Sonny Grosso
Salvatore "Sonny" Grosso is a movie and television producer and former New York City Police Department detective, noted for his role in the case immortalized in the book and movie versions of the French Connection. He was born in the early 1930s[1] in Düsseldorf, Germany.[2]
Grosso and his partner Eddie Egan, and other NYPD detectives, broke up an organized crime ring in 1961 and seized 112 pounds of heroin, a record amount at the time. The investigation was the subject of a book by Robin Moore and an Academy Award-winning motion picture.
Egan and Grosso were technical advisers to the movie and played small roles. The movie was highly fictionalized, and a character based on Grosso, called "Buddy Russo", was played by actor Roy Scheider (who was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance). The character went by the nickname "Cloudy", which was Grosso's nickname as a detective because he would always bring people down and it is the opposite of his name, Sonny.
Grosso subsequently became a movie and TV producer and technical advisor, involved in 36 productions including the 1970s cop show Kojak. He also played small roles in a number of movies including playing a cop in The Godfather.
In October 2007, Grosso produced a limited engagement performance of Richard Vetere's Be My Love: The Mario Lanza Story. The play was directed by Charles Messina and co-produced by Phil Ramone. It premiered at The Tilles Center in Greenvale, NY.[3]
[edit] References
- ^ "Now 74 years old" [in 2007]. IT STILL HURTS AFTER 35. New York Daily News. New York, N.Y.: Apr 12, 2007. pg. 1
- ^ IMDB bio.
- ^ "Richard Vetere Collection". Stony Brook University Special Collections & University Archives. http://www.stonybrook.edu/libspecial/collections/manuscripts/vetere.shtml.
[edit] External links
- Sonny Grosso at the Internet Movie Database
- http://www.nleomf.org/media/newsletters/NewsWinter06.pdf
- http://www.neco.org/awards/recipients/sgrosso.html
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