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The Godfather 1901–1959: The Complete Epic
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The Godfather 1901–1959: The Complete Epic is a reduced, 386-minute version of the 1977 television miniseries, "Mario Puzo's The Godfather: The Complete Novel for Television," released to video in 1981. Unlike the miniseries, which was presented in four segments (each with opening and closing credits), the Epic is presented as a single segment. In January 2016, HBO aired the Epic in its uncut and uncensored format, later making it available on its streaming platforms. The HBO showing contained most of the known deleted scenes, thereby lengthening the runtime of the Epic from its video release to 423 minutes.
03-24-1981
6h 26m
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Main Cast
Movie Details
Production Info
Director:
Francis Ford Coppola
Production:
Paramount Pictures, ASR Productions, Coppola Productions
Key Crew
Director of Photography:
Gordon Willis
Producer:
Gray Frederickson
Producer:
Fred Roos
Screenplay:
Francis Ford Coppola
Screenplay:
Mario Puzo
Locations and Languages
Country:
US
Filming:
US
Languages:
en
Main Cast
Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando Jr. (April 3, 1924 – July 1, 2004) was an American actor. Considered one of the most influential actors of the 20th century, he received numerous accolades throughout his career which spanned six decades, including two Academy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, and three British Academy Film Awards. Brando was also an activist for many causes, notably the civil rights movement and various Native American movements. Having studied with Stella Adler in the 1940s, he is credited with being one of the first actors to bring the Stanislavski system of acting and method acting, derived from the Stanislavski system, to mainstream audiences.
He initially gained acclaim and his first Academy Award nomination for Best Actor in a Leading Role for reprising the role of Stanley Kowalski in the 1951 film adaptation of Tennessee Williams' play A Streetcar Named Desire, a role that he originated successfully on Broadway. He received further praise, and a first Academy Award and Golden Globe Award, for his performance as Terry Malloy in On the Waterfront, and his portrayal of the rebellious motorcycle gang leader Johnny Strabler in The Wild One proved to be a lasting image in popular culture. Brando received Academy Award nominations for playing Emiliano Zapata in Viva Zapata! (1952); Mark Antony in Joseph L. Mankiewicz's 1953 film adaptation of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar; and Air Force Major Lloyd Gruver in Sayonara (1957), an adaptation of James A. Michener's 1954 novel.
The 1960s saw Brando's career take a commercial and critical downturn. He directed and starred in the cult western One-Eyed Jacks, a critical and commercial flop, after which he delivered a series of notable box-office failures, beginning with Mutiny on the Bounty (1962). After ten years of underachieving, he agreed to do a screen test as Vito Corleone in Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather (1972). He got the part and subsequently won his second Academy Award and Golden Globe Award in a performance critics consider among his greatest. He declined the Academy Award due to alleged mistreatment and misportrayal of Native Americans by Hollywood. The Godfather was one of the most commercially successful films of all time, and alongside his Oscar-nominated performance in Last Tango in Paris (1972), Brando reestablished himself in the ranks of top box-office stars.
After a hiatus in the early 1970s, Brando was generally content with being a highly paid character actor in supporting roles, such as Jor-El in Superman (1978), as Colonel Kurtz in Apocalypse Now (1979), and Adam Steiffel in The Formula (1980), before taking a nine-year break from film. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, Brando was paid a record $3.7 million ($16 million in inflation-adjusted dollars) and 11.75% of the gross profits for 13 days' work on Superman.
Brando was ranked by the American Film Institute as the fourth-greatest movie star among male movie stars whose screen debuts occurred in or before 1950. He was one of only six actors named in 1999 by Time magazine in its list of the 100 Most Important People of the Century. In this list, Time also designated Brando as the "Actor of the Century".
Alfredo James Pacino (born April 25, 1940) is an American actor and filmmaker. In a career spanning over five decades, he has received many awards and nominations, including an Academy Award, two Tony Awards, and two Primetime Emmy Awards. He is one of the few performers to have received the Triple Crown of Acting. He has also been honored with the AFI Life Achievement Award, the Cecil B. DeMille Award, and the National Medal of Arts.
