Alessandro Federico Petricone Jr. (February 29, 1936 â€" July 18,
2015), known professionally as Alex Rocco, was an American actor.
Often cast as a villain, he is best known for his portrayal of Moe
Greene in The Godfather and his Primetime Emmy Award-winning role in
The Famous Teddy Z. He did a significant amount of voice-over work
later in his career, and was known for his gravelly voice.Rocco was
born as Alessandro Federico Petricone, Jr., in Cambridge,
Massachusetts, in 1936, but raised in nearby Somerville, the son of an
Italian immigrant, Mary (née DiBiase; 1909â€"1978) and Alessandro Sam
Petricone (1896â€"1949), a native of Gaeta, Italy.According to
organized crime turncoat Vincent Teresa, Rocco was a hanger-on with
the Winter Hill Gang of the Boston area. An unwanted advance toward
Petricone's then-girlfriend on Labor Day, 1961, touched off the Boston
Irish Gang War of the 1960s. Georgie McLaughlin, who made the advance,
was beaten by Winter Hill Gang members. Howie Carr, a Boston-area
journalist and radio personality who has written extensively about the
Boston underworld, has written that the young Petricone (whose
nickname was "Bobo") was arrested in Charlestown in November 1961
along with Winter Hill boss Buddy McLean for questioning following the
death of Bernie McLaughlin of the Charlestown Mob, the first murder of
the war. Petricone was released without charge and moved to California
in 1962. (When he returned to the Boston area in 1972 to play a bank
robber in the film The Friends of Eddie Coyle, Petriconeâ€"now using
the name "Alex Rocco"â€"set up a meeting between Robert Mitchum and
local Irish-American gangsters to help Mitchum research his part as
Eddie Coyle, a low-level Irish-American criminal. Rocco introduced
Mitchum to Howie Winter, leader of the Winter Hill Gang. Another
Winter Hill Gang member who met with Mitchum was Johnny Martorano, who
had murdered Billy O'Brien, a low-level gangster.)
2015), known professionally as Alex Rocco, was an American actor.
Often cast as a villain, he is best known for his portrayal of Moe
Greene in The Godfather and his Primetime Emmy Award-winning role in
The Famous Teddy Z. He did a significant amount of voice-over work
later in his career, and was known for his gravelly voice.Rocco was
born as Alessandro Federico Petricone, Jr., in Cambridge,
Massachusetts, in 1936, but raised in nearby Somerville, the son of an
Italian immigrant, Mary (née DiBiase; 1909â€"1978) and Alessandro Sam
Petricone (1896â€"1949), a native of Gaeta, Italy.According to
organized crime turncoat Vincent Teresa, Rocco was a hanger-on with
the Winter Hill Gang of the Boston area. An unwanted advance toward
Petricone's then-girlfriend on Labor Day, 1961, touched off the Boston
Irish Gang War of the 1960s. Georgie McLaughlin, who made the advance,
was beaten by Winter Hill Gang members. Howie Carr, a Boston-area
journalist and radio personality who has written extensively about the
Boston underworld, has written that the young Petricone (whose
nickname was "Bobo") was arrested in Charlestown in November 1961
along with Winter Hill boss Buddy McLean for questioning following the
death of Bernie McLaughlin of the Charlestown Mob, the first murder of
the war. Petricone was released without charge and moved to California
in 1962. (When he returned to the Boston area in 1972 to play a bank
robber in the film The Friends of Eddie Coyle, Petriconeâ€"now using
the name "Alex Rocco"â€"set up a meeting between Robert Mitchum and
local Irish-American gangsters to help Mitchum research his part as
Eddie Coyle, a low-level Irish-American criminal. Rocco introduced
Mitchum to Howie Winter, leader of the Winter Hill Gang. Another
Winter Hill Gang member who met with Mitchum was Johnny Martorano, who
had murdered Billy O'Brien, a low-level gangster.)
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