03/04/2025
Did you know?
Actor Richard S. Castellano from The Godfather was the nephew of Paul Castellano, the former boss of the Gambino crime family.
Richard was born in 1933 in the Ozone Park section of Queens, New York. Which was a huge Italian American community at the time. After having a few uncredited acting roles in films in the 1960s, he ended up getting his break by landing the role of Frank Vecchio in the 1970 film Lovers and Other Strangers. He also landed the role of Peter Clemenza in the 1972 gangster flick The Godfather.
He had the famous line, "Leave the gun, take the cannoli." Director Francis Ford Coppola didn't want him for the role of Clemenza at first, until Richard's uncle Paul Castellano decided to intervene on Richard's behalf. Paul was a captain in the Gambino crime family at the time.
Paul made a deal that if Coppola gave Richard the part, then he'd promise to have some wiseguys guard the set as security while The Godfather was being filmed. That was how Lenny Montana ended up getting the role as Luca Brasi, because Lenny was one of the wiseguys that Big Paul contacted to watch the set and guard the actors. Montana was a soldier in the Colombo crime family. Richard didn't reprise his role as Clemenza in The Godfather Part II, as Richard didn't want his character to become a traitor, but Coppola did, and decided to get rid of his role in the movie, creating the new character Frank Pentangeli (played by Michael V. Gazzo) in Clemenza's place. Italian American actor Bruno Kirby did a great job portraying Clemenza as a young man in The Godfather Part II.
Richard Castellano died of a heart attack at his home in North Bergen, New Jersey, in 1988, at the age of 55.