Fahrid Murray Abraham is an American actor. He became known during the 1980s after winning the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as Antonio Salieri in Amadeus. He has appeared in many roles, both leading and supporting, in films such as All the President's Men and Scarface. He is also known for his television and theatre work. Abraham was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the son of Josephine , a housewife, and Fahrid Abraham, an auto mechanic. His father was an Assyrian/Syriac Christian who immigrated from Syria during the 1920s famine; his paternal grandfather was a chanter in the... Syriac Orthodox Church. His mother, one of 14 children, was Italian American, and the daughter of an immigrant who worked in the coal mines of Western Pennsylvania. Abraham was raised in El Paso, Texas, near the Mexican border. He attended Vilas Grammar School, and graduated from El Paso High School in 1958. He was a gang member during his teenage years.
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