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FEW got on the wrong side of drug lord Pablo Escobar and lived to tell the tale – let alone survived him putting out a contract on their life.

But Godfather actor Gianni Russo, 82, is no ordinary bloke. He was employed by some of America’s most notorious Mafia kingpins and sensationally claimed Marilyn Monroe took his virginity. Now, he reveals the astonishing story of how he went from mob notoriety to Hollywood fame – and how he escaped death in the process.

The New Yorker’s blockbuster life began dramatically when he nearly died aged six from polio, only surviving thanks to an experimental vaccine trial that cured him but led to the deaths of half of the patients on the hospital ward.

After a lengthy five-year recovery, Russo started out selling ballpoint pens on the streets of New York aged 13.

It was here that he first crossed paths with Frank Costello, a mob boss from the Luciano crime family, who offered him work. 

This induction into the mob world would lead to him becoming pally with the likes of Frank Sinatra, Monroe and Al Pacino, as well as bagging acting roles including in the first two Godfather films, Rush Hour 2 and Red Dragon. 

And it was his portrayal of Carlo Rizzi, the abusive husband of Connie Corleone, in the first Godfather movie that would save his life in the unlikeliest fashion.

Surviving “King of Cocaine” Escobar’s wrath – after surrendering himself to the Colombian drug lord and being interrogated in a prison cell three floors underneath his mansion – was among Russo’s biggest feats.

Escobar had put a hit out on the actor after he shot dead Lorenzo Morales, a hitman from his Medellin Cartel, in a 1988 Las Vegas nightclub.

The fatal altercation came after Morales stabbed a woman he had taken to dinner at Russo’s venue and then slashed the Godfather star’s face with a broken champagne bottle.

Russo tells The Sun: “He spins around and goes for my throat. Fortunately I react, I was agile enough, but he cuts me on my jawline, which required 81 stitches, and I’m bleeding.

“I said, ‘Look what you did to my shirt.’ He cut me but I’m worried about my shirt. I just wanted to get my hand on my gun and as soon as I did, I put the gun at his forehead.

“I told him, ‘Now go out the door’. He said, ‘F*** you’. I shot him… The cops came and took me to the hospital.”

Russo wasn’t charged with the killing due to it being ruled a justifiable homicide by the Nevada District Attorney’s Office.

But he knew he was a wanted man when Morales was revealed to be part of the Medellin Cartel.

Despite knowing he was unlikely to return, Russo travelled to a church in Colombia to meet face-to-face with the drug lord – a meeting arranged by mobster John Gotti, head of New York’s Gambino crime family. 

Russo adds: “Understand one thing, Escobar believed in killing your pets, your children, your family, and you last. I wasn’t going to let that happen.” 

Seconds after greeting Escobar, he was hit from behind and woke up in the cartel lord’s famous “mansion prison”, which he had built to avoid extradition to the US for drug charges.

“I was strapped to a chair, the stench was unbelievable,” Russo says. 

“I thought I was hallucinating. [Escobar] had a book in his hands. The book was ‘Making Of The Godfather’. He said to me, ‘Why didn’t you tell me you were Carlo in The Godfather? I loved that movie.’”

In a Hollywood-style twist, Escobar instructed his associate to clean-up Russo, treat his injuries and take him to his dining room, where the Colombian would later probe: ‘Why did you come here?’

Russo replied: ‘What would you have done if someone was going to kill your daughter? I had to come here. Kill me now and leave my family alone.’

He continues: “He walks towards me, I don’t know if he was going to cut off my head or what, but he kissed me. He said, ‘They don’t make men like us anymore. Go home, I’ll handle this’. 

“So, we sat down, had dinner, we talked, it was amazing. But he was a frightening man.”

Russo bagged his role in The Godfather after serving as a liaison between Paramount Studios and the Colombo crime family, who had threatened to stop the film’s production through their vice-like control over the unions.

He recalls petitioning crime boss Joe Colombo, who objected to the movie because it “basically identified every Italian as a gangster”, by telling him: “Listen, we can make a lot of money from this.” 

Eventually, Russo talked him around and was given the role of Carlo in the iconic 1972 movie “as my reward”.

Not everyone was happy he got the part, including Marlon Brando. The legendary star, who played Don Vito Corleone, was desperate to succeed in his “comeback film” and wanted everything to be perfect.

“When he found out that I wasn’t even an actor, he tried to get me fired,” Russo said. “I worked that out with him and we became friends.”

Similarly, Russo says co-star James Caan, who played Sonny Corleone, “hated me from day one” because of his corrupt connections. 

Caan also believed he lost out on the role of Michael Corleone to Al Pacino because of Russo and his mobster allies.

