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Antonio Joseph “Tony” Gazzo (October 28, 1936-January 13, 1984) was an Italian-American mobster from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was a capo for the Philadelphia crime family and Rocky Balboa’s older cousin and former employer. He also employed Paulie Pennino. Despite being a mobster, he still had a soft spot for Rocky and even paid him extra money from time to time. He even attended the wedding at a church between Rocky and Adrian Balboa, as well as Rocky’s first fight against Apollo Creed. In fact, he wanted Rocky to become a made man but his superiors within the Philadelphia crime family thought Rocky was too soft and felt that his brother-in-law named Paulie would’ve been a better choice. In 1979, Rocky was visited by Tony who offered his little cousin a deal that he could continue working with him instead of Mickey Goldmill. Later, Rocky informed Mickey. Mickey told him not to. In turn, Rocky went to Tony and told him that he wanted to continue working with Mickey instead. Tony pretended not to care. However, he sent a group of his thugs to intimidate Mickey Goldmill. Rocky came to Mickey’s rescue and beat up the mobsters. At that point, he was ready to fight Apollo Creed with all his might. After hearing about what happened, Paulie also quit working with Tony Gazzo. Tony decided to stay out of the picture because he knew it would only cause problems for him and Rocky from that point forward. In 1984, he was assassinated by an unknown culprit and his buddy named Joey Leombruno committed suicide in guilt. Regardless of what happened, Rocky still attended his older cousin’s funeral.
He looks a lot like Willie Sissy and was also portrayed by Joe Spinell.