About Me
Peter Clemenza (July 16, 1890 - October 9, 1957) is a fictional character appearing in Mario Puzo's novel The Godfather and two of the three films based on it.
In his young adulthood, in The Godfather Part II, Clemenza is portrayed by Bruno Kirby. In his later years, he is portrayed by Richard S. Castellano.
Peter Clemenza is one of two (later three) caporegimes in the Corleone Family (the other being Salvatore Tessio). He rules over the family's territory in Little Italy. Although he is less intelligent than his friend and counterpart Tessio, he is said to be more brutal and direct in the book. In the film, he may be perceived at first as a fat, dim witted thug, but later on he is shown to be a formidable assassin.
Clemenza became a friend of Vito Corleone after immigrating from Sicily, when Corleone held a package of guns for him to prevent their discovery by the police. Although he is a native of Italy, and in The Godfather II is shown speaking perfect colloquial Italian as a young man in his 20's, in The Godfather an older Clemenza speaks with a highly pronounced New York/Brooklyn accent. One of the few remaining hints of his Italian roots is that he pronounces "Corleone" as "Cor-yon-nay."
A friendly and jovial man, he was known as a storyteller among many of his acquaintances and family members - a trait that endeared him to Vito, who Puzo described as "a listener to storytellers." Clemenza got his start selling stolen goods such as dresses and guns with Vito and Tessio as far back as 1917, and became a key figure in the growing Corleone family.
Vito kept him close through the years. For instance, Vito makes Clemenza godfather to his oldest son Sonny, and handled Sonny's training once Sonny decided to join his father's family. However, this was to control his brutal and more ambitious tendencies (even though he had mellowed somewhat in a decade of peace between the families).
Clemenza plays a key role in aiding Michael following the shooting of Vito. He retrains Michael how to fire a gun, walking him through the scenario for assassinating VirgilSollozzo, and gets someone to plant the gun prior to the assassination. In the wave of killings that cements Michael's power, Clemenza garroted Carlo Rizzi for his role in setting up Sonny for assassination. During the murders of the heads of the Five Families in the film, Clemenza personally shot Don Stracci and his bodyguard. It is Clemenza's greeting of Michael as "Don Michael" at the end of the book (as "Don Corleone" at the end of the film) that convinces Kay Adams-Corleone that her husband has become as ruthless as his father.
Clemenza's forces include soldiers Paulie Gatto, Willi Cicci, Al Neri, and Rocco Lampone. He handled many of his men closely, proud of picking Lampone as a caporegime and locating Neri as a successor to Luca Brasi. He could also be cruel with them - when he found out that Gatto had been collaborating with Sollozo, he saw it as a personal betrayal and orchestrated the execution personally, with Rocco pulling the trigger.
Ironically, clemenza literally means "mercy" or "forgiveness" in Italian. The English cognate is clemency.