John Gotti rival

By the time Russo starred in The Godfather, he had already made a fortune from criminal activities.

He was sitting on an estimated £1.5million fortune, having worked as a ‘messenger’ for mafia families and run multiple crooked businesses including casinos.

Russo was taken under mobster Frank Costello’s wing out of respect for his Sicilian uncles, who had helped to send the Mafia crime families over to America and were hanged for their criminal activities.

He says being “given so much respect so early on” angered future Gambino crime boss Gotti, who was then a “hijacker, earning big money” and desperate to become a ‘made’ man.

Was I upset? No. I’d just had sex with America’s hottest movie star and sex symbol.

Gianni Russo

Russo’s biggest money-spinner was laundering “hundreds of millions of dollars” skimmed from casinos and other illegal businesses through the Vatican Bank with the help of a corrupt bishop in the 1970s.

Then came his big screen debut in The Godfather, which changed his life forever and was a film that “the mob loved”. 

Russo says: “The Godfather was my first film. I was young, I was making big money and with my ego, I wanted to become an actor.

“The movie premiere was like a dream come true for me because 10 years earlier I was selling ballpoint pens to people and now I was in the biggest movie ever in the world.”

‘Marilyn taught me everything’

Fame, coupled with Russo’s mob connections, led to a series of high-profile celebrity romances. He would go on to father 13 children with 10 different women.

He dated I Say A Little Prayer singer Dionne Warwick in the 1980s, the actress Zsa Zsa Gabor and Cabaret star Liza Minnelli.

“I really like Liza, I couldn’t say anything bad about her, she’s just fun, enjoys life,” Russo said through laughter.

But perhaps his most famous dalliance came earlier with Marilyn Monroe, then 33, who he sensationally alleged took his virginity when he was 15. 

Gianna was working at a hair salon in New York and says the Some Like It Hot star always requested him to wash her hair. 

He claims one day Marilyn’s advisors invited him to her suite in the Waldorf Hotel and they bonked for the entire weekend, leaving him struggling to walk after . 

Russo recalled her standing in her messy room, which he compared to “like the set of a disaster movie”.

She was holding a flute of champagne, wearing just a towel which she promptly dropped and invited him to join her in the bath. 

“My heart was pounding,” he said. “Like an idiot, I covered my eyes, which made her laugh.

“I began undressing, praying I wouldn’t trip over my pants and fall on my ass, and then entered the tub. I’ll be ­honest, I had no idea what to do, or what she expected.

“We wound up in bed for the entire weekend, climbing out only when needed. It was my first ­experience of room service, and it added to the fantastic experience.”

The one issue was that Russo was just 15 years old – but the actor had no regrets, even boasting “she taught me everything I know” and he felt like “the luckiest boy alive”.

He said: “If it had happened today, I think she’d be arrested and my parents would have tried to get some cash out of it… Was I upset? No. I’d just had sex with America’s hottest movie star and sex symbol.”

Russo has lived a life few could imagine – he’s hung out with everyone from Pope John Paul II to Donald Trump.

He dubs himself “the Hollywood Godfather” but despite the title and his murky past, he insists: “I was never in the mob but I was around it and was friends with some of the big names.

“They (police) tried to tie me to the mob but I never got a traffic ticket let alone association.”

Russo has released multiple books and is currently touring the UK and Ireland as part of a one-man theatre show, which reveals all about his colourful life and how his film debut was a seismic moment for him. 

He adds: “The Godfather changed my life. I don’t know what my life would be without The Godfather. It’s still changing my life now.”

Russo Russo’s new book Mafia Secrets Untold Tales From The Hollywood Godfather is out now.  

IT cheekily kept the home fires burning during the Blitz, and now Britain’s oldest strip club is set to reopen its doors once more.

The Windmill was one of the most iconic venues in Soho, where showgirls served up cocktails and stripteases while air raid sirens wailed outside.

Its famous motto, “Never closed,” was reworked into “Never clothed” — as the Windmill Girls bared all to keep punters smiling as war waged on.

Now the venue is roaring back to life as the Rhino At The Windmill after being forced to close due to Covid restrictions.

It was the club that made strip clubs the beating heart of Soho – and paved the way for hundreds more around the country.

Beloved by celebs and ordinary punters alike, Britain’s strip clubs have sparked scenes of debauchery and excess, which have gone down in legend.

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Here, we reveal the wildest tales from over the decades.

Rihanna’s head loss

At Stringfellows, pop superstar Rihanna is believed to have got a bit too close and personal with some of the club’s performers.

It was back in 2011 when the S&M songstress booked a private booth at the club – but ended up breaking the rules.

Rihanna – who is no stranger to getting pulses racing herself – is rumoured to have got a bit carried away with the show and ended up sticking her head between one of the women’s legs.