A method actor and former student of the HB Studio and the Actors Studio, where he was taught by Charlie Laughton and Lee Strasberg, Pacino's film debut came at the age of 29 with a minor role in Me, Natalie (1969). He gained favorable notice for his first lead role as a heroin addict in The Panic in Needle Park (1971). Wide acclaim and recognition came with his breakthrough role as Michael Corleone in Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather (1972), for which he received his first Oscar nomination, and he would reprise the role in the sequels The Godfather Part II (1974) and The Godfather Part III (1990).
His portrayal of Michael Corleone is regarded as one of the greatest in film history. Pacino received nominations for the Academy Award for Best Actor for Serpico (1973), The Godfather Part II, Dog Day Afternoon (1975), and ...And Justice for All (1979), ultimately winning it for playing a blind military veteran in Scent of a Woman (1992). For his performances in The Godfather, Dick Tracy (1990), Glengarry Glen Ross (1992), and The Irishman (2019), he earned Best Supporting Actor Oscar nominations.
Other notable portrayals include Tony Montana in Scarface (1983), Carlito Brigante in Carlito's Way (1993), Benjamin Ruggiero in Donnie Brasco (1997), and Lowell Bergman in The Insider (1999). He has also starred in the thrillers Heat (1995), The Devil's Advocate (1997), Insomnia (2002), and appeared in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019). On television, Pacino has acted in several productions for HBO, including Angels in America (2003) and the Jack Kevorkian biopic You Don't Know Jack (2010), winning a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie for each. Pacino currently stars in the Amazon Video web television series Hunters (2020–present).
He has also had an extensive career on stage. He is a two-time Tony Award winner, in 1969 and 1977, for his performances in Does a Tiger Wear a Necktie? and The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel. Pacino made his filmmaking debut with Looking for Richard (1996), directing and starring in this documentary about Richard III; Pacino had played the lead role on stage in 1977. He has also acted as Shylock in a 2004 feature film adaptation and 2010 stage production of The Merchant of Venice. Pacino directed and starred in Chinese Coffee (2000), Wilde Salomé (2011), and Salomé (2013). Since 1994, he has been the joint president of the Actors Studio.
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Robert Selden Duvall (born January 5, 1931) is an American actor and filmmaker. He is the recipient of an Academy Award, four Golden Globe Awards, a BAFTA Award, two Primetime Emmy Awards and a Screen Actors Guild Award.
Duvall began appearing in theater in the late 1950s, moving into television and film roles during the early 1960s, playing Boo Radley in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) and appearing in Captain Newman, M.D. (1963), as Major Frank Burns in the blockbuster comedy M*A*S*H (1970) and the lead role in THX 1138 (1971), as well as Horton Foote's adaptation of William Faulkner's Tomorrow (1972), which was developed at The Actors Studio and is his personal favorite. This was followed by a series of critically lauded performances in commercially successful films.
He has starred in numerous films and television series, including The Twilight Zone (1963), The Outer Limits (1964), The F.B.I. (1966), Bullitt (1968), True Grit (1969), Joe Kidd (1972), The Godfather (1972), The Godfather Part II (1974), The Conversation (1974), Network (1976), Apocalypse Now (1979), The Great Santini (1979), Tender Mercies (1983) (which earned him the Academy Award for Best Actor), The Natural (1984), Colors (1988), Lonesome Dove (1989), The Handmaid's Tale (1990), Days of Thunder (1990), Rambling Rose (1991), Falling Down (1993), Secondhand Lions (2003), The Judge (2014), and Widows (2018).
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James Edmund Caan (/kɑːn/ KAHN; March 26, 1940 – July 6, 2022) was an American actor who was nominated for several awards, including four Golden Globes, an Emmy, and an Oscar. Caan was awarded a motion pictures star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1978.
After early roles in Howard Hawks's El Dorado (1966), Robert Altman's Countdown (1967) and Francis Ford Coppola's The Rain People (1969), he came to prominence for playing his signature role of Sonny Corleone in The Godfather (1972), for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor. He reprised the role of Sonny Corleone in The Godfather Part II (1974) with a cameo appearance at the end.
Caan had significant roles in films such as Brian's Song (1971), Cinderella Liberty (1973), The Gambler (1974), Rollerball (1975), A Bridge Too Far (1977), and Alan J. Pakula's Comes a Horseman (1978). He had sporadically worked in film since the 1980s, with his notable performances including roles in Thief (1981), Gardens of Stone (1987), Misery (1990), Dick Tracy (1990), Bottle Rocket (1996), The Yards (2000), Dogville (2003), and Elf (2003).
