Tony Gazzo (1936-1984) was an Italian-American mobster and loan shark affiliated with the Philadelphia crime family during the 1970s and 1980s.
Biography[]
Tony Gazzo was born in South Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to a working-class Italian-American family, and he turned to the Mafia as a means of employment. During the 1970s and 1980s, he was an infamous loan shark, collecting money for the Philadelphia crime family. He employed amateur boxer Rocky Balboa as a debt collector, and he befriended him, giving him extra money so that he could have a nice first date with Adrian Pennino, and attending both of his fights with Apollo Creed in 1976. In 1984, he was killed by an unidentified culprit before Balboa went to Alaska to train for the fight with Ivan Drago, and his bodyguard Joey Leombruno committed suicide out of guilt.