Editing F. Murray Abraham (section)

===1960s-1978: Early roles ===
Abraham began his professional acting career on the stage, debuting in a Los Angeles production of [[Ray Bradbury]]'s ''[[The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit and Other Plays|The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit]]'' in 1965. <ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.newjerseystage.com/articles2/2024/03/13/f-murray-abraham-to-appear-in-a-staged-reading-of-fragments-by-edward-albee-at-black-box-pac032024/ | title=F. Murray Abraham to Appear in a Staged Reading of "Fragments" by Edward Albee at Black Box PAC | date=March 13, 2024 }}</ref>He made his [[Broadway (theatre)|Broadway]] debut in the 1968 play ''[[The Man in the Glass Booth]]''. He made his film debut as an usher in the [[George C. Scott]] comedy ''[[They Might Be Giants (film)|They Might Be Giants]]'' (1971). 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 bad guy in one fourth-season episode of ''[[Kojak]]'' ("The Godson"). His early film roles include small parts as a cabdriver in the theatrical version of [[Neil Simon]]'s ''[[The Prisoner of Second Avenue]]'' (1975), a mechanic in the theatrical version of Simon's ''[[The Sunshine Boys]]'' (1975). He also played a police officer in the [[Alan J. Pakula]] [[Watergate scandal|Watergate]] film ''[[All the President's Men (film)|All the President's Men]]'' (1976), and acted in the comedy films ''[[The Ritz (film)|The Ritz]]'' (1976) opposite [[Rita Moreno]] and ''[[The Big Fix (1978 film)|The Big Fix]]'' (1978) alongside [[Richard Dreyfuss]].

By the mid-1970s, he also had steady employment doing commercials and voice-overs. Most notably, he played "the leaf", one of four costumed characters, in television and print commercials for [[Fruit of the Loom]] underwear.<ref name="meanie role">[http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20090195,00.html His Meanie Role in Amadeus Makes Nice Guy F. Murray Abraham the Man to Beat For the Oscar]. People.com. Retrieved 2014-08-01.</ref> In 1978, he gave up this work. Frustrated with the lack of substantial roles, he 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". As he described it: "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."<ref name="meanie role" />