Gianni Russo

Gianni Vito Russo is an American actor and singer. He is best known for his role as Carlo Rizzi in the 1972 film The Godfather. Russo was born in Manhattan in 1943 and raised in Little Italy and Staten Island. After reprising Carlo Rizzi in a brief flashback scene at the end of The Godfather Part II, Russo acted in more than 46 films, including Goodnight, My Love (1972), Lepke (1975, as Albert Anastasia), Laserblast (1978), Chances Are (1989), The Freshman (1990), Side Out (1990), Another You (1991), Super Mario Bros. (1993), Any Given Sunday (1999) and Seabiscuit (2003). Russo claims that he started a fledgling career in organized crime working as an errand boy and mob associate for Frank Costello as an adolescent but later abandoned the dangerous and volatile lifestyle of organized crime.