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Born in Pittsburgh, PA. Experienced stage actor with an expressive, pock-marked face and a well-modulated speaking voice. Prior to Abraham's bravura, award-winning performance as Salieri in Milos Forman's acclaimed film, AMADEUS (1984), he had appeared on TV and film mostly in bit-part capacity. After AMADEUS, the actor appeared in THE NAME OF THE ROSE (1986), the prodigious misfire THE BONFIRE OF THE VANITIES (1990), and as Wolf Sr., a hunter of the homeless, in the urban fantasy film SURVIVING THE GAME (1994). His stage work of the same era included the vaunted Mike Nichols' production of WAITING FOR GODOT (1988) opposite Robin Williams and Steve Martin. For all of his talent, Abraham seemed to get typecast in Machiavellian roles or as the spokesman of "culture." Salieri, the all-too-human composer in the age of Mozart, ostensibly set the pattern for the actor's TV appearances, which have echoed the role's high-toned, sometimes operatic cadence. He has hosted numerous televised Metropolitan Opera presentations, narrated several science specials and played Pope Julius II in a 1991 miniseries A SEASON OF GIANTS. A professor of theater at Brooklyn College, Abraham has also portrayed academics in a fine TV adaptation of Vaclav Havel's play Largo Desolato (1990) and in a version of Jules Verne's Journey to the Center of the Earth (1993). In 1994, he joined the cast of Angels in America, Tony Kushner's adulated Broadway play, appointed with the difficult task of replacing Ron Liebman, playing one of history's most famous witch hunters, Roy Cohn. Undergoing a sort of manic decay, the Roy Cohn role was a plum for Abraham: "Cohn" opened the instant classic Angels first act, "Millennium Approaches." Abraham's performance was acclaimed for its intelligence rather than his predecessor's whirling vitriol. Other feature film credits include SWEET KILLING and LAST ACTION HERO (both 1993), FRESH, L'AFFAIRE, SURVIVNG THE GAME, NOSTRADAMUS and JAMILA (all 1994), MIGHTY APHRODITE, DILLIINGER AND CAPONE and BABY FACE NELSON (all 1995), CHILDREN OF THE REVOLUTION and LOOKING FOR RICHARD (both 1996), MIMIC and ERUPTION (both 1997), STAR TREK: INSURRECTION (1998), MUPPETS FROM SPACE and EXCELLENT CADAVERS (both 1999), FINDING FORRESTER (2000), THIR13EN GHOSTS (2001), JOSHUA, THE HIRE: TICKER (all 2002), MY FATHER, RUA ALGUEM 5555 (2003), ANOTHER WAY OF SEEING THINGS, PEPERONI RIPIENI E PESCI IN FACCIA / TOO MUCH ROMANCE... IT'S TIME FOR STUFFED PEPPERS, and THE BRIDGE OF SAN LUIS REY (all 2004), A HOUSE DIVIDED, IL MERCANTE DI PIETRE / THE STONE MERCHANT, QUIET FLOWS THE DON and L'INCHIESTA / THE FINAL INQUIRY (all 2006), and PERESTROIKA, COME LE FORMICHE / WINE AND KISSES and CARNERA: THE WALKING MOUNTAIN (all 2007).  Actor 1984: AMADEUS 1 nomination, 1 Award