David Huffman - Abe Belkin

I was watching FIST the other night, and wondered about the actor (David Huffman) who played Abe Belkin. I hadn't seen him in anything for so long, and I was shocked to see had been murdered back in 1985.

Unfortunately, his bio on IMDB left out the fact that his murderer was a 16 year old illegal immigrant named Genaro Samano Villanueva.

Villanueva had been caught several times previously breaking into cars, but for some reason he was never arrested or deported. On the morning before he killed Huffman, he was again caught trying to break into a van, and the police inexplicably just took him to school and told him to go to class (which he didn't do).

Later that night, Huffman saw him breaking into another van and chased him. At some point, Villanueva turned on him and stabbed him to death with a screwdriver.

What a terrible waste, and so utterly avoidable if someone in authority had actually done their job.

His widow Phyllis went on to have a successful career as a casting director, notably for most of Clint Eastwood's movies. She died in 2006 after a short illness.

If Villanueva served his full sentence, he would have been released in 2012...yet David Huffman is still dead.