Abe Vigoda, 'Barney Miller' and 'Godfather' star, dies at 94
Celebrity
Abe Vigoda, ‘Barney Miller’ and 'Godfather’ star, dies at 94
Abe Vigoda, the beloved actor known for playing Det. Fish on “Barney Miller” and mobster Sal Tessio in “The Godfather,” and for weathering years of mistaken reports about his death, died in his sleep in New Jersey on Tuesday at the age of 94. Vigoda’s daughter, at whose home he had been staying, confirmed the death and said the cause was old age.
This man was never sick.
Vigoda’s daughter, Carol Vigoda Fuchs
Vigoda’s leathery, sunken-eyed face made him ideal for playing his two most noted roles, the over-the-hill detective in the 1970s TV series “Barney Miller” and the doomed Mafia soldier in “The Godfather." Vigoda worked in relative obscurity as a supporting actor in the New York theater and in television until being cast in the 1972 Oscar-winning movie. The great success of the film and "The Godfather Part II” made his face and voice, if not his name, recognizable to the general public and led to numerous roles, often as hoodlums. But it was his comic turn in “Barney Miller,” which starred Hal Linden and ran from 1975 to 1982, that brought Vigoda’s greatest recognition.
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.
Abe Vigoda
