Carmine Caridi

Carmine Caridi (January 23, 1934 – May 28, 2019) was an American actor born in New York, New York, whose career spanned film, television, and stage. He is best known for playing Carmine Rosato in The Godfather Part II (1974) and Albert Volpe in The Godfather Part III (1990), making him one of three actors to portray two distinct roles across the Godfather film series, alongside Frank Sivero and Sofia Coppola.

Caridi's Broadway career ran from 1965 to 1972 and included three productions: The Odd Couple, Man of La Mancha, and That Championship Season. His stage work preceded his rise to wider recognition in film and television.

In addition to the Godfather films, Caridi appeared as amusement park manager Calvin Richards in the 1978 cult film Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park and portrayed Sam Giancana in the 1992 film Ruby. Robert Evans claimed in his 1994 memoir The Kid Stays in the Picture that Francis Ford Coppola had originally wanted Caridi for the role of Sonny Corleone in The Godfather, but that Evans pushed for James Caan on the grounds that Caridi was too tall to appear opposite Al Pacino. Author Mark Seal, in his 2022 book Leave the Gun, Take the Cannoli, disputes this account, asserting that Caan had been Coppola's choice from the outset and that Coppola had previously attended theatre arts school with Caan and directed him alongside Robert Duvall in The Rain People.

On television, Caridi played Dan Valenti on Phyllis from 1976 to 1977 and appeared as Di Carlo in a 1978 episode of The Eddie Capra Mysteries. From 1982 to 1983, he portrayed Angelo Martelli, the father of Bruno Martelli, in the series Fame. His most sustained television role came on NYPD Blue, where he played Detective Vince Gotelli from 1993 to 1999. His final screen appearance was a small part in a Season 10 episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm titled "Insufficient Praise," and later that same season a storyline involving the pirating of his Academy screener DVDs was incorporated into the show's plot.

In January 2004, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences identified illegal online copies of several films — including Something's Gotta Give, The Last Samurai, Mystic River, Big Fish, and Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World — as having originated from screener copies sent to Caridi as an Oscar voter. The FBI investigated and charged Russell Sprague of Homewood, Illinois, with criminal copyright infringement, alleging that Caridi had sent Sprague approximately 60 screener copies over at least three years using FedEx materials Sprague provided. Caridi told the FBI he believed Sprague to be a film enthusiast and denied receiving payment. Sony and Time Warner filed a civil copyright infringement suit against both men in the United States District Court for the Central District of California, seeking a minimum of $150,000 per film with hundreds of individual violations alleged. Sprague pleaded guilty in the criminal case but died of a suspected heart attack before sentencing. Caridi was cleared of criminal wrongdoing. On February 3, 2004, however, the Academy expelled Caridi for violating his screener agreement, making him the first person ever removed from the organization.

Caridi died on May 28, 2019, at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles after suffering complications from a fall that left him in a comatose state.