RIP

Abe Vigoda’s Funeral A Laugh Riot!

Celebs gathered to roast beloved pal — but 'Barney Miller' gets ignored!

Abe Vigoda Funeral
Corbis

“This is the 20th time we buried Abe Vigoda!” said comedian GIlbert Gottfried over the casket of the dead actor — and the crowd cracked up!
It was the final bizarre bow for the beloved “Barney Miller” star, and a salute to how an interview with The National ENQUIRER revived Abe’s career after PEOPLE magazine reported that he’d died in 1982!
Sadly, the 94-year-old actor finally passed away in his sleep on January 26 while visiting his daughter in New Jersey.

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“His big wish was not to be alone, and not to die alone,” said Carol Vigoda-Fuchs.
“So I’m grateful he got what he wanted.”
“It’s like his name became a punchline,” added Gilbert in a kinder moment — “but in a nice way, a loving way.”

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But eyewitnesses at the funeral added that Abe went out with an emphasis on his career-making turn in the 1972 classic “The Godfather” — with the service ignoring his work as cranky detective Fish in the classic ’70s sitcom “Barney Miller.”
The program for the funeral featured Abe under a popular line from “The Godfather,” when his mobster character pleaded for his life by asking: “Can you get me off the hook … for old times’ sake?”
“Godfather” star Al Pacino — whose character called for Abe’s death in the film — sent flowers, and Robert Duvall praised Vigoda’s performance in the film.

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The ENQUIRER had previously revealed how Abe once alienated Hollywood’s elite by being difficult on the set when producers tried to spin off a “Fish” series from “Barney Miller.”
The funeral’s closing moments revealed that Abe had chosen which classic character he chose to celebrate in his own farewell — as mourners left the Riverside Memorial Chapel in Manhattan to the strains of the theme to “The Godfather.”