Posted on 02/19/2006 12:15:41 AM PST by lunarbicep
A debonair 68-year-old actor — whose half-century career included a memorable role in all three "Godfather" movies — was last night dragged to his death in a horrific tour-bus accident on the Upper West Side, police sources said.
Richard Bright, whose piercing blue eyes and dark hair saw him often cast as a cop or criminal, crumpled to the ground as he was hit by the rear wheel of an Academy bus at about 6:30 p.m. as it turned left on Columbus Avenue at 86th Street, according to witnesses.
The driver was unaware of the accident until he reached the Port Authority terminal and was questioned by police. There was no indication of a crime and no charges were filed, police sources said.
Bright, whose winter coat and dentures were left behind on the street, was pronounced dead at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital.
"His face was beat up. His leg was mangled," said Teri Robinson, 47, who saw the accident from the back of a taxi. "It was very startling."
Movie fans would best know Bright from his performance as Al Neri, the bodyguard to Al Pacino's Michael Corleone character in "The Godfather" trilogy.
He played a key part in one of the most haunting scenes in "The Godfather II," when he shot Corleone's older brother Fredo (John Cazale) during a fishing trip.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
The second one is the greatest of the three... and that's not just *my* opinion!
May he rest in peace.
"He sleeps with the bussess"
Leave the gun, take the bus.
The second one is the greatest of the three... and that's not just *my* opinion!
I agree. That's where I learned a lot of Italian.
May I suggest a mortician? He did wonderful work on Santino Corleone.
No. But if you think that a study of mob life is representative of American culture I disagree. Not everyone thinks the mafia is something to revered.
Every evening at 6 the church bells ring and evryone looks up to the cross on top of the church and prays. One evening when the occupying French soldiers looked up, each had their throats cut by a Sicilian.
If all you see in the GF is mob life, then I think you missed half of the point.
Has the tour bus been arrested yet?
'Fredo needed croaking.
Indeed.
What is the other half about, then?
I don't think the intent was to say thet the GF movies are representative of American life but they are, quite clearly, a cultural element of American life the way John Wayne is a cultural element of American life.
Just a part, a bit of the flavor, a cultural reference that most people understand.
I am sure you are right. I just simply can't stand the way mafia movies are held in such high esteem. They stand for a way of life that is to be reviled not revered as so many seem to do.
Well it was the highest grossing film of all time upon release so I would say it made pretty serious inroads into American culture. And previously the novel was a publishing phenomena.
They don't revere Mafia life any more then Macbeth reveres its title character. If you had seen the 2nd one you'd see that the descent into Mafia life is treatest as stark human tragedy.
Good Grief! How horrible. I remember him well.
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