Richard Bright

Richard James Bright (June 28, 1937 – February 18, 2006) was an American actor born in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, New York City, to Matilda (née Scott) and Ernest Bright, a shipbuilder. He is best known for his portrayal of Al Neri across all three films in Francis Ford Coppola's Godfather trilogy, a role that made him one of five actors to appear in each installment of the series.

Bright launched his professional career in live television in Manhattan at age 18, before making his film debut in Robert Wise's Odds Against Tomorrow in 1959. Early in his career he collaborated on several projects with director Sam Peckinpah. In 1965, he took the lead in poet Michael McClure's two-person stage production The Beard, which opened in San Francisco before moving to Los Angeles, New York City, and London. The play contained simulated sex acts, and Bright, producer Robert Barrow, and director Robert Gist were arrested multiple times in San Francisco and Los Angeles on lewdness charges. The legal conflict ultimately reached the California Supreme Court, which issued a restraining order halting the arrests and ruled that the First Amendment extended its protections to live theatrical performances.

His film work in the early 1970s included co-starring roles in The Panic in Needle Park (1971), in which he played Hank, the brother of Al Pacino's character, and a supporting part in The Getaway (1972) as a con man who attempts to swindle Carol McCoy, played by Ali MacGraw. In 1972, Coppola cast Bright as Al Neri in The Godfather, a character depicted in Mario Puzo's source novel as a former New York City police officer who kills a sadistic pimp, is abandoned by the department, and is subsequently brought into Michael Corleone's service through Corleone family influence. In the film's climactic baptism sequence, Neri, dressed as a police officer, kills rival mob boss Emilio Barzini and his associates. The final image of The Godfather features Bright and Diane Keaton, as Neri closes Michael's office door in her face. Bright reprised the role in both sequels: in The Godfather Part II, Neri murders Fredo Corleone, played by John Cazale, and in The Godfather Part III, the character kills the Vatican banker Archbishop Gilday.

Additional film credits from this period include Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973), Rancho Deluxe (1975), Marathon Man (1976), and Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977). In 1979, Bright appeared in the film adaptation of Hair and made his Broadway debut in King Richard II. Sergio Leone cast him as the hired killer Chicken Joe in the gangster epic Once Upon a Time in America (1984). Later film appearances include Red Heat (1988), Beautiful Girls (1996), the interactive film Ripper (1996), and Jaded (1998).

On television, Bright held a recurring role on the daytime drama One Life to Live in 1993, playing "Moose" Mulligan, a rival and former underboss to the crime lord Carlo Hesser. He also appeared on Law & Order, Oz, Third Watch, and The Sopranos. Though Bright suffered from emphysema, the oxygen tanks visible in his later television appearances were props used for the characters he portrayed rather than personal medical equipment.

Bright died on February 18, 2006, after being struck by the rear wheel of a tour bus on the Upper West Side of Manhattan while crossing in a marked crosswalk with the walk signal in his favor. He was pronounced dead on arrival at Roosevelt Hospital at the age of 68. The bus driver reported no awareness of the collision until being notified upon arriving at the Port Authority in midtown Manhattan, where police conducted an interview. No criminal charges were filed, though the driver's license was suspended for failing to yield the right of way. Bright was survived by his wife, actress Rutanya Alda, his son Jeremy, his daughter Diane, and his brother Charles.