GTA 3 Characters: The Leone Family, 8-Ball, Donald Love
A guide to the GTA 3 characters: Toni Cipriani, the Leone family, 8-Ball, Donald Love, Ray Machowski and the Hollywood voice cast behind Liberty City.
The GTA 3 characters who run Liberty City in 2001 are a tight ensemble of mobsters, a media mogul, a corrupt cop and a demolitions man, all orbiting the silent protagonist Claude. Grand Theft Auto III leans hard on the Leone crime family before handing Claude off to bigger players across the city's three islands. Here is who they are, what they want from Claude, and the Hollywood voice cast behind them.
Claude, the silent protagonist
Claude is the playable lead, and he never says a word. Rockstar made that decision early in development, partly to let players project onto the character. The story opens with Claude betrayed and shot by his girlfriend during a bank robbery, then thrown into a prison transport. His arc, from Portland to Shoreside Vale, is built on revenge, and he reacts to every boss below through actions rather than dialogue. For the full game hub, see our GTA 3 page.
8-Ball, the GTA 3 bomb expert who frees Claude
If you search 8-Ball GTA 3, you are looking for the demolitions man who kickstarts the whole story. 8-Ball is an explosives and firearms expert who is being transported to prison in the same convoy as Claude. When the Colombian Cartel ambushes the convoy to kidnap another prisoner, an elderly oriental gentleman, Claude and 8-Ball escape together in the chaos. With his hands bandaged and unable to handle weapons, 8-Ball relies on Claude and, in return, sets him up with work inside the Leone family.
8-Ball runs bomb shops across the map, where the player can pay to fit a car bomb. He was voiced by Keith "Guru" Elam, the late rapper and co-founder of Gang Starr, whose flat delivery gave the character a calm the rest of the cast lacks.
Luigi Goterelli and the first jobs
Luigi Goterelli hands Claude his earliest assignments. Luigi is a low-level operator in the Leone family who owns Sex Club Seven in Portland's Red Light District and insists he is a nightclub owner rather than a pimp. His missions are small-scale: drive girls around, deal with a rival pimp, and prove Claude is reliable. Luigi was voiced by Joe Pantoliano (Memento, The Matrix, The Sopranos).
Joey Leone, the mechanic son
Joey Leone is the son of Don Salvatore Leone and the next step up the ladder. Joey runs an auto body shop and has no real ambition to become a major gangster, content with small-time crime, though he still attends important family meetings alongside capo Toni Cipriani and Luigi. Joey is the one who introduces Claude to Toni. He was voiced by Michael Rapaport (True Romance, Boston Public).
Toni Cipriani, the loyal Leone capo
Anyone searching Toni Cipriani knows him as the heavyweight of the Leone roster. In GTA III, Toni is a capo (caporegime) in the Leone crime family, operating out of Momma's Restaurante in Saint Mark's, the eatery run by his domineering mother. Toni is fiercely loyal to Salvatore Leone and short-tempered about being pushed around, especially by his mother.
His missions send Claude after the Triads, who control a laundromat that owes the Leones protection money. Claude collects the cash, destroys Triad vans, kills three Triad warlords and blows up the Belly-Up Fish & Seafood processing plant. Toni was voiced by Michael Madsen (Reservoir Dogs, Kill Bill), and he later headlines his own game, Liberty City Stories, set in 1998.
Maria Latore, the deuteragonist
Maria Latore is the closest thing GTA III has to a deuteragonist. She is the bored, drug-using wife of Don Salvatore Leone and stepmother to Joey. Maria takes a liking to Claude, and Salvatore's jealous suspicion that the two are involved sets up one of the game's biggest turns: the don orders Claude killed. Maria warns him, sending Claude off Portland and into the arms of the Yakuza. She was voiced by Debi Mazar (Goodfellas, Entourage).
For the wider context on the don himself, including his death outside Sex Club Seven, the Salvatore Leone profile covers the entire 3D-era timeline.
Donald Love, the media mogul
Donald Love is GTA III's most unsettling figure. He is a billionaire media mogul who owns the Love Media conglomerate and dabbles in construction and politics. Refined on the surface, Love is hinted to be a cannibal, and his missions push Claude into dark territory, including retrieving a body for him. Love was the protégé of real-estate fixer Avery Carrington, a connection the series develops further in Vice City and Liberty City Stories. He has Claude assassinate the Yakuza's Kenji Kasen while disguised as the Colombian Cartel, igniting a gang war meant to drive down property prices, and that hit sets off a chain of betrayals that reshapes the back half of the game. He was voiced by Kyle MacLachlan (Twin Peaks, Blue Velvet, Dune).
Ray Machowski, the corrupt cop
Ray Machowski is a paranoid, corrupt police officer hiding out in a public restroom in Belleville Park. Ray is tied to the Yakuza and is being investigated by both Internal Affairs and the CIA over those links. His jobs for Claude include killing his former partner Leon McAffrey, defending Phil Cassidy's business, and destroying evidence. Once the heat becomes too much, Ray pays Claude to help him flee Liberty City for Miami. He was voiced by Robert Loggia (Scarface, Big).
Asuka Kasen and Catalina
Two women bookend Claude's journey across the islands.
- Asuka Kasen is a co-leader of the Yakuza who operates from a condo in Newport on Staunton Island. After Salvatore turns on Claude, Asuka becomes his employer, ordering him to dismantle the Colombian Cartel's SPANK drug operation. She was voiced by Lianna Pai.
- Catalina is the main antagonist, the ex-girlfriend who shoots Claude in the opening and later leads the Colombian Cartel. The game builds toward the final confrontation with her at the Cartel's Cochrane Dam hideout. She was voiced by Cynthia Farrell and returns in San Andreas.
A small but star-packed voice cast
One striking thing about the GTA 3 characters is how compact the voice cast is. Rockstar leaned on a handful of recognizable actors rather than a huge ensemble, with names like Frank Vincent (Salvatore), Michael Madsen, Debi Mazar, Kyle MacLachlan, Joe Pantoliano, Robert Loggia and Michael Rapaport carrying nearly every named role. That strategy, pulling from Goodfellas, Scarface and Twin Peaks, gave a top-down crime game real gravity.
Want to keep exploring 2001 Liberty City? Try the GTA 3 cheats for spawn and weapon codes, or browse the GTA 3 screenshots gallery to see these characters' haunts across the three islands.
