BY LEE PFEIFFER
Abe Vigoda, whose hang-dog expression and low-key mannerisms help propel him to fame, has passed away at age 94. Vigoda toiled in films and TV without notable success until director Francis Ford Coppola cast him in the key role of Tessio, a mob lieutenant in the Corleone crime family in the 1972 classic "The Godfather". Tessio was one of the most trusted "employees" of the Corleone family but following the death of its patriarch Vito Corleone, Tessio is discovered to be planning the assassination of the new godfather, Michael Corleone. Memorably he is led away to his execution with typical understated emotion. Vigoda's stock in the film industry rose immediately and he became a popular character actor, appearing in such films as "The Cheap Detective", "The Don is Dead", "Newman's Law", "Look Who's Talking" and "The Cannonball Run II". He also made an un-billed cameo appearance as Tessio in the 1974 production of "The Godfather Part II." (Both films won Best Picture Oscars). In 1975 Vigoda landed a key supporting role in the popular TV sitcom "Barney Miller", playing a world-weary detective nicknamed "Fish". The show ran until 1982 and resulted in a short-lived spin-off series about the character in which Vigoda reprised the role. Vigoda was a popular fixture with the Friars Club whose merciless jibes against him usually focused on his less-than-stellar looks and the fact that Vigoda has mistakenly been pronounced as having died in a 1982 article in People magazine. Vigoda accepted the resulting jokes with typical good humor. At various Friars Club roasts that he attended, speakers would inevitably joke "If only Abe Vigoda were alive, he would have loved this evening!".
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