Abe Vigoda, aka Tessio from The Godfather, Dies at age 94

Posted by Leah on 1/27/2016 12:44:02 PM

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        They often say that bad news comes in threes. With the recent deaths of David Bowie and Alan Rickman I have to admit that I’ve been waiting for the third. I had hoped, of course, that the saying would prove false in this case, since so many of my Hollywood favorites have passed in the past couple of years. Unfortunately though, the saying (once again) proved true. On Tuesday, January 26, 2016 the legendary Abe Vigoda passed away.
 
        Vigoda had a somewhat odd career, by Hollywood standards.  He didn’t start his life as a professional actor until 1947, at the age of 28. By 1949 he had landed roles on several TV shows, including Suspense and Studio One in Hollywood. But it wasn’t until 1972, at the age of 51, that Vigoda’s big screen break came, with the role he’s most famous for, Tessio in The Godfather. After that his career took off and he was able to land many roles, both in movies and on TV. His most notable role on TV was as Detective Sargent Phil Fish on Barney Miller. He played the role of Fish so well that a spinoff was made, called Fish, in which Vigoda starred. All in all Vigoda has 94 acting credits to his name, including roles in Cannonball Run II, Prancer, Fist of Honor, Look Who’s Talking, Jury Duty and Crime Spree, to name a few.
 
         But perhaps the oddest thing of Vigoda’s life happened in 1982. That was the year that People magazine mistakenly published an article that claimed Vigoda had died.  Always known to have a wonderful sense of humor, Vigoda responded to the article with a picture, published in Variety, in which he was sitting up in a casket and holding up the erroneous copy of People.
 
        For the rest of his life People magazine’s mistake was a running joke, which he took with great stride. He made frequent appearances on both Late Night with David Letterman and Late Night with Conan O’Brian in order to keep people up to date on his “very much alive” status. Watch Conan’s touching tribute to Vigoda here. In 2001 a website was created, (AbeVigoda.com), in order to report to visitors to the page Vigoda’s alive or dead status. Previously it featured a picture of him with the words “Abe Vigoda is Alive.”  It now reports that “Abe Vigoda is Dead.”

               Few people, be them actors or otherwise, find the fame and success Abe Vigoda enjoyed so late in his life. He was quoted as saying, “When I was a young man, I was told success had to come in my youth. I found this to be a myth. My experiences have taught me that if you deeply believe in what you are doing, success can come at any age." Looking back now on his illustrious career, I find that these are very profound words that we should all keep in mind, both when remembering this legendary man and his work, and in our day to day lives. It is my hope that we should all be as lucky and successful as Abe Vigoda.