Remembering Al Lettieri

Alessandro Lettieri was born on February 24, 1928 in New York City. He was born from Italian heritage and projected an aura of menace, ruthlessness and brooding malevolence in his film roles, which he attributed to his acquaintance with real-life gangsters, including Joey Gallo. Al appeared in TV series starting in 1957’s ‘Official Detective’.At the age of 36, he made his screen debut in the television film ‘The Hanged Man’ (1964). Lettieri went on to act with some of Hollywood's biggest screen names including his only Euro-western “A Town Called Hell” (1971) as La Bomba with Telly Savalas, Martin Landau and Robert Shaw, Steve McQueen in “The Getaway” (1972), Charles Bronson in “Mr. Majestyk”, John Wayne in “McQ” (both 1974) and both Marlon Brando and Al Pacino in “The Godfather” (1972). Lettieri died of a heart attack in 1975, at the age of 47, leaving two children. Today we remember Al Lettieri on what would have been his 85^th birthday.