Vincent Schiavelli

Infobox Actor

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caption = Schiavelli and his then- wife Allyce Beasley, September 20, 1987
birthname = Vincent Andrew Schiavelli
birthdate = birth date|1948|11|11
deathdate = nowrap|death date and age|2005|12|26|1948|11|10
Polizzi Generosa, Sicily, Italy
birthplace = Brooklyn, New York
yearsactive = 1971 – 2005
spouse = Allyce Beasley (4 August 1985 – 1988)
Carol Mukhalian (23 October 1992 – 26 December 2005)

Vincent Andrew Schiavelli (November 11 1948 – December 26 2005) was an American actor noted for his work in film, stage, and television. He was often described as "the man with the sad eyes".

Biography

Early life

Schiavelli was born in Brooklyn, New York to a Sicilian/Italian American family. He attended Bishop Loughlin Memorial High School as a teen and studied acting through the Theater Program at New York University. He began performing on stage in the 1960s.

Career

Schiavelli's first movie role occurred in Miloš Forman's 1971 production "Taking Off", in which he played a counselor who taught parents of runaway teens to smoke marijuana in order to better understand their children's experiences. Schiavelli's aptitude and distinctive angular appearance soon provided him with a steady stream of supporting roles, often in Milos Forman films, namely "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest", "Amadeus", "The People vs. Larry Flynt", "Valmont", and the 1999 biopic "Man on the Moon".

Schiavelli also played Mr. Vargas the biology teacher in the 1982 hit comedy "Fast Times at Ridgemont High", a role he reprised in the 1986 television spin-off, "Fast Times". He was cast in a similar role in the cult hit "Better Off Dead" in which he played Mr. Kerber, a strangely popular geometry teacher.

In 1987, he starred alongside Tim Conway in the short film comedy, "Dorf on Golf", and "Dorf and the First Games of Mount Olympus" in 1988. Schiavelli's role as a subway spirit in the 1990 drama "Ghost" won him much critical acclaim. In 1992, he played in Tim Burton's "Batman Returns" as the "Organ Grinder", one of the Penguin's henchmen. He appeared as another villain in the James Bond film "Tomorrow Never Dies" (1997), as a silent monk in "The Frisco Kid" (1979), and as John O'Connor, one of the evil Red Lectroids in the 1984 cult classic "The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension". In 1997, he was named one of America's best character actors by "Vanity Fair" magazine. [ [http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5070410 Character Actor Vincent Schiavelli Dies] , NPR's "Morning Edition", 2005-12-27]

His first television role came in 1972 as Peter Panama in "The Corner Bar", the first sustained portrayal of a gay character on American television. His other television credits include "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", and "Taxi" as the priest who marries Latka and Simka. He also appeared in the "" episode "The Arsenal of Freedom" as a holographic salesman. Schiavelli also wrote a number of cookbooks and food articles for various magazines and newspapers. He received a James Beard Foundation Journalism Award in 2001 and was nominated on several other occasions.

Schiavelli served as honorary co-chair of the National Marfan Foundation, an organization which serves those affected by Marfan syndrome, from which Schiavelli suffered. [ [http://www.marfan.org/nmf/PreviewPressReleaseInfoRequestHandler.do?press_release_id=24 NMF Mourns the Loss of its Honorary Co-Chair, Vincent Schiavelli ] , The National Marfan Foundation]

Personal life

He was married to actress Allyce Beasley from 1985 until their 1988 divorce, and he once guest-starred as the love interest of Beasley's character on an episode of "Moonlighting". Their son, Andrea Schiavelli, was born in 1987. In 1992, Schiavelli married American harpist Carol Mukhalian.

Death

On December 26 2005, Schiavelli succumbed to lung cancer, aged 57. He died at his home in Polizzi Generosa, Italy, the Sicilian town from which his grandfather emigrated and about which he wrote in his 2002 book, "Many Beautiful Things: Stories and Recipes from Polizzi Generosa" (ISBN 0-7432-1528-1).

References

External links

*imdb name|id=0001704|name=Vincent Schiavelli
* [http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=Schiavelli&GSfn=Vincent&GSby=1948&GSbyrel=in&GSdy=2005&GSdyrel=in&GSob=n&GRid=12793268& Vincent Schiavelli at Find-A-Grave.]
* [http://www.mussil.com/vincent/ Photos of the last shooting]

Persondata
NAME=Schiavelli, Vincent
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
SHORT DESCRIPTION=Actor
DATE OF BIRTH=November 10, 1948
PLACE OF BIRTH=New York City, U.S.
DATE OF DEATH=December 26, 2005
PLACE OF DEATH=Polizzi Generosa, Sicily, Italy