F. Murray Abraham Net Worth

F. Murray Abraham's Quotes

• [from the Star Trek: Insurrection (1998) Special Collector's Edition DVD] If I could do only Star Trek movies for the rest of my career, I would. That's how strongly I feel about this organization. I do not say that lightly.
• [on the so-called "Oscar jinx"] The Oscar is the single most important event of my career. I have dined with kings, shared equal billing with my idols, lectured at Harvard and Columbia. If this is a jinx, I'll take two. Even though I won the Oscar, I can still take the subway in New York, and nobody recognizes me. Some actors might find that disconcerting, but I find it refreshing.
• [accepting his Best Actor Oscar, 1985] It would be a lie if I told you I didn't know what to say, because I've been working on this speech for about twenty-five years. But you're not going to hear any of those speeches, because none of the speeches were less than forty-five seconds. You know, it's easy to gamble everything when you've got nothing to lose, and Milos Forman had a great deal to lose when he gave these brilliant roles to Tom Hulce and me, and his courage became my inspiration. There's only one thing that's missing for me tonight, and that's to have Tom Hulce standing by my side.
• [announcing Geraldine Page as the winner of the Best Actress Oscar, 1986] I consider this woman the greatest actress in the English language.
• You keep getting offered the same role you got the Oscar for. Every time you complain, they don't change the script; they just offer you more money. For the first 15 years of my career, I was only doing comedy - all comedy - and as soon as Salieri happened, I was offered all sinister villains.

Interesting Facts about F. Murray Abraham

1. Attended the University of Texas at El Paso and the University of Texas at Austin.
2. He was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and brought up in El Paso, Texas. His father, Fred Abraham, was a Syrian immigrant, of the Antiochian Orthodox faith. His mother, Josephine (Stello) Abraham, was also born in Pennsylvania, to Italian parents.
3. During a ceremony in Rome, he was awarded the "Premio per gli Italiani nel Mondo". This is a prize distributed by the Marzio Tremaglia foundation and the Italian government to Italian emigrants and their descendants who have distinguished themselves abroad. [July 2004]
4. Early in his career, he was one of the "Fruit of the Loom guys" (men dressed up as fruits) in the underwear commercials.
5. Attended and graduated from El Paso High School in El Paso, Texas (1958).
6. Studied drama under the tutelage of Uta Hagen at HB Studio in Greenwich Village, New York City for a year in the early 1960s.
7. After his Academy Award for Amadeus (1984), he turned down roles in films such as Clue (1985) and Poltergeist II: The Other Side (1986).
8. Has filmed Scarface (1983) in Los Angeles at the same time as Amadeus (1984) in Prague, necessitating four round trip flights between the two.
9. One of his first plays in Los Angeles was a dramatization of a work by Ray Bradbury: "The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit". He and Bradbury remained friends until Bradbury's death.
10. He was the on-the-scene hero of a real-life crime scene at the Classic Stage Company in New York City, when he traded blows with a thief in the dressing room area during a public rehearsal. [January 2010]
11. Has appeared with Christian Slater in three films: The Name of the Rose (1986), Beyond the Stars (1989) and Mobsters (1991).
12. Has appeared with Sean Connery twice as his nemesis: Bernardo Gui in The Name of the Rose (1986), and Professor Robert Crawford in Finding Forrester (2000).
13. As of 2017, has appeared in three films that were nominated for the Best Picture Oscar: All the President's Men (1976), Amadeus (1984) and The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014). Of those, Amadeus (1984) is a winner in the category.
14. Auditioned for the role of Charlie in An Unmarried Woman (1978), but Paul Mazursky found that Cliff Gorman more closely resembled the director's New York artist friends.
15. He was originally considered for the role of painter Van Brenkelen in Miluji te modre (2017), eventually played by Robert Russell.
16. He was considered for the role of the Master in the television movie Doctor Who (1996), which went to Eric Roberts.
17. His contract for The Bonfire of the Vanities (1990) stipulated that his name appear above the title in the advertising, or not at all. Since the producers already had Tom Hanks, Melanie Griffith, Bruce Willis and Morgan Freeman above the title, Abraham chose not to be credited.
18. Has appeared in two films that have been selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant: All the President's Men (1976) and Amadeus (1984).
19. First person with ancestry from an Arab country to have received an Academy Award for Best Actor. Rami Malek, who won for Bohemian Rhapsody (2018), is the second.
20. He was awarded the John H. Finley Award by the Alumni Association of City College for exemplary dedicated service to the City of New York (2009).