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Richard Salvatore Castellano (September 4, 1933 – December 10, 1988) was an American actor who is best remembered for his role as Peter Clemenza in The Godfather.
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Diane Hall Keaton (born Diane Hall; January 5, 1946) is an American actress. Known for her idiosyncratic personality and fashion style, she has received various accolades throughout her career spanning over six decades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, two Golden Globe Awards, and the AFI Life Achievement Award.
She began her career on stage appearing in the original 1968 Broadway production of the musical Hair. The next year, she received a Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play nomination for her performance in Woody Allen's comic play Play it Again, Sam. She then made her screen debut in a small role in Lovers and Other Strangers (1970). She rose to prominence with her first major film role as Kay Adams-Corleone in Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather (1972), a role she reprised in its sequels The Godfather Part II (1974) and The Godfather Part III (1990). The films that most shaped her career were those with director and co-star Woody Allen, beginning with the film adaptation of Play It Again, Sam (1972). Her next two films with Allen, Sleeper (1973) and Love and Death (1975), established her as a comic actor. Her fourth, the romantic comedy Annie Hall (1977), won her the Academy Award for Best Actress.
To avoid being typecast as her Annie Hall persona, she appeared in several dramatic films, starring in Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977) and Allen's Interiors (1978), and received three more Academy Award nominations for playing feminist activist Louise Bryant in Reds (1981), a woman with leukemia in Marvin's Room (1996), and a dramatist in Something's Gotta Give (2003). Her other popular films include Manhattan (1979), Baby Boom (1987), Father of the Bride (1991), Manhattan Murder Mystery (1993), Father of the Bride Part II (1995), The First Wives Club (1996), The Family Stone (2005), Morning Glory (2010), Finding Dory (2016) and Book Club (2018).
Robert Anthony De Niro (born August 17, 1943) is an American actor. Known for his collaborations with Martin Scorsese, he is considered to be one of the best actors of his generation. De Niro is the recipient of various accolades, including two Academy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, the Cecil B. DeMille Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award. In 2009, De Niro received the Kennedy Center Honor, and earned a Presidential Medal of Freedom from U.S. President Barack Obama in 2016.
De Niro studied acting at HB Studio, Stella Adler Conservatory, and Lee Strasberg's Actors Studio. His first collaboration with Scorsese was with the 1973 film Mean Streets. De Niro earned two Academy Awards, one for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Vito Corleone in Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather Part II (1974) and the other for Best Actor portraying Jake LaMotta in Scorsese's drama Raging Bull (1980). His other Oscar-nominated roles were for Taxi Driver (1976), The Deer Hunter (1978), Awakenings (1990), Cape Fear (1991), and Silver Linings Playbook (2012).
Other notable roles include in 1900 (1976), The King of Comedy (1982), Once Upon a Time in America (1984), Brazil (1985), The Mission (1986), Goodfellas (1990), This Boy's Life (1993), Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1994), Heat (1995), Casino (1995), Jackie Brown (1997), The Good Shepherd (2006), Joker (2019), and The Irishman (2019). He made his directorial film debut with A Bronx Tale (1993). His comedic roles include Midnight Run (1988), Wag the Dog (1997), Analyze This (1999), the Meet the Parents films (2000-2010), and The Intern (2015).
Also known for his television roles, De Niro portrayed Bernie Madoff in the HBO film The Wizard of Lies (2017), earning a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie nomination. He received further Emmy Award nominations for producing the Netflix limited series When They See Us (2019), and for portraying Robert Mueller on Saturday Night Live.[1]
De Niro and producer Jane Rosenthal founded the film and television production company TriBeCa Productions in 1989, which has produced several films alongside his own. Also with Rosenthal, he founded the Tribeca Film Festival in 2002. Six of De Niro's films have been inducted into the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
Talia Shire, born on April 25, 1946, in Lake Success, New York, is an American actress. She gained widespread recognition for her role as Adrian Pennino, the wife of Rocky Balboa, in the iconic "Rocky" film series. Shire's portrayal of the timid but resilient Adrian earned her acclaim and a place in cinematic history. Beyond "Rocky," she also starred as Connie Corleone in "The Godfather" films, further establishing her as a versatile and talented actress. With a career spanning several decades, Shire's contributions to film have solidified her as a respected figure in Hollywood.
