‘Godfather’ actor doesn’t refuse offers from new Maine friends
Gianni Russo played Carlo in ‘The Godfather’ and wrote a book about his life with mobsters and movie stars. In February, he’ll sing songs and tell stories in Portland.
Gianni Russo was 26 years old, with a couple million dollars in cash from running errands for mob bosses and a pretty big ego, when he used his Mafia connections to get the plum role of Carlo Rizzi in the classic 1972 movie “The Godfather.”
He had never acted in his life, which was a serious affront to co-star Marlon Brando, who considered acting an art that required years of study. As soon as filming began, Brando told director Francis Ford Coppola that Russo had to go.
“I go square nose to nose with (Brando), and I’m whispering because I don’t want the rest of the people to hear what I’m gonna say, and I said, ‘Let me tell you something, Mr. Brando, all due respect, I know who you are, but let me tell you this, you get me fired and I will suck on your heart and you will bleed out right here, today,’ ” recalled Russo, 79, of that moment more than 50 years ago. “He looked at me, he stepped back and he said, ‘That was brilliant, you can really act.’ He thought I was acting.”
Russo’s colorful stories fill the pages of his 2019 memoir “Hollywood Godfather: My Life in the Movies and the Mob” and have helped him charm audiences and make friends wherever he goes. Lately, he’s been spending time in Maine, where’s he’s appeared on a Portland public access TV show, was a guest on a Portland radio show and told stories and sang at a restaurant in Windham. Russo will be back in Maine in February to sing and tell stories about his life – which seems stranger than fiction and as dramatic as any movie. The event “An Evening with Gianni Russo” will be held at Portland Elks Lodge 188.
Some of his claims are hard to believe and impossible to verify, but people in Maine who have met and worked with him say they have no reason not to believe him.
“It’s one man’s life and experience. He’s just matter-of-factly telling people about all that he’s been through,” said Portland pianist and bandleader Jim Ciampi, who is organizing the show in February and will accompany Russo. “He’s a very convincing guy with a great way about him and a huge personality, very gracious, very genuine. People can believe him or not. I believe him.”
Raised in Manhattan’s Little Italy, Russo says he spent five years in a hospital with polio – where he claims to have killed a suspected pedophile who accosted him – then lived on the streets as a teen before working odd jobs and running errands for New York mob figure Frank Costello. After his “Godfather” role, he went on to act in dozens of films and TV shows and for a while ran his own Las Vegas nightspot – where he shot and killed a man who had slashed him and a female customer with a broken bottle. Nevada authorities ruled it justifiable homicide in 1988, according to newspaper accounts at the time.
Russo also has his own podcast and has written a novel called “The 6th Family.” He credits Frank Sinatra with helping him learn to sing and Brando with teaching him to act. His live shows include songs with Rat Pack vibes, including tunes famously sung by Sinatra or Dean Martin, among others.
Though mob figures and violence are part of many of Russo’s stories, Mainers who’ve met and worked with Russo this past year say they don’t think he’s glorifying the Mafia or reenforcing stereotypes about Italian Americans and organized crime. Russo says he was never technically in the Mafia, though he worked with mob figures and knew plenty of bosses.