Abe Vigoda, best known for his roles in The Godfather and on Barney Miller, has died at the age of 94. We haven't done it lately but we'd been monitoring his alive/dead status at this website which now has the sad news.
I don't have a lot to say about Mr. Vigoda. When I was working on Welcome Back, Kotter back in the seventies, we shared studio space for a time with Fish, the spin-off series from Barney Miller, so I saw him a lot. The first time we were introduced, I thought he'd be impressed or interested that I knew he had a brother, Bill Vigoda, who'd drawn Archie comic books. I was wrong. Abe didn't care. I'm not sure if he didn't care about his brother or he didn't care that I knew that but he didn't care.
I didn't talk to him much after that.
Not long before that, I sat next to him at an industry screening of the movie, Close Encounters of the Third Kind. This was before it was released to the general public and many folks involved in the making of the film were present including Mr. Spielberg. Mr. Vigoda did not like or understand the movie and throughout, he kept muttering aloud — in that crotchety, expressive voice of his — little things like, "What the hell is that?" and "Why is he doing that?" It was very much like the Mel Brooks short, The Critic, and it had me and everyone around us laughing out loud. I wondered how Spielberg reacted to this little pocket of the audience that was guffawing during non-humorous scenes.
I think the last time I spoke with Abe was because of my friend, Howard Morris. Abe and Howie occasionally toured in The Sunshine Boys, with Abe playing the Jack Albertson/Walter Matthau role and Howie as the other guy, plus Howie directed. They were booked for another tour and then Abe changed his mind and bowed out. Howie took me along to a lunch with Abe (and other actors in the same age group) and while the lunch was purely social, he did hope to persuade Vigoda to change his mind. Howie needed the work and if Abe didn't reconsider, Howie would either lose the job or have to do it with an actor he utterly despised but who was liked by the tour organizers.
He was unable to persuade Abe to rescind his decision. Howie made his case and then Abe folded his arms and said with great finality, "I'm too old to do something I don't want to do." And that, by God, was that. This occurred at least twenty years ago so I'm guessing that thereafter, Abe did absolutely nothing he didn't want to do, except maybe leave us.
Funny man. Good actor.