Sterling Walter Hayden, born Sterling Relyea Walter, was an American actor and author. He didn't really harbor any aspirations of being an actor, dropped out of high school at the age of 16 and hired on as mate on a schooner. He was a ship's captain at 22, and in need of cash to buy his own boat, established himself as a model in New York, discovered by Paramount Studios talent scouts and offered a contract.
Sterling Hayden, the handsome tall blond actor who played wholesome leading-man movie roles in the 1940's and 1950's and later weathered into a rough-hewn solid character actor in films such as ''Dr. Strangelove'', ''The Godfather,'' "Nine to Five" and "King of the Gypsies". He appeared in 71 feature films and tv-productions from the debut in "Virginia" 1941 to the tv mini-series "The Blue and the Gray" in 1982.
He wrote of his obsessive fascination with the sea in a 1963 autobiography, ''Wanderer,'' and in 1970 his 700-page epic novel of the sea, ''Voyage,'' was a main selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club.
Sterling Hayden appeared in the German documentary, ''Pharos of Chaos,'' (1983) filmed aboard his barge in Europe, and seemed to be in an alcoholic stupor much of the time, supplementing his wine intake with hashish. On camera he said: ''What confuses me is I ain't all that unhappy. So why do I drink, I don't know.''
John Marley (October 17, 1907 – May 22, 1984) was an American actor who was known for his role as Phil Cavalleri in Love Story and as Jack Woltz— the defiant movie mogul who awakens to find the severed head of his prized horse in his bed—in The Godfather (1972). He starred in John Cassavetes' breakthrough feature Faces (1968) and appeared in The Glitter Dome (1984).
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Richard Conte (March 24, 1910 – April 15, 1975) was an American actor. He appeared in numerous films from the 1940s through 1970s, including I'll Cry Tomorrow and The Godfather.
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Lee Strasberg (November 17, 1901 – February 17, 1982) was an American actor, director and acting teacher. He cofounded, with directors Harold Clurman and Cheryl Crawford, the Group Theatre in 1931, which was hailed as "America's first true theatrical collective". In 1951, he became director of the non-profit Actors Studio, in New York City, considered "the nation's most prestigious acting school". In 1969, Strasberg founded the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute in New York City and in Hollywood to teach the work he pioneered. He is considered the "father of method acting in America," according to author Mel Gussow, and from the 1920s until his death in 1982 "he revolutionized the art of acting by having a profound influence on performance in American theater and movies". From his base in New York, he trained several generations of theatre and film's most illustrious talents, including Anne Bancroft, Dustin Hoffman, Montgomery Clift, Marlon Brando, James Dean, Marilyn Monroe, Julie Harris, Paul Newman, Al Pacino, Robert De Niro and director Elia Kazan. Former student Elia Kazan directed James Dean in East of Eden (1955), for which Kazan and Dean were nominated for Academy Awards. As a student, Dean wrote that Actors Studio was "the greatest school of the theater [and] the best thing that can happen to an actor". Playwright Tennessee Williams, writer of A Streetcar Named Desire, said of Strasberg's actors, "They act from the inside out. They communicate emotions they really feel. They give you a sense of life." Directors like Sidney Lumet, a former student, have intentionally used actors skilled in Strasberg's "Method". Kazan, in his autobiography, wrote, "He carried with him the aura of a prophet, a magician, a witch doctor, a psychoanalyst, and a feared father of a Jewish home.... [H]e was the force that held the thirty-odd members of the theatre together, and made them 'permanent.'" :61 Today, Ellen Burstyn, Al Pacino, and Harvey Keitel lead this nonprofit studio dedicated to the development of actors, playwrights, and directors.
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Italian stage, television and film actor perhaps best known for playing Don Fanucci in THE GODFATHER: PART II (1974). From 1970 until his death, he was married to actress Marzia Ubaldi.
John Holland Cazale (August 12, 1935 - March 12, 1978) was an American actor. He appeared in five films during six years, each one nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture: The Godfather, The Conversation, The Godfather Part II, Dog Day Afternoon, and The Deer Hunter. He appeared in archival footage in The Godfather Part III, also nominated for Best Picture, making him the only actor to have this multi-film distinction. From his start as a theater actor, he became one of Hollywood's premier character actors, starting with his role as the doomed, weak-minded Fredo Corleone opposite longtime friend Al Pacino in Francis Ford Coppola's film The Godfather and its 1974 sequel.
