And also in "Surprise."

He will be missed..... :(

krad | December 26, 22:43 CET

As will John Spencer who passed away last week. Very sad.

Caroline | December 26, 23:26 CET

I remember Schiavelli's roles in Better Off Dead and Buckaroo Banzai. He was definitely an actor who was willing to do good work on "fringe" projects.

jclemens | December 26, 23:38 CET

Really too bad. He was one of those actors who was always worth watching, no matter what the film was like.

lycoming | December 26, 23:50 CET

Caroline, while I'm not sure if it is the politest thing to say, when commemorating the death of another fine thespian, I was also very saddened to learn of John Spencer's death. He was such an amazing actor and will be incredibly missed.

I also enjoyed Vincent Schiavelli's work on Buffy, but, unfortunately, don't seem to recall him in any other performances. Regardless, this is very sad news and he will be missed.

Knuckleball | December 26, 23:52 CET

I had not heard that either of these actors had died. What a shame, they were both so young and both wonderful character actors.

Not that it really matters, but I had not realized until I looked him up after reading this thread that John Spencer was from a city and grew up in a town next door to mine. He was a New Jersey boy.

newcj | December 27, 00:06 CET

Very sad, esp. coming after John Spencer -- two very fine character actors who's faces were far better known than they're names.

The article didn't mention it, but I think that at one time he was married to another underrated/underknown character actor, Alyce Beasley, who played Cybil Shepard's assistant on "Moonlighting." I knew some p.a.s on the show at the time, and they had nothing but nice things to say about both Alyce and Vincent. My sympaties to all.

In any case, I think by favorite Vincent S. performance was as the knowlegeably evil PhD. of death, Dr. Kaufman, in "Tomorrow Never Dies"...I sort of wish Bond hadn't killed him so quickly so we could see more of him (I also wished that the rest of the movie had been as great as that scene!)

bobster | December 27, 00:55 CET

I was sad to hear of his passing, once I realized he was the fellow from "Moonlighting" and "Taxi". I watched both of those shows fairly regularly when they came out, and I loved his performances in both. Though his roles in "Taxi" were small, they were quite memorable ("nik-nik with Latka" LOL...!).

He'll be sorely missed. :(

nina | December 27, 01:30 CET

Really a shame...

Chris inVirginia | December 27, 01:42 CET

He was a good actor.

eddy | December 27, 02:11 CET

He was in a brave number of films, brilliant character actor.

Simon | December 27, 02:12 CET

bobster, you are correct that he was married to Alyce Beasley. And one role I remember that hasn't been mentioned is his part as the subway ghost who teaches Patrick Swayze's character how to kick a can, etc., in Ghost. Not my favorite film, but his was a memorable performance within it.

And last week I was so shocked about John Spencer's death as well. Both these guys were young.

I missed the first of last night's West Wing repeat, but it was the first aired since Spencer's death. Did NBC say anything at the beginning in memory of Spencer? The episode that was shown was certainly a Spencer-centric one.

palehorse | December 27, 02:24 CET

Both very talented men, both far too young to die. Very, very sad, and worse when such unhappiness comes at a time of year that is meant for family and for joy. Condolences to their loved ones.

billz | December 27, 03:05 CET

Aww..that is so sad. He was just awesome. There is a line that his character says in "Fast times.." that always reminds me of a teacher that I had:

"I just switched to Sanka. I'm running a little slow today, so have a heart."

He was also in one of my favorite X-Files episodes, "Humbug".

Sigh...he will be missed.

socks | December 27, 03:33 CET

The sad thing is that he was the perfect guy to give the speech about vengance...he made it very believable for me. But it seems that he accomplished a great deal in his life (at least filmwise)...that's something to be proud of.

Gwendolyn Post | December 27, 03:39 CET

Not just filmwise, in that, as mentioned in the pasing in the article, he was also apparently a fine Italian cook and was an awardwinning author of cookbooks and food writing. (He did a very interesting interview with Terry Gross a few years back about it, I'm guessing they'll be repeating it soon on "Fresh Air.") According to IMDB, he also has children with both Alyce Beasley and his surviving wife.

Sounds like a pretty full life to me.

[ edited by bobster on 2005-12-27 04:21 ]

bobster | December 27, 06:20 CET

Another victim of cigarettes. He died of lung cancer, the leading cause of male and female cancer death in the U.S.

Ruby2 | December 27, 08:09 CET

That's 3 'verse stars who have passed way too early . . .

SeReNiTy_88 | December 27, 08:16 CET

I'm sorry to hear it.

Craig Oxbrow | December 27, 08:33 CET

Wow, he was only 57? That's too bad. I too know him first from Taxi (though I only saw the show in reruns), like nina, and was surprised to see him show up on Buffy. Those are the only two things I know him for, but I thought he was great in each of those admittedly minor roles.

And yeah, like many others, I'm a long-long-time reader/lurker and I managed to register on Christmas Eve, for which I'm thankful, and happy to finally get to interact with all of you. Anyway, carry on.

Mike_S | December 27, 10:47 CET

Both tragedies, I mourn the both of them.

zeitgeist | December 28, 00:32 CET