
Abe Vigoda
Tall, dour-faced and slouch-shouldered character actor Abraham Charles Vigoda (February 24, 1921 – January 26, 2016) proved himself in both gritty dramatic roles, and as an actor with wonderful comedic timing.
Vigoda was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Lena (Moses) and Samuel Vigoda, both Russian Jewish immigrants. His father was a tailor on the Lower East Side. He made his first stage appearance at the age of 17 and plodded away in small theater shows for over 20 years. For the majority of film-goers, Vigoda first came to prominence in The Godfather (1972) as the double-crossing Tessio, pleading with Robert Duvall to get him off the hook "for old times' sake." He also appeared in its sequel.
Vigoda had roles in a few nondescript TV films before landing the plum part of Sgt. Phil Fish on the brilliant sitcom Barney Miller (1974). Perhaps his best known role, Sgt. Fish proved popular enough to be 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 remark, "I need an Abe Vigoda type actor," not realizing Vigoda was still alive and well. The 1990s and beyond became busy again for him, with appearances in North (1994), The Misery Brothers (1995), A Brooklyn State of Mind (1998), and Crime Spree (2003). He continued acting into his 90s, surprising audiences with his entertaining style.
Abe Vigoda died in his sleep on January 26, 2016 in Woodland Park, New Jersey.
Known For | Acting |
---|---|
Most Rating | 0.224 |
Birthday | 1921-02-24 |
Place of Birth | New York City, New York, USA |
Also Known As | Abraham Charles Vigodah, ایب ویگودا, |

2000

Tea Cakes or Cannoli
0/0
Life through the eyes of a sixteen-year old boy growing up in Boston's north side. Director Francine Pellegrino captures the richness of Boston-Italia...
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Tea Cakes or Cannoli

1994

North
5/255
Eleven-year-old North has had it with his parents. They are always busy with their careers and don't give North the attention he needs, so he files a...
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North

1984

Cannonball Run II
5.4/324
When a wealthy sheikh puts up $1 million in prize money for a cross-country car race, there is one person crazy enough to hit the road hard with wheel...
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Cannonball Run II

1989

Prancer
5.9/97
Jessica, the daughter of an impoverished apple farmer, still believes in Santa Claus. So when she comes across a reindeer with an injured leg, it make...
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Prancer

1989

Look Who's Talking
6.273/2316
Mollie is a single working mother who's out to find the perfect father for her child. Her baby, Mikey, prefers James, a cab driver turned babysitter w...
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Look Who's Talking

1998

Just the Ticket
5.5/28
Gary Starke is one of the best ticket scalpers in New York City. His girlfriend, Linda, doesn't approve of his criminal lifestyle, though, and dumps h...
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Just the Ticket

1981

The Godfather 1901–1959: The Complete Epic
9.3/3
The Godfather 1901–1959: The Complete Epic is a reduced, 386-minute version of the 1977 television miniseries, "Mario Puzo's The Godfather: The Comple...
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The Godfather 1901–1959: The Complete Epic

1978

The Cheap Detective
6.2/85
A spoof of the entire 1940s detective genre. San Francisco private detective, Lou Pekinpaugh is accused of murdering his partner at the instigation of...
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The Cheap Detective

1993

Batman: Mask of the Phantasm
7.473/1135
Andrea Beaumont leaves her father to return to Gotham, rekindling an old romance with Bruce Wayne. At the same time, a mysterious figure begins to hun...
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Batman: Mask of the Phantasm

1998

Witness to the Mob
7.2/18
Sammy 'The Bull' Gravano was mafiosi. He started out as a soldier, but his talent for murder, including the slayings of his best friends, his wife's b...
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Witness to the Mob

1994

Sugar Hill
5.6/98
In the Harlem neighborhood of New York City, the Mafia steps in when a drug dealer quits his partner brother to lead a straight life with his girlfrie...
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Sugar Hill

1998

A Brooklyn State of Mind
4.8/4
Al Stanco has lived all of his life in Brooklyn and does some work for the local crime lord, Danny Parente. New to the neighbourhood is Gabriela, a fi...
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A Brooklyn State of Mind

1995

Jury Duty
4.4/118
When jobless Tommy Collins discovers that sequestered jurors earn free room and board as well as $5-a-day, he gets himself assigned to a jury in a mur...
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Jury Duty

1993

Me and the Kid
4.7/3
A lonely and emotionally neglected rich kid forms an attachment to one of the men who kidnap him during a botched robbery of his father's safe.
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Me and the Kid

1993

Fist of Honor
5.3/7
As two rival Godfathers view to take control of the city, a hot-tempered family member kills two relatives of the opposing family, breaking the "Truce...
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Fist of Honor

1996

Love Is All There Is
5.4/13
The Malacicis, a hard-working Italian family recently immigrated from Florence, open a fancy restaurant in the Bronx, N.Y., drawing the ire of another...
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Love Is All There Is

1996

Underworld
5.2/20
A crook sets out to get revenge on the thugs who hurt his father in this bloody noir-style crime drama. After being released from prison, Johnny Crown...
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Underworld

1973

The Don Is Dead
5.9/25
After his mistress is murdered, a Mafia leader goes after the killer with a bloody vengeance. Soon after the hunt begins, a gang war ensues.
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The Don Is Dead

1972

The Godfather
8.689/21155
Spanning the years 1945 to 1955, a chronicle of the fictional Italian-American Corleone crime family. When organized crime family patriarch, Vito Corl...
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The Godfather

1973

The Devil's Daughter
6.5/15
A young girl whose mother had sold her soul to Satan when she was born is told by Satan that she must marry a fellow demon.
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The Devil's Daughter