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Alfred Lettieri (February 24, 1928–October 18, 1975) was an American actor, known for his portrayal of Virgil Sollozzo, in The Godfather.
Lettieri projected an aura of menace and ruthlessness in his film roles, which he attributed to his acquaintance with real-life gangsters, including Joey Gallo. At the age of 36, he made his screen debut in the television film The Hanged Man. Lettieri acted with some of Hollywood's biggest screen names including Steve McQueen in The Getaway, Charles Bronson in Mr. Majestyk, John Wayne in McQ and both Marlon Brando and Al Pacino in The Godfather.
Lettieri died of a heart attack in 1975, at the age of 47, leaving two children.
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Richard J. Bright (June 28, 1937 – February 18, 2006) was an American actor best known for his role as Al Neri in the The Godfather films.
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Gervase Duan Spradlin (August 31, 1920 – July 24, 2011) was an American actor. Known for his distinctive accent and voice, he often played devious authority figures.
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Marianna Hill, born Marianna Schwarzkopf, is an American stage and screen actress mostly working in American television. Her initial acting experience came when she was an apprentice at the Laguna Playhouse and later as an actress at the La Jolla Playhouse. She is a life member of The Actors Studio.
She has appeared in more than 70 feature films and television episodes. She co-starred in the Elvis Presley film Paradise, Hawaiian Style in 1966 as Lani Kaimana; the Clint Eastwood film High Plains Drifter as Callie Travers in 1973; and in The Godfather II as Deanna Dunn-Corleone.
Troy Donahue (born Merle Johnson Jr., January 27, 1936 – September 2, 2001) was an American film and television actor and singer. He was a popular sex symbol in the 1950s and 1960s.
His father was Merle Johnson, the manager of the motion-picture department of General Motors. His mother, Edith Johnson, was a retired stage actress. Donahue attended a New York military academy, where he met Francis Ford Coppola. When Donahue was 18, he moved to New York and got a job as a messenger in a film company founded by his father. He was fired, he says, because he was too young to join the union. He attended Columbia University and studied journalism. He trained briefly with Ezra Stone, and then moved to Hollywood.
The big break of Donahue's career came when he was cast opposite Sandra Dee in A Summer Place, made by Warner Bros. in 1959. The director was Delmer Daves. Warner signed him to a long-term contract. They put him to work guest-starring in episodes of their Western TV series, such as Colt .45 (1959), Maverick (1959), Sugarfoot (1959), The Alaskans (1960), and Lawman (1960).
In 1968, Donahue signed a long-term contract with Universal Studios for films and TV. This lasted a year and saw him get four roles: guest shots on Ironside (1968), The Name of the Game (1968), and The Virginian (1969), and an appearance in the TV movie The Lonely Profession (1969).
Donahue declared bankruptcy in 1968 and eventually lost his home. In 1969, Donahue moved from Los Angeles to New York City. By this time, Donahue's drug addiction and alcoholism had ruined him financially. In May 1982, he joined Alcoholics Anonymous, which he credited for helping him achieve and maintain sobriety.
Donahue continued to act in films throughout the 1980s and into the late 1990s. Donahue's final film role was in the 2000 comedy film The Boys Behind the Desk, directed by Sally Kirkland.
On August 30, 2001, Donahue suffered a heart attack and was admitted to Saint John's Health Center in Santa Monica. He died three days later, on September 2, at the age of 65.
Rudolph Bond (October 10, 1912 – March 29, 1982) was an American actor who was active from 1947 until his death. His work spanned Broadway, Hollywood and US television.
Bond was introduced to the world of acting at the age of 16. He was playing basketball with a group of friends when Julie Sutton, the director of a city amateur acting group (Neighborhood Players, which performed in the same building as the basketball area) approached the group and asked if anybody wanted to be in an upcoming play. He volunteered, and acted in several plays before leaving Philadelphia to join the United States Army. He spent four years in the army, was wounded while serving in World War II, and returned to Philadelphia upon his discharge.
