

In 2004, programmer Bob Vesterman released the Abe Vigoda Status extension for the Mozilla Firefox web browser, so the user's Firefox status bar would display whether Vigoda were alive or dead. The extension's humor made it a common pick as journalists described the new field of browser extensions and it became quite popular, especially after being posted on the website Fark.com. The ensuing traffic briefly crashed Vesterman's website. As of 2006, the extension is no longer available and does not work.

The website to the PC game They Came From Hollywood, a game known for its constant delays, uses Abe Vigoda's status as a way to tell fans whether development of the game has been cancelled or not.

Filmography

• Three Rooms in Manhattan (1965)
• The Godfather (1972)
• The Don Is Dead (1973)
• Newman's Law (1974)
• The Godfather: Part II (1974)
• The Cheap Detective (1978)
• Cannonball Run II (1984)
• The Stuff (1985) (Cameo)
• Vasectomy: A Delicate Matter (1986)
• Keaton's Cop (1988)
• Plain Clothes (1988)
• Look Who's Talking (1989)
• Prancer (1989)
• Joe Versus the Volcano (1990)
• Fist of Honor (1993)
• Me and the Kid (1993)
• Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (1993) (voice)
• Home of Angels (1994)
• Sugar Hill (1994)
• North (1994)
• The Misery Brothers (1995)
• Jury Duty (1995)
• Love Is All There Is (1996)
• Underworld (1996)
• Me and the Gods (1997)
• A Brooklyn State of Mind (1997)
• Good Burger (1997)
• Just the Ticket (1999)
• Tea Cake or Cannoli (2000)
• Crime Spree (2003)
• Chump Change (2004)

Upcoming:

• Frankie the Squirrel (2006)
• Mafioso II: The Son (2006)

Television work

• Dark Shadows (cast member in 1969)
• The Devil's Daughter (1973)
• Toma (1973)
• The Story of Pretty Boy Floyd (1974)
• Barney Miller (cast member from 1975-1977)
• Having Babies (1976)
• Fish (1977-1978)
• Soap (1978)
• The Comedy Company (1978)
• How to Pick Up Girls! (1978)
• Death Car on the Freeway (1979)
• Gridlock (1980)
• The Big Stuffed Dog (1981)
• As the World Turns (cast member in 1985)
• Santa Barbara (cast member in 1989)
• Lucky Luke (1993) (canceled after 8 episodes)
• Witness to the Mob (1998)
• Late Night with Conan O'Brian (recurring character)

External links

• AbeVigoda.com

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