Carlo Rizzi (The Godfather)

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Carlo Rizzi is a fictional character from Mario Puzo’s The Godfather. In the 1972 movie, he is played by Gianni Russo.

Rizzi is born in Nevada and moves to New York City. He becomes friends with Sonny Corleone and, in 1941, meets Sonny’s sister Connie at a party for Vito Corleone, the crime boss. Rizzi and Connie marry in 1945. Vito disapproves because Rizzi is a small-time criminal who isn’t a full-blooded Sicilian, but he allows the marriage if Connie has a traditional Sicilian wedding.

Rizzi is kept out of the family’s inner workings and is allowed only a small role, running a rough sports book under the family’s supervision. He abuses Connie to show his power and cheats on her, which causes tension with the Corleones. When Connie complains, Vito does not intervene, partly to punish Connie for her choice of husband. Sonny has no patience for Rizzi and even beats him up in the street.

Feeling humiliated, Rizzi secretly makes a deal with the family’s rival, Barzini, to kill Sonny. He tries to provoke Connie to anger in order to lure Sonny away, and Sonny is killed at a toll booth by Barzini’s men. After Sonny’s death, Vito allows Rizzi to run a family-controlled labor union.

When Michael becomes the head of the family, he plans a Nevada move and treats Rizzi as a trusted lieutenant, even asking him to be godfather to Connie’s second child. However, Vito and Michael have decided that Rizzi helped Barzini. After Vito dies in 1955 and Michael takes over, Michael’s men kill the other New York bosses and Moe Greene, then confront Rizzi. Michael tells him he will be spared but exiled. Rizzi confesses to the Barzini plot, and as he is driven to the airport, Peter Clemenza garrotes him to death.

Connie is devastated at first but later remarries. In the film trilogy, she holds some resentment toward Michael but reconciles with him after their mother’s illness and after Fredo’s betrayal is revealed.

Gianni Russo’s portrayal of Rizzi helped him typecast as a “tough guy” in later work and led to his later role as a spokesperson for Don Corleone Organic Vodka.