Vincent Andrew "Vince" Schiavelli (November 11, 1948 – December 26, 2005) was an American character actor and food writer noted for his work on stage, screen and television, often described as "the man with the sad eyes." He was notable for his numerous supporting roles. He often linked his unique facial appearance and tall stature (6 feet 5 inches (1,95 m)) to Marfan syndrome.
Schiavelli gained fame as a character actor. His best-known roles include Fredrickson in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), Mr. Vargas in Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982), the Subway Ghost in Ghost (1990), Organ Grinder in Batman Returns (1992), Chester in The People vs Larry Flynt (1996), Dr. Kaufman in Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) and ABC executive Maynard Smith in Man on the Moon (1999).
Before his death in 2005, Vincent Schiavelli was considered by many as one of Hollywood's best character actors. Roger Ebert stated "Schiavelli had a way of slipping into films without people knowing his name, but they remembered his great performances as unique characters."
Early life[]
Schiavelli was born in Brooklyn, New York, to a Sicilian-American family. He attended Bishop Loughlin Memorial High School as a teen. He studied acting through the theatre programme at New York University. He began performing on stage in the 1960s.
Career[]
Schiavelli's first film 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 Miloš Forman films, including One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Amadeus, The People vs. Larry Flynt, Valmont, and the 1999 biopic Man on the Moon.
He played Mr. Vargas, the biology teacher, in the 1982 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 Better Off Dead in which he played Mr. Kerber, a geometry teacher.
In 1987, he starred alongside Tim Conway in the short film comedy Dorf on Golf, and then Dorf and the First Games of Mount Olympus in 1988. In 1990, he played the Subway Ghost in Ghost and 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 1984's The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension. In 1994 he appeared in the music video for ZZ Top's song "Breakaway", alongside Fairuza Balkand in 1997, he was named one of America's best character actors by Vanity Fair magazine. He also made several voice appearances in the animated television show Hey Arnold!. In 2002, he played a children's television show host turned heroin addict named Buggy Ding Dong in Death to Smoochy.
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 The Moneychangers, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Taxi as the priest who marries Latka and Simka. He appeared in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "The Arsenal of Freedom" as a holographic salesman, on Miami Vice as a research scientist who conspires to steal a top-secret prototype weapon from his employer, and in an uncredited role in an episode of Punky Brewster. In 1987 he appeared as Lyle, a gangster, in the MacGyver season 2 episode "Soft Touch". In Highlander: The Series, he played Leo Atkins, a homeless Vietnam War veteran accused of murder in the Season 1 episode "Innocent Man". In The X-Files, he played Lanny, man with an underdeveloped conjoined twin in the Season 2 episode "Humbug".
He wrote a number of cookbooks and food articles for various magazines and newspapers, notably Gourmet, Saveur and the Los Angeles Times. In 1999, Schiavelli starred in a 26-episode Italian cooking show called Chefs of Cucina Amore that aired on PBS periodically for the next couple of years. He received a James Beard Foundation Journalism Award in 2001 and was nominated on several other occasions.
Vincent Schiavelli's three cookbooks are memoirs, with recipes related to personal history and anecdotes:
Papa Andrea's Sicilian Table: Recipes from a Sicilian Chef As Remembered by His Grandson, 1993
Bruculinu, America: Remembrances of Sicilian-American Brooklyn, Told in Stories and Recipes, 1998
Many Beautiful Things: Stories and Recipes from Polizzi Generosa, 2002
Schiavelli served as honorary co-chair of the National Marfan Foundation, an organization which serves those affected by Marfan syndrome, from which Schiavelli suffered.
Schiavelli also performed in a few video games, including Emperor: Battle for Dune (Harkonnen Mentat Yanich Kobal) and as Dr. Hellman in the video game Corpse Killer.
Personal life[]
Schiavelli was married to actress Allyce Beasley from 1985 until their 1988 divorce. He guest-starred as the love interest of Beasley's character on one episode of Moonlighting. Their son, Andrea Schiavelli, was born in 1987. In 1992, Schiavelli married American harpist Carol Mukhalian.
Death[]
Schiavelli died of lung cancer on December 26, 2005, aged 57, at his home in Polizzi Generosa, the Sicilian town where his grandfather was born, and about which he wrote in his 2002 book Many Beautiful Things: Stories and Recipes from Polizzi Generosa (ISBN 0-7432-1528-1). Schiavelli was buried at Polizzi Generosa Cemetery, near Palermo, Sicily. Two documentaries were made about Schiavelli's Sicilian life. The first, Once Upon a Time in Polizzi, was released on October 11, 2005 (two months before his death) and the second, Many Beautiful Things (Tanti Beddi Cosi is the Sicilian title), was produced by Aurelio Gambadoro and released in 2014. The film Hey Arnold!: The Jungle Movie is dedicated to his memory. (Schiavelli provided a memorable guest voice appearance as the Pigeon Man in the original series.)
Ghost Roles[]
Trivia[]
- Vincent lost his life to cancer at the age of 57, four years before co-star Patrick Swayze did.