F. Murray Abraham: "My work is my salvation"

F. Murray Abraham's Academy Award, like its owner, is a bit of a character, adorned with a hamster costume all its own. And it doesn't gather dust in a display case; it's a traveling companion. "I hide him on the stage just for fun," said Abraham. "It's in the trash can, he's in a suitcase, he's in a drawer somewhere."

What may be surprising about Abraham? He laughs, a lot. What's not surprising? He is dead serious about his craft. "I can't imagine not acting," he said. "My work is my salvation."

And he's still delivering – as a sexist, yet charming patriarch in "The White Lotus," or an ill-fated drug dealer in "Scarface," or in the role that won him his Oscar, the composer bitterly jealous of Mozart in "Amadeus."