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Albert "Al" Neri is a supporting character from the The Godfather novel by Mario Puzo and the film trilogy by Francis Ford Coppola. He was the personal enforcer, bodyguard, and assassin of Michael Corleone.
In the films, he was portrayed by the late Richard Bright, who also portrayed Sheldon Kerrick in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.
History[]
Early life[]
Neri started out as a member of the New York City Police Department. While an NYPD officer, the quick-tempered Neri often cracked his flashlight over the heads of Italian youths and smashed the windshields of diplomats who had ignored traffic laws. In fear of his temper his wife Rita left him. Not long afterward, Neri was convicted of voluntary manslaughter for killing the drug dealer and pimp Wax Baines after the latter attacked a woman and left her with permanent scars. Seeing potential in the young man, Corleone family consigliere Tom Hagen and caporegime Peter Clemenza engineered Neri's release from prison and welcomed him into the Corleone crime family.
The Godfather[]
Don Michael Corleone recruits Neri into Clemenza's regime, and Neri soon makes his bones by executing rival mob boss Emilio Barzini. In the novel Neri also murders Moe Greene; in the film, however, this murder is carried out by a second, anonymous gunman. After Salvatore Tessio is killed for betraying the Corleone family, Neri is promoted to caporegime.
The Godfather, Part II[]
By the 1950s Neri serves as the head of security for all of Michael's operations in Las Vegas.
When Michael's brother Fredo betrays him to rival mob boss Hyman Roth, Michael disowns him and tells Neri that nothing is to happen to his brother while their mother is alive, the implication being that Neri is to kill Fredo after she dies. After their mother passes away, Michael seemingly forgives Fredo at her funeral, but levels an icy stare at Neri while embracing his brother. Soon afterward, Neri goes fishing with Fredo on Lake Tahoe, shoots him in the back of the head, and dumps the body overboard.
Aside from Michael, his wife Kay, and his son Anthony, no one in the family knows that Michael ordered Neri to kill Fredo; they are led to believe that Fredo drowned in the lake.
The Godfather, Part III[]
Approximately 20 years after the events of the second movie, Michael moves back to New York and starts making efforts to achieve his lifelong dream of turning the Corleone Family legitimate, selling off his rackets to his former enforcer Joey Zasa. Neri still serves as Michael's bodyguard, the only holdover from Michael's criminal enterprises.
Neri saves Michael's life from an assassination attempt masterminded by Zasa and former Corleone ally Osvaldo Altobello, and then, on orders from Michael's sister Connie, helps Michael's nephew Vincent Mancini murder Zasa while Michael recovers from a diabetic stroke. Angered by their disobedience, Michael orders Neri and Vincent never to do something like that again as long as he lives.
After Michael recovers, he retires as Don and names Vincent as his successor. Neri is the second member of the family to give his loyalty to Vincent, after Don Tommasino's former bodyguard Calò. Vincent orders Neri infiltrate the Vatican and kill the corrupt Archbishop Gilday; Neri then throws Gilday's body over a staircase.
Gallery[]
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