Abe Vigoda, Character Actor From North Jersey, Dies At 94

By Feroze Dhanoa
Staff Writer

Character actor Abe Vigoda, who played Phil Fish in the 1970s TV series “Barney Miller,” died Tuesday at 94, his daughter told the Associated Press.

His daughter, Carol Vigoda Fuchs, told the AP he died at her Woodland Park, New Jersey home in his sleep Tuesday morning. She said, “The man was never sick,” and his cause of death was old age.

Vigoda’s death was erroneously reported by People Magazine in 1982 — and dozens of times since then. The magazine reported the “late Abe Vigoda was not present at a Barney Miller ”wrap party” in Los Angeles. Since then, the status of whether Vigoda was dead or alive turned into a pop culture phenomenon.

Born in 1921 in New York City, he attended the Theater School for Dramatic Arts at Carnegie Hall working in theater for nearly 30 years before being cast in ”The Godfather” in 1972 and subsequently as Detective Fish on the TV comedy, “Barney Miller.”

Vigoda played the role of Sal Tessio in the Oscar-winning film, a longtime friend of Vito Corleone’s (played by Marlin Brando), who plans on killing Vito’s son Michael Corleone (played by Al Pacino) after Vito’s death. The move is anticipated by Michael and Sal is taken to be executed.

He was cast as Detective Fish at the age of 53 after being told to rush to the audition by his agent. He recalled the story of how he was cast in the book, “What Have You Done?: The Inside Stories of Auditioning--from the Ridiculous to the Sublime.”

Vigoda had just jogged five miles and had not showered. When he arrived at the audition, the producers looked at him and Vigoda recalled one of them saying in the book “You look tired.” He explained that of course he was tired since he had just jogged five miles.

The producer then said to Vigoda, “you look like you have hemorrhoids,” to which he replied, “What are you, a doctor or a producer?”

He was cast in the sitcom starring Hal Linden in the fictional 12th Precinct of the NYPD located in Greenwich Village. He was a regular on the series for two of its eight seasons and after his character retired from the show he appeared in the spinoff, “Fish” in 1977. The show lasted two seasons.

This report will be updated.

Image via WikiMedia Commons