John Aprea has passed away at the age of 83.
The Godfather II and Full House star died of natural causes at his Los Angeles home on August 5, according to his manager Will Levine.
Aprea, who played young Salvatore Tessio in the beloved Godfather movie franchise, died with his family members by his side earlier this month, according to TMZ.
HIS BIOGRAPHY
The New Jersey-born actor moved to New York in the 1960s to pursue his dreams after playing football at school and living in Italy for a few years with his family.
He then moved to LA, and played a hitman in the Steve McQueen movie Bullitt and acted as a mob boss on the 1981 NBC miniseries The Gangster Chronicles.
During his career, he also starred as the patriarch of a multi-generational Italian American family on NBC’s The Montefuscos in the 1970s, as well as performing in TV show Knots Landing in 1988.
Aprea first auditioned for the role of Michael Corleone in The Godfather after meeting director Francis Ford Coppola while he was bartending in LA.
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The role eventually went to Al Pacino, but Aprea was snapped up for the film’s sequel. All of Aprea’s lines as young Tessio in the film were spoken in Italian.
In 1988, he was cast as Nick Katsopolis – John Stamos’ father – in beloved American sitcom Full House, and he joined the cast again in 2017 for Fuller House.
