Published at: Dec. 26, 2005, 1:06 p.m. CST by staff
Hey guys. Quint here with some real bogus to pop your post-holidays euphoria. 2005 has not been kind to character actors and in its final days we have one more of the greats get taken from us. Vincent Schiavelli is one of those people who is not a name, but almost everybody in the world has seen his face and would recognize him on the street.
I saw him ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST first, but I have to say when I heard he died the very first image that popped into my mind of him was as the dead dude that teaches Swayze he can impact the living world in GHOST. "Get off my train!!!"
He also appeared as a teacher in the 80s high school classics FAST TIME AT RIDGEMONT HIGH (I remember him and his Iguana fondly from that flick... and who could forget the class field trip to look at dead bodies?) and numerous other 80s classics like BETTER OFF DEAD, BUCKAROO BONZAI and AMADEUS to name a few.
On top of his films, Schiavelli also created many memorible characters on television, the best of which is probably from the HUMBUG episode of X-FILES. Buffy fans will also recognize him as Uncle Enyos, but he was in everything. Star Trek? Yep. MacGuyver? Uh-huh. Who's the Boss? Indeed. Even Who's the Boss? 'Fraid so. STARSKY & HUTCH, CHARLIE'S ANGELS, TAXI, CAGNEY & LACEY, you name it.
Schiavelli died of lung cancer at the age of 57 in his home in Sicily according to a story on the AP wire sent my way by a man by the name of Michael Pizarro.
I find this to be incredibly sad... I remember enjoying his work as recently as DEATH TO SMOOCHY. Granted, I'm one of the 4 people in this world that really like that movie, but Schiavelli playing an assassin out for children's TV personalities was just gravy in my book. My thoughts are with his friends, family and fans.
