Bruno Tattaglia

Bruno Tattaglia is a fictional character appearing in Mario Puzo's novel The Godfather and the first installment of Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather trilogy of films.^[1] He also appeared in The Godfather: The Game, where the player kills him in an act of revenge. In the films he was portrayed by actor Tony Giorgio.^[1][2]

Role in Godfather saga

Bruno is the son and underboss to Philip Tattaglia, head of one of New York's Five Families. Along with business partner Virgil Sollozzo, he strikes the first blow in the war with the Corleone family by helping murder Corleone enforcer Luca Brasi, who had met with Bruno to try to infiltrate the rival faction. After the Tattaglia family's subsequent attempt on the life of Don Vito Corleone fails, Vito's son Sonny Corleone has Bruno murdered in retaliation. When Sonny is murdered later on, the two deaths are instrumental in prompting Dons Tattaglia and Corleone to seek an end to their conflict.

Despite Bruno being credited as Don Philip's underboss, the book states that he is very displeased with and detracted from his father's prostitution business. This would make him a less likely candidate for underboss, as would the fact that he is Philip's youngest son, as per the book. John Tattaglia, in the novel, is on Sonny's vendetta list, and is presumably Philip's true underboss. In The Godfather: The Game, the player, as Aldo Trapani, is asked by Tessio to carry out an optional hit on Johnny Tattaglia who is one of Philip's sons.

Bruno's death is not seen in the film (although Sal Tessio says "We hit Bruno Tattaglia at 4 o'clock this morning"), but in The Godfather: The Game, he is tossed into a cremation retort by the protagonist Aldo Trapani. This is in revenge for an earlier incident, where Bruno killed Aldo's girlfriend, Frances "Frankie" Malone.

References