Her exuberance earned her a telling off from one of the burly bouncers who look after the club’s dancers.

It doesn’t seem to have deterred Rihanna though, who has been spotted back in the club on several occasions since.

Footie star’s eye-watering bill

Newcastle star Kieran Trippier was ‘stitched up’ by a group of friends who spent close to £10,000 on a strip club bill – before putting the defender’s name on the tab.

The Newcastle star was not believed to be present at the For Your Eyes Only club – however, his name still appeared on the bill, which included 76 £100 tokens for personal dances.

The bill was a staggering £9,663 and was believed to have been racked up by Trippier’s friends who play for National League side Gateshead.

A source told the The Sun: “Kieran has visited FYEO before but this bill was run up by some of the lads he knows at Gateshead. He wasn’t there.

“This seems to be their idea of a joke on Kieran. Who knows who footed the bill.”

Bieber’s revolting encounter

Notorious London nightclub The Box is infamous for its explicit late night cabaret shows, but Justin Bieber allegedly got more than he bargained for after a night of partying.

Drag queen A’Whora told GK Barry’s podcast Saving Grace that a few years ago, a revolting punter “threw semen at Justin”.

A shocked Grace then asked how he reacted, and A’Whora claimed Bieber joked: “Gotta keep an eye out for Selena!”.

The quip was a reference to lyrics from Justin’s hit song Beauty and Beat.

Whether or not A’Whora’s memory was entirely accurate has never been confirmed, but such an incident certainly wouldn’t be out of place given what else goes on at The Box.

Some of the celeb haunt’s most jaw-dropping shows have included simulated threesomes and a performer named “Laqueefa”, who played well-known tunes with her genitalia.

Corrie star’s dancer wedding

Corrie star Chris Quinten went into the lucrative strip club business after he left the cobbles.

But he faced a mass walk-out at his Secrets club after staff claimed their pay had been cut.

Back in 2019 the girls were said to have gone on a one day strike after he changed the rules on what percentage they got from punters.

At Secrets, a three-minute nude table dance cost £30. Half an hour with a stripper and champagne was £350.

The dancers claimed their earnings from the club in Hammersmith, West London, were halved. But after the strike the club agreed to make changes, with one stripper saying: “Our strike proved a success and we got what we wanted – fair rights and wages.”

Chris, then 61, went on to get engaged to one of his club’s dancers – 21-year-old Robyn Dellabarre, and celebrated with a party at the club.

Bedded five dancers… in a week

Blue star Lee Ryan has never been one to shy away from controversy.

But during his 2014 stint in the Celebrity Big Brother house he confessed to being banned from a strip club for bedding five of its dancers on five consecutive nights.

In a conversation in the house Lee confessed: “I walked into a club once right, I mean this is back in the day, I was a lot younger, I mean I would never do this these days.

“I walked in there right, this is probably one of the worst things I’ve ever done, I got five girls’ numbers when they were all dancing, I got the fittest girls’ numbers that were in there.”

Then he went on to say he slept with them all on consecutive days from Monday to Friday.

But when the girls compared notes and realised what he had done, they weren’t best pleased with him.

Lee then said he was subsequently banned from the club for some reason.

A-lister gets shirty

Back in 2010 Hollywood star Kiefer Sutherland’s night out at Stringfellows came to a rather abrupt end.

The actor was said to have been tossed out of the London club shirtless and drunk after an altercation with the bouncers.

The Emmy and Golden Globe award-winner, best known for his role as Jack Bauer in TV series 24, was described by onlookers as “absolutely screamingly paralytic” and was put in a headlock by security as he lashed out during a drinking bender.

But club owner Peter Stringfellow later played down the incident, writing on his blog: “(Sutherland) had a wonderful time, was incredibly charming to all the staff, very generous to all the girls and made friends with my security people.

“Around about 3.15am he decided it would be very funny to take his shirt off. When it was explained to him very gently that that was the job of the girls and not the customers he burst out laughing. His friend thought that this would be a good time for them to go home.”

Stripper’s undercover mission

Stringfellow was the undisputed king of the strip clubs – until a new rival club started to steal his girls and his crown.

Crowds were flocking to the new Spearmint Rhino club in Camden – leaving Peter and his scantily clad dancers in an empty club.

So he hatched a daring plan to foil the opposition.

Peter sent one of his longest-serving dancers as an undercover spy to get a job at Spearmint Rhino to find out what all the fuss was about and why the girls there were earning so much money.

But the cunning plot failed miserably. The dancer quickly realised she too could earn more money at Spearmint Rhino, where the girls were offered mega money for full nudity, and promptly never returned to Stringfellows.