F. Murray Abraham

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.

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.

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]

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).

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]

He was considered for the role of the Master in the television movie Doctor Who (1996), which went to Eric Roberts.

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.

Has appeared with Christian Slater in three films: The Name of the Rose (1986), Beyond the Stars (1989) and Mobsters (1991).

In 1985 he was honored with as Academy Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role for the acclaimed role of envious composer Antonio Salieri in Amadeus (1984), an award for which Tom Hulce, playing Mozart in that movie, had also been nominated. He was also honored with a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama, among other awards, and his role in the film, is still considered to be his most iconic as the film's director Milos Forman inspired the work of the role with Abraham's wide range of qualities as a great stage and film actor.

After his Academy Award for Amadeus (1984), he turned down roles in films such as Clue (1985) and Poltergeist II: The Other Side (1986).

Abraham appeared as drug dealer Omar Suárez alongside Pacino again in the gangster film Scarface (1983). He also gained visibility voicing a talking bunch of grapes in a series of television commercials for Fruit of the Loom underwear.

But in 1978, he decided to give them up. Frustrated with the lack of substantial roles, Abraham said, "No one was taking my acting seriously. I figured if I didn't do it, then I'd have no right to the dreams I've always had". His wife, Kate Hannan, went to work as an assistant and Abraham became a "house husband". He described, "I cooked and cleaned and took care of the kids. It was very rough on my macho idea of life. But it was the best thing that ever happened to me".

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).

His film work of those years also included the roles of a cabdriver in The Prisoner of Second Avenue (1975), a mechanic in The Sunshine Boys (1975), and a police officer in All the President's Men (1976). Beyond these small roles, Abraham continued to do commercials and voice-over work for income.

He can be seen as one of the undercover police officers along with Al Pacino in Sidney Lumet's Serpico (1973), and in television roles including the villain in one third-season episode of Kojak (1973).

Scott comedy They Might Be Giants (1971).

By the mid-1970s, Murray had steady employment as an actor, doing commercials and voice-over work.

Studied drama under the tutelage of Uta Hagen at HB Studio in Greenwich Village, New York City for a year in the early 1960s.

Attended and graduated from El Paso High School in El Paso, Texas (1958).

Academy Award-winning actor F. Murray Abraham was born on October 24, 1939 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and raised in El Paso, Texas. His father, Frederick Abraham, was from an Assyrian Christian (Antiochian) family, from Syria. His mother, Josephine (Stello) Abraham, was the daughter of Italian immigrants. Born with the first name "Murray", he added an "F. " to distinguish his stage name. Primarily a stage actor, Abraham made his screen debut as an usher in the George C.