Abe Vigoda - RIP

Our top story tonight, Generalismo Francisco Franco is still dead, and Abe Vigoda is actually dead. In 1982 People magazine mistakenly referred to Vigoda as dead at the age of 60.  At the time, Vigoda, age 60, was performing in a stage play in Calgary.  He took the mistake with good humor, posing for a photograph published in Variety in which he was sitting up in a coffin, holding the erroneous issue of People.

The same mistake was made in 1987 when a reporter for television station WWOR, Channel 9 in Secaucus, New Jersey, mistakenly referred to him as "the late Abe Vigoda".  In 1997 Abe was shopping at Bloomingdale's in Manhattan when the salesman remarked, "You look like Abe Vigoda. But you can't be Abe Vigoda because he's dead." A Late Night with David Letterman skit showed Letterman trying to summon Vigoda's ghost, but Vigoda walked in and declared, "I'm not dead yet, you pinhead!"

At a New York Friars Club roast of Rob Reiner which Vigoda attended, comedian Billy Crystal wise-cracked, "I have nothing to say about Abe. I was always taught to speak well of the dead." In May 2001, a website "Abe Vigoda's Status" was mounted with only one purpose: to report whether Vigoda was dead or alive.In 2005, a "tongue-in-cheek" Firefox extension was released with the sole purpose of telling the browser user Vigoda's status.

Continuing with the gag, Vigoda appeared frequently to make fun of his status on the television show Late Night with Conan O'Brien, including a guest appearance on the show's final episode. At the 1998 New York Friars Club roast of Drew Carey, with Vigoda in the audience, comedian Jeff Ross joked, "my one regret is that Abe Vigoda isn't alive to see this". He followed that with "Drew, you go to Vegas; what's the over–under on Abe Vigoda?" 

On January 23, 2009, Vigoda appeared live on The Today Show. He said he was doing well, joked about previous reports of his death and announced he had just completed a voice-over for an H&R Block commercial to air during the Super Bowl. Vigoda and Betty White, both 88 years old at the time, appeared in "Game", a Snickers commercial that debuted during Super Bowl XLIV on February 7, 2010. 

Otherwise known for his portrayal of Tesio in The Godfather and long running character Fish on Barney Miller, Mr. Vigoda passed away on Jan 26th, 2016 at the ripe old age of 94. RIP Abe