Farewell Vincent

Vincent Schiavelli has died.

The name may mean nothing, but he was a great character actor, who appeared in over a hundred films, including One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Mr. Schiavelli, who died at the age of 57 in Italy, was a Brooklyn native, and may be most familiar to a younger generation as he appeared in several "teen" films in the 1980's as an eccentric teacher.

He was Mr. Vargas, the biology teacher, in Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Mr. Kerber, the deadpan math teacher in Better Off Dead, who steals a scene when he asks Lane Meier, John Cusack's character, if he can date his ex-girlfriend, Beth, since he had heard they had broken up. They are later seen driving off together is Mr. Kerber's sporty convertible, much to Cusack's amazement.

You can read a fuller obit here. Quite interesting, as Schiavelli was an accomplished cook as well, and wrote several cookbooks in recent years. He died at the young age of 57, from lung cancer, on December 26.