Gianni Russo

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Louis Giovanni "Gianni" Russo (born December 12, 1943) in Brooklyn is an American actor best known for his role as Carlo Rizzi in the 1972 movie The Godfather. 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 a 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. After appearing in The Godfather trilogy, Russo then went on to act in more than 35 movies including The Freshman, Any Given Sunday, and Seabiscuit. On Oct. 30, 1988, Russo shot and killed a man who had gone on a violent rampage in Russo's State Street Club in Las Vegas, according to "Supermob." After the intervention of Los Angeles-based mob lawyer Sidney Korshak and criminal defense attorney Robert Shapiro, no charges were filed as prosecutors labeled the incident "justifiable homicide." Russo is also an accomplished singer and in 2004 he released a CD called Reflections that pays homage to Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra.