Moe Greene

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Moe Greene is a fictional character appearing in Mario Puzo's 1969 novel The Godfather and the first installment of the Godfather trilogy. He was portrayed by actor Alex Rocco.

Moe Greene was a renowned Jewish mobster, credited with the development of Las Vegas into a gambling and entertainment mecca, bringing the interests of the most powerful organized crime organizations in America to the town. Among these was Don Vito Corleone, who bankrolled the creation of Greene's first hotel-casino. In return Moe took the Don's son Fredo under his wing during the war between the Five Families in New York. Although Fredo was greatly influenced by the city and Greene, family heir Michael Corleone disapproved of the effect on his brother, whom Greene reportedly chastised and slapped around in public.

At a meeting with Greene, Michael expressed his disapproval and, perhaps partially motivated by Fredo's disgrace, made a stern offer to buy out Greene's entire interest in the casino as part of the Corleone's relocation to Nevada. Offended, Greene angrily refused, claiming that the Corleones had neither the favor nor the power required to drive him out of the business.

[edit] Novel

In the novel Greene was murdered by Michael Corleone's bodyguard and lieutenant Albert Neri not long after the meeting in Las Vegas. On the airplane ride home Corleone asked Neri, "Did you make him good?" To this question Neri tapped his head and responded, "I got Moe Greene mugged and numbered up here." Not long afterward Neri went to Las Vegas as the family representative at the funeral of family friend Nino Valenti. During the course of that trip Greene was executed.

[edit] Film

In the film Michael let the matter rest until the day of his nephew's baptism, when he had Greene killed as part of his sweeping revenge on enemies of the family. In one of the most famous scenes of the film, Greene is shot clean through the eye by a Corleone assassin while getting a massage in one of his hotels. The method in which he was killed, where the victim is shot through the eye, came to be known as a "Moe Greene Special". In similar circumstances, the character of Brendan Filone is killed in the same manner in an episode of The Sopranos.

However, Greene's death would return to haunt Michael in The Godfather Part II, when rival Hyman Roth, formerly a partner to the departed mobster, angrily cited his death to Michael as an example of Roth's willingness not to question or become involved with business-related killings, despite his friendship with the victim. Since Roth was in fact plotting an ongoing, otherwise unprovoked attempt to eliminate Michael at the time, the scene might imply that revenge for Greene's death was what drove him to conspire against the Corleones.

• In the Xbox 360 version of the Godfather The Game, it is the protagonist who kills Moe Greene.

• Greene was based on Bugsy Siegel, who was shot in the head in a way that made his intact eyeball pop out. Popular myth, however, has it that Siegel was shot through the eye.