Salvatore Tessio

Salvatore Tessio
Abe Vigoda portraying Salvatore Tessio
First appearance	The Godfather
Last appearance	The Godfather (video game)
Created by	Mario Puzo
Portrayed by	Abe Vigoda, John Aprea
Information
Nickname(s)	Sal, Sally
Gender	Male
Occupation	Gangster

Salvatore "Sal" Tessio is a fictional character in Mario Puzo's 1969 novel The Godfather, as well as two of the films based on it: The Godfather and The Godfather Part II (1974). His given name was created for the films; in the novel he is referred to only as "Tessio". In the film The Godfather, Tessio was portrayed by Abe Vigoda. In The Godfather Part II, John Aprea portrayed the younger Tessio, while Vigoda reprised the role in a flashback, set in late 1941, at the end of the film.

Tessio has also appeared in the 2004 novel The Godfather Returns and the 2006 video game The Godfather.

Tessio and friends Peter Clemenza and Vito Corleone begin their criminal careers as low-level hoodlums in the New York City neighborhood of Little Italy in Manhattan. As Corleone rises to power and prominence in the Mafia underworld, Tessio and Clemenza become his trusted caporegimes. Tessio, well-connected throughout the borough, owns the Embassy Club in Brooklyn, his base of operations for his Mafia soldiers. Most federal investigators consider Tessio the smarter, savvier and more ruthless of the Corleone capos. However, according to the book, he mellows considerably over the decade of peace between New York's Mafia families. One of the strengths of the Corleone Family is that, given Tessio's control over Brooklyn, some enemies do not know that Tessio's regime functions within the Corleone Empire, and thus do not understand the extra strength it has.