Sorry to hear this afternoon of the death of actor Vincent Schiavelli. He was one of those "that guy" character actors who turns up in a hundred films or TV shows whose distinctive looks always made him recognizable.
He was one of the inmates in One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest and, in a radical departure from playing a mental patient, a network executive in Man On The Moon. Something of an inside joke there, because over 15 years earlier, he'd done a few great guest appearances on Taxi as Andy Kaufman and Carol Kane's reverend.
He was also memorable in Better Off Dead as a teacher who asks a recently dumped teenager if they'd mind if he took out their ex-girlfriend. In Ghost, he was the tormented spirit who teaches Patrick Swayze how to use his incorporal being. He was one of the Penguin's gang in Batman Returns and an untrustworthy magician in Lord of Illusions. Buffy fans will remember him as Jenny Calender's gypsy uncle.
I don't have much personal to add, I can't claim that he was one of my favorite actors or even that I knew very much about him. I remember he was once married to the woman who played the cabbie that had an affair with Latka on Taxi and who also played Mrs. Beasley on Moonlighting, but they later divorced.
I guess I just wanted to say that I always enjoyed his work, and I'm sorry he's gone.
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