Mistaken reports of death
Prior to his actual death in January 2016, Vigoda was a repeated victim of mistaken death announcements. These led to jokes, often with Vigoda as a participant.
In 1982, People magazine mistakenly referred to Vigoda as dead. At the time, Vigoda, aged 60, was performing in a stage play in Calgary. He took the mistake with good humor, posing for a photograph published in Variety, in which he is sitting up in a coffin, holding the erroneous issue of People. Jeff Jarvis, a People employee at the time, said that the magazine's editors were known for "messing up" stories, and one of them repeatedly inserted the phrase "the late" in reference to Vigoda, even after a researcher correctly removed it. The erroneous version was what went to print.
In 1987, the same mistake was made when a reporter for WWOR, Channel 9 serving the New York metropolitan area mistakenly referred to him as the "late Abe Vigoda". She realized and corrected her mistake the next day.
He had been the subject of many running gags pertaining to the mistaken reports of his death. In 1997, Vigoda appeared in Good Burger as the character Otis, the titular restaurant's French fry man. Several jokes were made about his high age, including his character Otis saying, "I should've died years ago". That same year, he was shopping at Bloomingdale's in Manhattan when the salesman remarked, "You look like Abe Vigoda. But you can't be Abe Vigoda because he's dead." A Late Night with David Letterman skit showed Letterman trying to summon Vigoda's ghost, but Vigoda walked in and declared, "I'm not dead yet, you pinhead!"
At a New York Friars Club roast of Rob Reiner that Vigoda attended, Billy Crystal joked, "I have nothing to say about Abe. I was always taught to speak well of the dead."
In May 2001, a website was created to report whether Vigoda was alive or dead; it eventually went offline no later than 2023. In addition, in 2005, a "tongue-in-cheek" Firefox extension was released, with the sole purpose of telling the browser's user of Vigoda's status.
Continuing the gag, he frequently appeared on Late Night with Conan O'Brien to make fun of his status, including a guest appearance on the show's final episode. Host Conan O’Brien later named a rock band he formed The Vigodas in Abe’s honor.
At the 1998 New York Friars Club roast of Drew Carey, with Vigoda in the audience, Jeff Ross joked, "My one regret is that Abe Vigoda isn't alive to see this." He followed that with, "Drew, you go to Vegas; what's the over–under on Abe Vigoda?" On January 23, 2009, Vigoda appeared on The Today Show, after host Matt Lauer commented that Vigoda was dead. He said he was doing well, joked about previous reports of his death, and announced that he had just completed a voice-over for an H&R Block commercial to air during the Super Bowl.
Vigoda and Betty White, both 88 years old, appeared in "Game", a Snickers commercial that debuted during Super Bowl XLIV on February 7, 2010. The synopsis made fun of the advanced age of the actors. The Super Bowl Ad Meter poll respondents rated the ad the highest of any shown during the game.
On October 31, 2013, at age 92, Vigoda again defied rumors of his demise by appearing on stage with the American rock band Phish in Atlantic City, New Jersey, during a performance of the band's song "Wombat", from their 2014 album Fuego, which mentions Vigoda by name.
