Carlito Brigante

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Carlito Brigante
Pacino as Carlito
First appearance	Carlito's Way
Last appearance	After Hours
Information
Aliases	"Charlie Brigante"
Gender	Male
Age	Born around 1934-35. Died in 1976.
Occupation	Drug dealer/Club Owner
Relationships	Gail
Children	An unborn son
Portrayed by	Al Pacino/Jay Hernandez
Created by	Edwin Torres

Carlito Brigante is a character from Carlito's Way and After Hours, novels by Edwin Torres. Born in the 1930's in Spanish Harlem, Carlito is portrayed by Al Pacino in the movie Carlito's Way by Brian De Palma.

Starting out as a small time thief, Brigante eventually works his way up to being the heroin kingpin of Harlem. Around 1970, Brigante is arrested during a drug bust and is sentenced to 30 years in prison. This is the end of the novel Carlito's Way. After Hours, which is the start of the Carlito's Way movie, begins with Brigante beating his prison sentence thanks to his lawyer David Kleinfeld, played by Sean Penn. During After Hours he tries to leave his life of crime behind and retire in the Bahamas with his girlfriend Gail. At the end of After Hours he is shot by Benny Blanco (a sort of young Carlito played by John Leguizamo), getting strikingly close to his dream, but never reaching it. Torres in the past has stated that Brigante was a combination of several men he knew in his street days, as well as several of his own personal characteristics.

[edit] Movie Portrayal

Brigante has been portrayed by two different actors. The critically acclaimed performance by Al Pacino in the 1993 film Carlito's Way, and by Jay Hernandez in the poorly received Carlito's Way: Rise to Power.