Gianni Russo

Infobox actor


imagesize = 150px
birthdate = birth date and age|1943|12|12
birthplace = Brooklyn

Louis Giovanni "Gianni" Russo (born December 12, 1943) is an American actor known for his role as Carlo Rizzi in the 1972 movie "The Godfather".

After reprising the Rizzi character in a brief flashback scene at the end of "The Godfather Part II", Russo went on to act in more than 35 movies including "The Freshman", "Super Mario Bros.", "Any Given Sunday", and "Seabiscuit".

Russo was born in Brooklyn, New York and raised in the Rosebank section of Staten Island. He claimes that he has Mob connections and that his uncle was a soldier in the Gambino crime family. Someone claimes that the Gambinos persuaded Francis Ford Coppola to cast Russo as Carlo Rizzi in the Godfather. Gianni states his father was a longshoreman and a musician who worked at the Brooklyn waterfront who was ashamed his only son was crippled from the horrible disease and refused to acknowledge him during his early childhood. He suffered from a gimp arm.Fact|date=March 2008

Russo claims that he started a fledgling career in organized crime working as an errand boy and mob associate for Frank Costello [Andrew Jacobs, April 9, 2005, "His Big Break? The Corleones Killed Him; Godfather's Son-in-Law Is Singing, Selling and Enjoying Life", "New York Times", at [http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F00F1EFB3F5A0C7A8CDDAD0894DD404482] .] as an adolescent but later abandoned the dangerous and volatile lifestyle of organized crime.

In the 2006 book "Supermob" by investigative reporter Gus Russo (no relation mentioned), the author writes that Gianni Russo secured his role in "The Godfather" by acting as an intermediary between Paramount Studios and NYC Mafia don Joe Colombo Sr., whose Italian Anti-Defamation League had shut down early production of the film in Manhattan. Colombo met with the film executives who then hired Russo to play Carlo.

Gianni Russo claims that he has personally known three popes, five United States presidents and every mafia boss in the United States. [Andrew Jacobs, April 9, 2005, "His Big Break? The Corleones Killed Him; Godfather's Son-in-Law Is Singing, Selling and Enjoying Life", "New York Times", at [http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F00F1EFB3F5A0C7A8CDDAD0894DD404482] .] He also claims to have had romantic trists with Marilyn Monroe, Zsa Zsa Gabor and Liza Minnelli. [Id.] Over the years since the beginning of his stardom he has owned a Las Vegas restaurant called Gianni Russo's State Street, dated Dionne Warwick for more than a decade and has successfully defeated twenty-three federal criminal indictments on a variety of charges stemming from alleged organized crime associations. [Id.]

Russo is also an accomplished singer and in 2004 he released a CD called "Reflections" [See Gianni Russo website at [http://giannirusso.semkhor.com/assets/flash/giannirusso/siteTemplate.htm] .] that pays homage to Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra.

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