1990

Keaton's Cop
3.7/6
Ex-mobster Keaton, now living in a retirement home, narrowly misses being the target of a mob hit. Policemen Jake, an old friend of Keaton's, and Gabl...
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Keaton's Cop

1979

Death Car on the Freeway
5.3/16
A determined TV reporter is out to find a maniac who is methodically attacking lone women drivers on the Los Angeles Freeway by pushing them off the r...
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Death Car on the Freeway

1996

A Christmas Journey Home
0/0
Young Billy sneaks his grandfather out of the nursing home for one last Christmas. On their way home, they become targets of a New York City street ga...
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A Christmas Journey Home

1997

Good Burger
6.1/519
Two L.A. teens with summer jobs at Good Burger try to save their small restaurant when a corporate giant burger franchise moves in across the street.
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Good Burger

1978

The Comedy Company
0/0
An ex-comedian fights to keep a failing nightclub alive as a showcase for aspiring young comics.
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The Comedy Company

1974

Newman's Law
6.1/7
LAPD Officer Newman has not gotten the reputation of a straight arrow by avoiding conflict when fighting for right. In this police drama, his honesty...
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Newman's Law

1990

Night of 100 Stars III
4/2
A celebrity benefit for The Actors' Fund of America, featuring music, songs, dance and comedy.
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Night of 100 Stars III

2003

Crime Spree
5.6/101
An out-of-town heist becomes a nightmare for a crew of French burglars when they mistakenly rob the head of the Chicago mafia. Unaccustomed to the way...
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Crime Spree

1988

Plain Clothes
6.1/31
To prove his brother's innocence, undercover officer Nick enrolls in high school again, dealing with crushes, bullies, humiliations, popularity swings...
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Plain Clothes

1980

Gridlock
6/1
A series of freak accidents on the Los Angeles freeway traps a cast-load of familiar TV faces in an astounding traffic tie-up, with the entire system...
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Gridlock

1974

The Godfather Part II
8.57/12773
In the continuing saga of the Corleone crime family, a young Vito Corleone grows up in Sicily and in 1910s New York. In the 1950s, Michael Corleone at...
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The Godfather Part II

1990

Joe Versus the Volcano
5.7/535
Hypochondriac Joe Banks finds out he has six months to live, quits his dead end job, musters the courage to ask his co-worker out on a date, and is th...
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Joe Versus the Volcano

1986

Vasectomy: A Delicate Matter
0/0
Gino, a bank executive is not having a good day. After giving birth to their eighth child, his wife insists that he have a vasectomy, something he doe...
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Vasectomy: A Delicate Matter

1995

The Misery Brothers
2/1
Screwball sex comedy focusing on two brothers.
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The Misery Brothers

1985

The Stuff
5.996/480
Amalgamated Dairies hires David Rutherford, an FBI man turned industrial saboteur, to investigate a popular new product called “the Stuff,” a new dess...
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The Stuff

1965

Three Rooms in Manhattan
6/24
When his wife leaves him, a young French actor, François Combe, moves to New York to work for a television company. One evening, he meets an attractiv...
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Three Rooms in Manhattan

1976

Joys
4/0
Over fifty of the greatest living comedians are called to a party at Bob Hope's house, where each of them is systematically killed (and their bodies t...
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Joys

2006

Farce of the Penguins
4.153/49
In this spoof of "March of the Penguins," nature footage of penguins near the South Pole gets a soundtrack of human voices. Carl and Jimmy, best frien...
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Farce of the Penguins

1981

The Big Stuffed Dog
3/1
A large stuffed Snoopy toy goes astray at an airport baggage area, and gets involved with various travelers.
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The Big Stuffed Dog

2008

The Unknown Trilogy
2/1
Somewhere, between the boundaries of life and death, lays the darkest places in the human heart. In these dimly lit recesses crouch fears older than m...
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The Unknown Trilogy

1976

Dean Martin's Red Hot Scandals of 1926
0/0
Dean Martin, Dom DeLuise and Georgia Engel celebrating the events, and fads of the 1920's in a humorous, music hall manner.
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Dean Martin's Red Hot Scandals of 1926

1974

The Story of Pretty Boy Floyd
4/2
A humanistic account of "the Robin Hood of the Cookson Hills", in which Charles Arthur Floyd is portrayed as a decent man who has a strong sense of fa...
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The Story of Pretty Boy Floyd

2000

Chump Change
3.9/7
A failed Hollywood actor returns to his home town in Wisconsin and reminisces about his life in L.A. to a potential new girlfriend about his faults, a...
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Chump Change

1994

Home of Angels
0/0
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Home of Angels

2013

Cutaways
0/0
A character cut from Pulp Fiction meets a characters cut from The Conversation.
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Cutaways

1976

Having Babies
6/1
The story of four couples who are about to have children using the Lamaze method.
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Having Babies

1978

How to Pick Up Girls!
2/2
The amusing adventures of an unsophisticated small-town lad who arrives in New York, moves in with his swinging buddy, and surprisingly becomes an aut...
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How to Pick Up Girls!

1997

Farticus
0/0
The story of an old man who gets the walking farts every time a beautiful woman enters the room.
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Farticus

2003

Late Night with Conan O'Brien: 10th Anniversary Special
6.8/9
Conan O'Brien celebrates ten years of "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" in this one-hour special. Many guest appearances and clip montages show us how f...
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Late Night with Conan O'Brien: 10th Anniversary Special

1973

Toma
7.5/2
This TV-pilot, later made into a TV-series, is about a cop in Newark, New Jersey, who defies his superiors to try to bring down the head of a Mafia nu...
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