10 Mob Movie Actors Who Were Actually There
7. Gianni Russo - The Godfather
Back to The Godfather now, and Alex Rocco was far from the only actor with mob connections who took a starring role in the film.
Gianni Russo, who portrayed abusive husband Carlo Rizzi in The Godfather and The Godfather: Part II, also boasted ties to organised crime. Russo grew up in Staten Island and did work for Frank Costello of the Luciano family before he began acting in the 1970s, with The Godfather marking his full debut. However, his casting in that film did not mark a break from his mob ties.
As detailed in Vanity Fair's "The Godfather Wars", Russo is said to have been cast in the film at the insistence of Joe Colombo. The actor's previous movements to get the part had fallen on deaf ears, but after using his connections so that the production could get access to a Staten Island location, his fortunes changed. A read was organised, and Russo walked away with the part of Carlo.
Arguably more fascinating than Russo's pre-Godfather travels is what came after. As the actor recounted in his autobiography, Hollywood Godfather, years following his break into Hollywood he found himself on the hitlist of one Pablo Escobar. Russo had shot and killed a Colombian national in his Las Vegas club while defending a female patron from being harassed. Russo took a champagne bottle to the face, and responded by firing two shots at the perpetrator's head. The killing itself was ruled a justifiable homicide, but the deceased party was a member of the Medellin Cartel, which led to Russo drawing attention from Escobar.
In a twist that gives new meaning to the phrase "stranger than fiction", though, Escobar called the hit off. He had discovered that the man who killed his associate was a star in The Godfather, a beloved film of his, and the contract was rescinded.