Abe Vigoda

You may remember Abe Vigoda as Salvatore Tessio in The Godfather. In that movie, the 6′ 1″ (1.85 m) tall actor played an Italian member of the Mafia, even though he was of Russian Jewish descent. He also played Detective Phil Fish in Barney Miller and later spun off his own series, Fish.

In 1982, Time Magazine referred to Abe Vigoda as “the late Abe Vigoda.” An editor had removed “the late” and then another editor put it back in right before the edition went to print. For People magazine, Abe staged a photo in which he was sitting up in a coffin, reading the erroneous copy of Time. Five years later, a TV reporter made the same mistake. Much comedy has been made from these errors. A website, www.abevigoda.com, was created just for the purpose of reporting whether he was “over” or “under.” Take a look, the website is up-to-date.

H was married for 24 years to Beatrice Schy. They had one daughter.

Sadly, the truth is that after 1,139 months, or 34,737 days, or 94 years and 11 months, he actully has died.