25 Movie Talents We Lost In 2016

20. Abe Vigoda

Brooklyn-born actor Abe Vigoda started his career on Broadway before moving into film and scoring his most famous role as Vito Corleone’s caporegime Salvatore Tessio in Francis Ford Coppola’s mafia saga The Godfather.

He had a prolific television career appearing on old-school classics like Hawaii Five-O and The Littlest Hobo and scoring a regular role on NYPD sitcom Barney Miller, and also acted in comedy films including Look Who’s Talking and Joe Versus the Volcano.

Curiously, since the early 1980s there have been several erroneous reports and hoaxes of his death, something Vigoda took in his stride and adopted as something of a running gag. Sadly, this time it isn’t a hoax.