• January 14, 1991
• Vol. 35
• No. 1

As the Godfather Tries for Another Hit, Fans Count the Family Casualties

It is the screen's most dangerous family, a clan where the softest whispers order death. So the Corleones demonstrate a certain...impermanence...in their ranks. When Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather Part III opened on Christmas Day (see page 14), there were new capos to contend with. (The only major actors who appear in all three movies are Al [Michael] Pacino, Diane [Kay] Keaton, Talia [Connie] Shire, Richard [Al Neri] Bright and Coppola's daughter Sofia, who played a baby in 1972's The Godfather and a child immigrant in 1974's The Godfather Part II) Here, an update on the great faces of the earlier films.

"How lucky I was to be in a movie that people will talk about 50 years from now," says Bruno Kirby, 41, who played the young Peter Clemenza in GFII. Last year Kirby, left, and Robert De Niro, GFII's young Vito, rejoined the screen mob—De Niro, 47, in Good-Fellas (he also stars in Awakenings) and Kirby in The Freshman.

Marlon Brando, then 48, won a best actor Oscar as Don Vito Corleone in GFI. The now-hefty actor has blamed Coppola's cooking for making him "the pig I am today." Last year Brando stunned fans by parodying his Don Corleone role in The Freshman. Recently he has had family problems of his own—the arrest of his son, Christian, on murder charges.

Despite her character's distaste for Family life, Kay Corleone (Diane Keaton) remained married to the mob—if not the mobster—for the entire trilogy. Richard Castellano, who brought considerable weight to the role of the trusted capo Clemenza in GFI (left), was dropped from GFII after he demanded an expanded role and salary. (Clemenza, the GFII script explained, died of a heart attack.) Castellano appeared in Night of the Juggler (1980) and several TV films before dying of a heart attack in 1988 at age 55.

John Marley played Jack Woltz, the unlucky GFI film producer who, refusing an offer, found a horse's head in his bed. Marley appeared in 1978's Hooper with Burt Reynolds and The Amafeur (1982). He died in 1984 at age 77 after heart surgery.

"Luca Brasi sleeps with the fishes," said Clemenza after Luca (Lenny Montana), the don's enforcer, was murdered at the hands of rival thugs in GFI. Montana, a 6'6", 320 lb. former pro wrestler, appeared in 1979's The Jerk. He died in 1984 of a heart attack.

Michael (Pacino), Vito (Brando), Sonny (Caan) and Fredo (John Cazale) gathered for Connie Corleone's wedding in GFI. Though only Michael survives (to avenge Sonny in GFI and order Fredo's death in GFII), the first film provided a comeback for Brando and launched all three younger actors. After GFII, Pacino and Cazale re-teamed in 1975 for the highly acclaimed Dog Day Afternoon. Cazale appeared in 1978's The Deer Hunter with his girlfriend Meryl Streep, who nursed him through the bone cancer that claimed his life that year at age 42.

The wildest Corleone, Sonny (James Caan) went down in a hail of bullets, led into a trap by Carlo Rizzi (Gianni Russo), his sister's husband. Praised for The Gambler ('74) and Thief ('81), Caan, now 51, battled drug abuse before his career slump ended in Misery ('90).

"The Godfather is my whole life," says Gianni Russo, now 47, who has been in 23 films and TV shows, all as a gangster, since Carlo's GFI wedding to Connie (Talia Shire). Russo also tours nightclubs with a singing act based on the film and its music.

Left without Brando (husband Vito) in GFII, jazz singer Morgana King says, "I found it hard to work." Today, at 60, she has a nightclub act. Onetime teen idol Troy Donahue, now 54, played Connie's boyfriend in GFII. In '90, he appeared in Cry-Baby.

Robert Duvall, 60 (left, with Michael V. Gazzo), played Corleone consigliere Tom Hagen in GFI and II but refused $1.5 million for GFIII. He can be seen this year in Rambling Rose. Gazzo, 67, who says he has been "killed about 20 times" in mob movies, runs an L.A., theater company.