Al Lettieri

The Man Who Didn't Fake the Threat

Al Lettieri didn't need to act to seem dangerous. His face projected a dry violence that Hollywood bought right away because his brother-in-law was Pasquale Eboli, a heavyweight in the Genovese family. That closeness to real crime gave him a competitive edge no acting class could match.

In 1972, he broke into the spotlight with El padrino: The Latin Godfather. He played Virgil Sollozzo, and his sheer physical presence made even Marlon Brando uneasy. But Lettieri was no lucky supporting actor: he handled silence with mathematical precision that made your hair stand on end.

He had the right connections.

Before getting into film, he worked as a screenwriter. He contributed to the script of Villain in 1971, which helped him understand how the mechanics of power worked in fiction. That intelligence showed in every scene he appeared in.

The Villain of the Seventies

His run of work between 1972 and 1974 is hard to believe for an actor who started so late. He shot The Getaway under Sam Peckinpah, where he went head to head with Steve McQueen without ever backing down. He earned 50,000 dollars for that role, which made him the decade's official bad guy.

Al Lettieri loved chaos. But that pace of life caught up with him far too soon. In 1974 he filmed McQ alongside John Wayne, and shortly after Mister Majestyk with Charles Bronson. These were tough-guy movies made by people who knew what a bar fight was really like.

And the body said enough.

He died of a heart attack in 1975 while at a restaurant in New York. He was only 47 years old and left several projects unfinished. His last on-screen appearance was in the movie Dubbi di un delitto, released posthumously in 1977. The medical examiner's office confirmed that he died at ten at night on October 18.