Vincent Schiavelli

MAIN

Recommend (0)

•

Comments (0)

BIRTHDAY

November 10, 1948

New York, NY

DIED

December 26, 2005

RECENT CREDITS

Golden Door (FILM) May. 25, 2007

BAADASSSSS! (FILM) May. 28, 2004

The 4th Tenor (FILM) Nov. 22, 2002

Fast Times at Ridgemont High (FILM) Aug. 13, 2002

Hey Arnold! The Movie (FILM) Jun. 28, 2002

View all Vincent Schiavelli Credits

BIOGRAPHY

Expand Full Bio

Had he been in Hollywood in the 1930s or 1940s, Vincent Schiavelli's Halloween-mask countenance, shock of unkempt hair and baleful voice might have permanently consigned him to minor roles in horror or gangster pictures. As it happened, Schiavelli became an actor during the 1960s, a period when, thanks to unpretty stars like Elliott Gould and Dustin Hoffman, homeliness opened more career doors than it closed. After several seasons' worth of stage experience, Schiavelli made his first film appearance in Milos Forman's Taking Off (1971) playing a pot-smoking support group leader by the name of...Schiavelli. He would work with Forman again on several occasions, most memorably as Salieri's(F. Murray Abraham) phlegmatic valet in the opening scenes of Amadeus (1984). In 1972, Schiavelli played his first regular TV-series role, gay set designer Peter Panama in The Corner Bar. Fourteen years later, he could be seen as oddball science teacher Hector Vargas in the weekly sitcom Fast Times, repeating his role from the 1982 theatrical feature Fast Times at Ridgemont High. One of his best-known screen roles was the ill-tempered Subway Ghost, who teaches newly dead Patrick Swayze how to move solid objects with sheer "hate power" in the 1990 blockbuster Ghost. Tim Conway fans are most familiar with Schiavelli through his appearances as Conway's dull-witted assistant in the popular Dorf videocassettes. Previously married to actress Allyce Beasley, the couple would part ways in 1988 and Schiavelli would subsequently wed Carol Mukhalian.

~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Collapse Full Bio