WITH JOHNNY MARTINO

Johnny Martino Born May 5, 1937

New York City, New York, U.S.

Occupation Actor Known for The Godfather

By Fabrizio Catalfamo

THE RENDEZ VOUS

On a sunny Florida day: my interlocutor, Johnny Martino (born May 5, 1937) is an actor who was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. He played the foot-soldier, Paulie Cat, in the iconic American crime film, The Godfather, winner of many Oscars.I had thought of an interview in the classical way but instead we started talking in Sicilian dialect.

Besides having taken part in numerous other films and television, Johnny was also the nephew of the famous Mafia Boss Lucky Luciano and to tell the truth, this was the peculiarity that intrigued me the most.

As I expected, he began to talk to me about his childhood in Brooklin, his father and his uncle. He explain to me in a perfect “Palermitano” dialect, the need by Italian immigrants of the time, to defend themselves from other communities, for questions of territory and business. His uncle Lucky, whose real name was: Salvatore Lucania, is described by Johnny as a “Cristianu” (man) who had done good to the Italian community in the states.

Filmography

FILM

YEAR TITLE ROLE NOTES

1968 HOW SWEET IT IS! BARTENDER

1970 THE GRASSHOPPER LOVER

1972 THE GODFATHER PAULIE GATTO

1973 DILLINGER EDDIE MARTIN

1974 TRUCK STOP WOMEN SMITH

1975 CAPONE TONY AMATTO

1998 THE RIGHT WAY SAL

2004 FLOWERS FREDDIE FELTON

2005 CONFESSIONS OF A THUG VIC TORINO

2008 THE PRICE MR. CAPUTO

2012 THE CORPSE GRINDERS 3 MR. GUALTIERI

2012 DEAD BY FRIDAY SALVATORE

Television

YEAR SHOW ROLE NOTES

1968 THE WILD WILD WEST JOSE ONE EPISODE, THE NIGHT OF THE HEADLESS WOMAN

A singular anecdote

where Johnny was a child, goes with the whole family in a private audience with the Pope, accompanied by a “Referente” friend of Lucky Luciano. Laughing he tells me that he asked his mother how to behave with the Pope and the mother replied: “baciaci a manu!” kiss his hand. The conversation turned to the family and to his young wife, Lori Martino, a former mannequin married in 1986 and who caused a scandal because of the age difference between the two. Their union has resisted over time they have grown up children who started their own life. After the appearance in the godfather, the cinematographic roles and the artistic offers have increased without ever reaching clamorous apices but confirming him as a good artist. Johnny still continues to work with singing around Florida in many venues. He sings old-fashioned America, in the manner of Frank Sinatra or Dean Martin , an America that no longer exists. Just as the legend of Lucky Luciano, Al Capone ... no longer exists, Children of an iconic Italy, of which many third-generation Italo - Americans are proud, an Italian that no longer exists or that perhaps is only existed in the crowded alleys of a Brooklin in the 1900s, when the ships arrived with hope and despair. And I thought of the banal but meaningful coincidences: Italians people looked a lot likes the hordes of Africans who land on the Sicilian coasts, ugly and dirty. I also thought time leaves deep wounds...but also forgiveness.

Here’s how Lucky Luciano and all the negative characters in the film the godfather, become positive idols, the word “Respect” flaunted by the Mafiosi, loses its meaning because on reality it means “have fear, be afraid of me!”

I was also about to say this: “I’m not proud of being that Italian, I’m not that Italian. I’m not even that Italian who lifts walls in the Mediterranean” but ... maybe Johnny wouldn’t have understood this.

I left, offering him a book, “Talks with Mussolini” the famous interview by Emil Ludwic to Benito Mussolini. Looking at the photo on the cover he asked me: “ “ Ma picchì si misi cu chissu ?” (Why was allied with Hitler?) As if that were his the only mistake made. “Ma chi sacciu...accussì ye’a vita!” I don’t know, life is like this, I said, while taking a selfie for facebook.