Abe Vigoda

As the eternally beleaguered Detective Phil Fish on the 1970s sitcom Barney Miller, Abe Vigoda was all sideburns, caterpillar eyebrows and stooped shoulders. You could sketch his physical essence in five strokes–though it would take much more to capture the woebegone gleam in his eye, or the just-behind-the-beat nobility of his comic timing.

Vigoda, who died Jan. 26 at age 94, almost didn’t have a movie or TV career at all. He was already 50, and an accomplished stage actor, when he won the part of Sal Tessio in The Godfather–a man whose eyes, already glancing away from the future, say much more than words ever could. After that, you knew Vigoda when you saw him, in the many TV and movie bit parts he played through the years. His hangdog grandeur was a kind of joy unto itself–an invitation to laugh at the world no matter how much weight it heaps on your shoulders.

–STEPHANIE ZACHAREK