Leo Rossi
Leo Rossi is an actor, born 1946.
Rossi plays men you would not want to share a car with. The template is Budd, the foul-mouthed paramedic in Halloween II, whose grinning, relentless chat is the entire characterization and who is far more irritating than frightening, which is exactly the point. He then ran it in reverse as Turkell in Maniac Cop 2 and got to be the frightening one.
The serious films hold his best work. In The Accused he plays Cliff Albrect, one of the men at the ugly center of the case, and the performance refuses every available chance to soften itself. River's Edge and Black Widow use him the same way, as texture that turns out to be structure, while the 1996 In Cold Blood puts him on the other side of the badge as Agent Harold Nye. Comedy suits him in short doses too: Analyze This and One Night at McCool's both work him as an Italian-American type he is happy to play with a straight face.
The Relentless films gave him the closest thing to a franchise, as Detective Sam Dietz, and he has worked as a writer and producer as well, which is how a character actor stays employed on his own terms. The credits listed here run from a 1977 Roger Corman car picture to a John Gotti biopic in 2018, which is a very Leo Rossi shape for a career.
Movies (18)
- Looney Tunes: Back in Action (2003)
- Halloween II (1981)
- The Accused (1988)
- Analyze This (1999)
- Black Widow (1987)
- Gotti (2018)
- River's Edge (1986)
- 10th & Wolf (2006)
- Maniac Cop 2 (1990)
- Raw Justice (1994)
- Where the Day Takes You (1992)
- Relentless (1989)
- One Night at McCool's (2001)
- Grand Theft Auto (1977)
- Russkies (1987)
- The Mating Habits of the Earthbound Human (1999)
- All In (2006)
- Back By Midnight (2005)
TV (8)
Where to start with Leo Rossi
Everyone starts with Halloween II and everyone is right; it is still the most fun thing here. His paramedic talks constantly, mostly about himself, and the film is smart enough to let him. Follow it with Maniac Cop 2, where William Lustig hands him a much colder part and he takes it seriously.
The film to take seriously is The Accused. Rossi is in the hardest scenes it has and plays them without a hint of self-defence, which is why the whole thing works. River's Edge is the other one worth an evening, a bleak piece of 1980s teenage nihilism with him among the adults.
Lighter options: Analyze This and One Night at McCool's both use him as comic muscle, and Relentless is the nearest thing to a Leo Rossi vehicle, with Sam Dietz doing the legwork.