John Aprea

In the early 1970s, a young actor auditioned for and was rejected for the part of a lifetime--Michael Corleone in the epic Mafia classic "The Godfather." But lucky John Aprea still made it into that cycle of films when he was subsequently offered the part of the younger version of longtime family henchman Sal Tessio in that film's sequel, "The Godfather: Part II" (1974). By that time, he was already a seasoned film and TV actor. He had a hard-edged look that served him well in small villain parts. He was a killer in the hit San Francisco police procedural "Bullitt" (1968), for example, and played a similar role in another cop drama set on the opposite coast, 1973's "The Seven-Ups." The "Godfather" series was a high tide that lifted all boats, so Aprea's career improved accordingly. The hard-working actor was awarded increasingly more prominent roles, including a recurring one as the father of John Stamos's character in the family sitcom "Full House" (1988) and as a Navy admiral in the splashy 2004 remake of the classic Cold War thriller "The Manchurian Candidate." The actor's range was considerable, and he appeared in everything from sitcoms and soap operas to movie epics throughout his career. John Aprea died of natural causes on August 5, 2024. He was 83.