'Godfather' actor killed by bus on West Side

NEW YORK (AP) Richard Bright, a character actor who appeared in all three "Godfather" movies and in films like "The Getaway" and Sergio Leone's "Once Upon a Time in America," was struck and killed by a bus in his Manhattan neighborhood, police said.

Bright, 68, was hit by a private Academy Bus as he crossed Columbus Avenue on the Upper West Side at about 6:30 p.m. Saturday, said Detective Bernard Gifford, a police spokesman. The actor was taken to Roosevelt Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, police said.

The bus continued on to the Port Authority bus terminal, where the driver told police he was not aware that he had hit anyone. There were no arrests as of Sunday but police said the investigation was continuing.

Bright played mob enforcer Al Neri in the "Godfather" movies, a bodyguard to the Corleone family patriarchs played by Marlon Brando and Al Pacino. He played a con artist hustling Ali McGraw in 1972's "The Getaway" and acted in dozens other films such as "Looking for Mr. Goodbar" and "Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid" and in TV shows including "Hill Street Blues" and "The Sopranos."

"He always said it was the work that was the reward," said Brett Smiley, a friend and fellow actor.

Bright was arrested in 1965 on an obscenity charge for language he used in a San Francisco production of poet Michael McClure's two-person play "The Beard," which was shut down. The American Civil Liberties Union took up the case and the charges against Bright were later dismissed in what was considered a precedent for artistic expression rights.