Not many actors can boast a career spanning seven decades, but Abe Vigoda—who died Tuesday at age 94—was one of them. And his commercial career was just as long, beginning not long after the advent of TV advertising itself and continuing up through the Super Bowl just a few years ago.
Check out a few of his notable ad appearances below.
This first one is a Motorola sketch from the May 16, 1951, episode of the live TV show Four Star Revue. Motorola sponsored the show, and it's fun to see Jimmy Durante step out of character for a meta moment at the beginning. ("Folks," he says, "you and I have been good friends all year, but I've gotta be honest with you. This is a commercial.")
Vigoda plays the cab driver, amusingly pitching the product when he should be driving.
Here he is in a 1968 spot for the AMC Rebel hardtop automobile. This was still a few years before The Godfather made him famous.
In this 1978 Fresca spot, Vigoda plays his character Detective Phil Fish from Barney Miller, which was then in the middle of its eight-season run. His low-key "Wow" is perfect.
Flash-forward to 2004, when Vigoda appeared with a smorgasbord of other celebs—Randy Johnson, Penn & Teller, Rachel Hunter, The Flaming Lips and more—in this Hewlett-Packard ad.
His final commercial appearance reached the most people, though, as he co-starred with Betty White in this Snickers spot on the 2010 Super Bowl—launching BBDO New York's "You're not you when you're hungry" campaign, which continues today.
