Rosario Gambino was born as the middle son of Tommaso Gambino in Palermo in Sicily. Along with his two brothers Giuseppe and John Gambino, he became a made man of the Sicilian Mafia. They are distant relatives of Carlo Gambino and his son Thomas Gambino. The family moved to the United States in 1962. After moving, Gambino started his own family and had four children. Both his sons, Anthony and Tommaso became Mafiosi. After Rosario's imprisonment in Los Angeles, his children moved to Los Angeles and ran a record company and a pay phone installation company.