In Hollywood there are movie stars and then there are working actors; hard working people that just never became a household name. More often than not those are very well connected in the industry and well respected by their peers. Ron Gilbert is one of those actors with a very distinct voice, a memorable face and, at 6-foot-1, a commanding presence.
He began his career in the seventies alongside Al Pacino and Robert De Niro, therefore he has many stories to tell. He was raised in a very Italian neighborhood, East Harlem, New York close to the famous Rao’s. “My mom was Italian,” he recalls. “We were from Albano di Lucania in the Basilicata region; a lot of people in my street were from the same village. My grandfather’s last name was Adamo. When my grandparents came here he wrote the o like an s, he became Adams. As a kid I used to think I was related to the Presidents.
When I visited Albano I told them the story, they got a kick out of it.” Ron attended catholic school and won a scholarship to CCNY, where he started boxing, something he continued to excel in during his time in the US Army.
Upon his return he went through different jobs, “I was a lifeguard at some point”, eventually deciding to sign with the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. He always knew his place was in the arts and committed to it by studying with Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio, where he met Robert Duvall, Ben Gazzara and many others.
“In New York I was never Italian looking enough; the name was not Italian. My father’s name was Goldstein, he changed it to Gilbert, but I have more Italian blood in me than Robert De Niro. At fourteen I got involved with the vending machine business. One of those was in Al Pacino’s uncle’s bar, because Pacino’s mother used to visit my grandmother all the time.” In 1970 The Godfather, the novel by Mario Puzo, became very popular in the neighborhood.
Paramount Pictures was going to turn it into a movie and all the actors of Italian descent became very excited. Ron has a scene in the iconic wedding that opens the film. “I was doing a play and a friend of mine, Tommy Signorelli who was very close to everybody in the industry, saw me and set up a meeting with Al Ruddy, one of the producers. We had an half hour meeting for the part of Michael. Marlon Brando was already cast and wanted an unknown. Ruddy liked me but then Al Pacino was cast. Al had been working on stage and was known within the Actors Studio, but most people did not know him.
Al is not very tall, so they cut everybody six inches. Richard Bright, who played his brother in Panic in Needle Park and was of his size, was cast as Neri. They still wanted me in the movie so there I am, the tallest person in The Godfather.” He worked on the film for three weeks and compares the wedding to a football wedding, “when they make sandwiches, they wrap them in waxed paper and when somebody at one of the tables shouts, give me a meatball sandwich, they throw them around. Sofia Coppola was born, Francis wrote the song in the movie for her. His sister Talia Shire never had a wedding, so the cake, she considered it her wedding cake.”
At first Ron was disappointed at not having a bigger role, then he became grateful for being part of one of the greatest movies in history and for the opportunity to meet Brando, who he indicates as a huge influence on him, “because Brando in On the waterfront was very much the people I grew up with, the people working on the docks. What’s funny about Brando, he never learned the lines. He would have them written somewhere off camera. Lenny Montana, who played Luca Brasi, pranked him. He stuck his tongue out and he had the words f you on it. Brando was very full of life.” Somewhat frustrated with the business, Ron bought a farm, “I had 36 six tomato plants, my mother went crazy. The thing is you get too involved in that world and forget about the real world. I met a girl in Florida and took her to the farm. You really have to have somebody in your corner, being married with children is key.”
Later on he moved to Los Angeles and started working immediately thanks to a friend who hired him for a play. “I started doing commercials. I did all the beers and I worked with all the big directors, like Michael Cimino, before their fame. Then I met Bryan Singer. He had just done his first movie Public Access and with my connections I could help him find distribution.” In this business if you know somebody at the beginning, they never forget. “Let me tell you how good of a friend Bryan Singer is, and I didn’t realize this until a little while ago, if you look just at the trailer of The Usual Suspects I’m in three scenes. I still talk to Bryan, not so long ago he asked me to be in a commercial with Salma Hayek he was directing.”
Ron doesn’t do just acting, he keeps busy with workshops, producing and with his involvement in film festivals. When he goes back to Italy for business he is treated like royalty, “because they have seen me in Desperate Housewives, in The Usual Suspects, they know I’m in The Godfather. Down the street from the Rome Film Festival they were shooting a reality for RAI, I knew the actor, he says, Ron come here. They put me in the show. When I was in Venice somebody wrote an article about me and my village invited me. My grandparents never went back and it broke my heart, it was very emotional. The name of the mayor was the same as my grandfather’s, Francesco Adamo. I’ve written an outline of a story about myself going to the village. I would love to do a movie in Italy.”
Thanks to his warm personality and connections, Ron has also become a guidance for a new generation of Italians, young talents who come to Hollywood with a dream and seek help navigating the system. “I help kids out of the good of my heart. What I tell them is to have a plan, a story. If you are Italian you have this thing inside of you, but you have to really work on the craft. And be connected to your roots.”
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