Manny Ribera

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Manolo Ribera, also known as "Manny Ray" but better known as Manny Ribera is a fictional character from the 1983 film Scarface. Played by Steven Bauer, Manny is best friends with Tony Montana who rises with him to the top of the cocaine business in Miami during the early 1980s.

[edit] Life

Little is revealed about Manny in the film, but it is told that he and Tony Montana served time in prison and in the army while in Cuba.

At the beginning of the film, Manny and Tony make their way to America during the Mariel Boatlift in 1980. A month after being sent to Freedomtown, a detention camp, Manny manages to get him and Tony greencards and a job washing dishes at a small food stand. Tony and Manny quit this job when they take another job to exchange some cocaine for money from "Hector the Toad" and several other Colombians at a hotel. Even though the deal goes awry, Tony manages to grab the cocaine while keeping the buy money. They then begin working for powerful yet affable drug kingpin Frank Lopez.

As Tony becomes more and more powerful, they eventually overpower Lopez, kill him (Manny pulls the trigger) and take over his empire. In the same scene he personally murders corrupt Miami Chief of Detectives, Vice Squad Melvin "Mel" Bernstein. It is during this time that Manny falls in love with Tony's younger sister Gina, which Tony angrily forbids. Their friendship is constantly strained as an often-coked up Tony fails to listen to his friend, who often offers financial advice and is placed in charge of security when Tony buys his mansion. After Tony begins having trouble with bank fees with the constant money that rolls in from the drug business, Manny suggests going to another person, Seidelbaum. While counting money and converting the millions to checks, Seidelbaum reveals himself as a cop, who arrests Tony for tax evasion. Tony is naturally angry at his friend, since unknowingly setting up the bust could end up costing Tony three years in jail. While Tony goes on a mission for Alejandro Sosa (another powerful drug lord who works with Tony) in New York, Manny disappears and marries Gina Montana. When Tony returns home and gets the address from his mother, he drives there and approaches the door. Manny answers, just as Gina appears at the top of the stairs. Enraged, Tony shoots Manny twice (although the second shot is edited out in the TV version) and kills him. Gina runs down the stairs and cries over Manny's body before telling Tony that they got married the day before. After going back to his mansion, he shows regret for killing his friend, but is also killed shortly after in a massive shootout.