Hollywood Godfather: My Life in the Movies and the Mob

by Gianni Russo, Patrick Picciarelli

Overview

Hollywood Godfather is Gianni Russo's over-the-top memoir of a real-life mobster-turned-actor who helped make The Godfather a reality, and his story of life on the edge between danger and glamour.

Gianni Russo was a handsome 25-year-old mobster with no acting experience when he walked onto the set of The Godfather and entered Hollywood history. He played Carlo Rizzi, the husband of Connie Corleone, who set her brother Sonny—played by James Caan—up for a hit. Russo didn't have to act—he knew the mob inside and out: from his childhood in Little Italy, where Mafia legend Frank Costello took him under his wing, to acting as a messenger for New Orleans mob boss Carlos Marcello during the Kennedy assassination, to having to go on the lam after shooting and killing a member of the Colombian drug cartel in his Vegas club.

Along the way, Russo befriended Frank Sinatra, who became his son's godfather, and Marlon Brando, who mentored his career as an actor after trying to get Francis Ford Coppola to fire him from The Godfather. Russo had passionate affairs with Marilyn Monroe, Liza Minelli, and scores of other celebrities. He went on to become a producer and starred in The Godfather: Parts I and II, Seabiscuit, Any Given Sunday and Rush Hour 2, among many other films.

Hollywood Godfather is a no-holds-barred account of a life filled with violence, glamour, sex—and fun.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250181411
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	03/12/2019
Sold by:	Macmillan
Format:	eBook
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	381,502
File size:	13 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

GIANNI RUSSO has appeared in more than thirty movies, been involved in the production of several others, and appeared in numerous TV shows. His most well-known roles include parts in The Godfather: Parts I and II; Goodnight, My Love; Lepke; Laserblast; Chances Are; The Freshman; Side Out; Another You; Super Mario Bros.; Any Given Sunday; The Family Man; Seabiscuit; and Rush Hour 2. His life-long association with organized crime has made him a witness to Mob history. He is also a singer, whose shows are sold out across the country.

PATRICK PICCIARELLI is a retired NYPD Lieutenant, Vietnam veteran and private investigator. He is the author of Street Warrior: The True Story of the NYPD's Most Decorated Detective and the Era That Created Him, and other books. He resides in Pennsylvania.

Table of Contents

Prologue 1

1 A Death in Sin City 5

2 A Childhood Lost 18

3 The Ambassador, Marilyn Monroe, and My Mafia Education Begins 41

4 My Involvement in the Crime of the Century 74

5 The Godfather 109

6 On the Set of The Godfather: Always Looking to Make a Score 137

7 Filming The Godfather 148

8 Markers 166

9 International Moneyman 186

10 Pablo Escobar Channels Michael Corleone 221

11 Sunday Sauce Was Never Like This 241

12 A Door Closes While Another One Opens and Brando Lives a Nightmare 253

Epilogue 283

Index 287

About the Author 297

Editorial Reviews

11/15/2018

"All it took was a word from a mob-connected guy and things got done," writes Russo, a singer, restaurateur, and actor best known for his supporting role as Carlo in The Godfather. He begins this straightforward memoir, coauthored by Picciarelli (writing, Seton Hill Univ.; criminal justice, California Univ. of Pennsylvania;Jimmy the Wags),in postwar New York's Little Italy, where the Mafia "permeated every fabric of life." Russo was eager to escape a neglectful family and traumatic years-long quarantine after contracting polio at age seven, and his street hustling led to a courier job under Frank Costello, legendary New York mob boss and inspiration for Marlon Brando's iconic Don Corleone. Russo's mob association led not only to his performance in The Godfather but also to close encounters with various celebrities. His stories range from credible (John Kennedy was a serial philanderer) to unverifiable (affairs with Marilyn Monroe, Liza Minnelli, and other Hollywood stars) to conspiratorial (his own role in the Mafia-engineered Kennedy assassination). Russo's writing style—a mix of braggadocio and unvarnished bluntness—reads like narration from Goodfellas, which is fitting given the common subject matter. VERDICT Fans of mob movies and unlikely success stories will find Russo's account compelling.—Chad Comello, Morton Grove P.L., IL

Library Journal

01/14/2019

In this robust, fast-paced memoir, Russo describes his life going from being a real-life mobster to landing a role playing one in The Godfather. Born in New York City’s Little Italy in 1943, Russo had polio as a boy, left home at 12, and slept on flour sacks in a bakery. Selling pens on the street, his brassiness got him hired as errand boy for mob boss Frank Costello. In a short time, he was fetching skimmed cash from Las Vegas casinos and having sex with Marilyn Monroe, whom he met while washing hair in a New York City beauty salon (“We wound up in bed for the entire weekend, climbing out only when needed”). In 1971, he talked his way into the role of Carlo Rizzi in The Godfather, eventually playing other mobsters in dozens of movies. In a tone that sometimes rings of false modesty, he writes of befriending Frank Sinatra, drinking with Marlon Brando, having a food fight with Liza Minnelli, shooting up a hotel room with Elvis Presley, and managing singer Dionne Warwick. Stretching credulity, he claims inside knowledge of both the JFK assassination and the Mafia–Vatican Bank money laundering scandal, and tells of meeting Pablo Escobar in 1988 after shooting dead one of the cartel chief’s men. Russo’s exhilarating memoir packs a punch. Agent: Frank Weimann, Folio Literary. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

"Gianni Russo walks the walk and talks the talk. What a life. Fascinating. A worthy read." —Robert De Niro, two-time Academy Award-winning actor

“Gianni Russo has seen a lot, done a lot, and tells it all. Amazing.”—Nick Pileggi, Academy Award-nominated screenwriter of Goodfellas

“Gianni Russo is a true character who has led a most colorful life.”—Gay Talese, journalist and New York Times bestselling author

"Recounting a life that reads like a narrative for a mob-movie script, a mobster, actor, and Las Vegas presence delivers numerous eye-opening revelations about national and world events...Russo is an engaging raconteur." —Kirkus Reviews

“In this robust, fast-paced memoir, Russo describes his life going from being a real-life mobster to landing a role playing one in The Godfather…[his] exhilarating memoir packs a punch.” —Publishers Weekly

"Russo tells a fascinating story about how a kid from New York’s Little Italy grew up to be a genuine mobster (and actor, singer, and restaurateur)...it’s a hell of a story either way, and Russo comes across as a hell of an interesting guy." —Booklist

"Russo's writing style reads like narration from Goodfellas...Fans of mob movies and unlikely success stories will find Russo's account compelling." —Library Journal

From the Publisher

2018-12-22

Recounting a life that reads like a narrative for a mob-movie script, a mobster, actor, and Las Vegas presence delivers numerous eye-opening revelations about national and world events.

Among the many revelations: The mob likely arranged the assassination of John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon was mobbed up, and the Vatican has been involved in mob money laundering. Writing with Picciarelli (co-author: Street Warrior, 2017, etc.), Russo weaves all of this among stories about his life, a life that featured an almost Dickensian boyhood: He spent some years in isolation due to polio; someone got killed, too—and not by the disease. Later, Russo became a permanent school truant and, as a teenager, was regularly sleeping with Marilyn Monroe. Eventually, he began to hang out with A-list celebrities, including Brando, Sinatra, and Elvis. He married early and regretted it, then went on to countless relationships with other women before marrying again—more happily, he assures us. But what appears to be his greatest experience was his role as Carlo Rizzi in The Godfather. He devotes some chapters to the film and refers to it continually. That role even saved his life, it seems, when Pablo Escobar, who was having him beaten to death for an infraction, confessed that the film was his favorite and canceled the contract. The author also recounts his numerous roles for the mob. He began as a delivery boy (a role that, in ways, he continued throughout his adult years) before moving on to become an agent in money laundering and a fixture in the Vegas nightlife. Later, distancing himself somewhat from the mob, he played more roles in films and TV and did some writing and producing. He writes that he hopes his life will inspire younger people.

Russo is an engaging raconteur, no doubt about it, but skeptics may raise eyebrows—carefully so.

Kirkus Reviews