He continued acting in the Neighborhood Players until 1945, when he won second prize in the John Golden Award for Actors, which allowed him to enroll in Elia Kazan's Actor's Studio in New York City. Kazan got him a substantial role in two stage productions. After his success in the second (A Streetcar Named Desire), he was invited to Hollywood to recreate his stage role in the movie version. In 1951 he appeared in "Romeo and Juliet" at the Broadhurst Theatre in New York and in 1960 he toured in "Fiorello" (which starred Tom Bosley). He spent the next thirty years bouncing between California and New York, and between movie and television work.
Julie Gregg was born on January 24, 1937 in Niagara Falls, New York, USA as Beverly Scalzo. She was an actress, known for "The Godfather (1972)", "The Godfather: A Novel for Television (1977)" and "Batman: The Movie (1966)". She died on November 7, 2016 in Van Nuys, California, USA.
Dominic Chianese (born February 24, 1931) is an American actor, singer, and musician. He is best known for his roles as Corrado "Junior" Soprano on the HBO series The Sopranos (1999–2007), Johnny Ola in The Godfather Part II (1974), and Leander in Boardwalk Empire (2011–2013).
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Joe Spinell was born Joseph J. Spagnuolo in Manhattan, New York of Italian immigrant parents, and the last of six children. His father, Pelegrino Spagnuolo (b. 1892, d. 1950), died from liver and kidney disease. His mother Filomena Spagnuolo (b. 1903, d. 1987) was a bit-part actress who acted in a few movies, some of them alongside her son. Spinell stood 5 foot and 11 inches. He was born at his family's apartment in Manhattan's Little Italy on 2nd Avenue in Manhattan. A few years after the death of his father, he moved with his mother and older siblings to Woodside, Queens, New York where he lived off-and-on for the remainder of his life. Spinell suffered most of his life from hemophilia as well as chronic asthma. Because of his large, heavyset frame and imposing looks, Spinell was often cast as criminals, thugs, or corrupt police officers. His most notable roles were as mafioso Willi Cicci in The Godfather and The Godfather Part II, and as loan shark Tony Gazzo in Rocky and Rocky II. Although primarily known as a character actor, Spinell co-wrote and starred as a serial killer in the 1980 film, Maniac. Joe Spinell died in his apartment on January 13, 1989 at the age of 52. The cause of his untimely death is arguable to this day. Some say that his death was caused by sudden heart attack due to heavy drug use, drinking and emotional distress in light of his mother passing away two years earlier. It is also speculated that he may have died from asthma complications, or bled to death from hemophilia related causes. He was planning a sequel to Maniac before his death. He was buried in Calvary Cemetery, Queens near his home. He is the distant cousin of the American football team St. Louis Ram's Head Coach Steve Spagnuolo. Spinell was married to adult film star Jean Jennings from February 1977 to July 1979. Together they had one daughter, but they eventually divorced.
Maria Carta (24 June 1934 – 22 September 1994) was a Sardinian folk music singer-songwriter. She also performed in film and theatre. In 1975 she wrote a book of poetry, Canto rituale (Ritual Song).
Throughout her 25-year career she covered the richly diverse genres of traditional music of her native Sardinia (Cantu a chiterra, ninne nanne—children's lullabies, gosos, Gregorian chants, and more), often updating them with a modern and personal touch. She succeeded in bringing Sardinian folk music into wider popular awareness in demonstrations at a national level in Italy (like the Canzonissima in 1974) as well as internationally (especially in France and the United States).
Maria Carta won the Miss Sardinia beauty contest in 1957 and later participated in the national Miss Italy competition.
Around 1960, she moved to Rome where she met the screenwriter Salvatore Laurani whom she later married. She attended the Centro Nazionale di Studi di Musica Popolare, directed by Diego Carpitella, at the National Academy of Santa Cecilia and at the same time she pursued a musical and ethnographic research path with important productions and collaborations.
In 1971, she made two albums: Sardegna canta and Paradiso in re, and in the meantime she attended the ethnomusicologist Gavino Gabriel. The same year RAI broadcast the television documentary Incontro con Maria Carta (photography by Franco Pinna and texts by Velia Magno), in which she sang and recited with Riccardo Cucciolla.
In 1972, she played at the Teatro Argentina in Rome in the Medea by Franco Enriquez. The same year she met Amália Rodrigues, with whom she held a concert at the Teatro Sistina. In 1973, the two artists made a tour in Sardinia.
In 1974, she participated in Canzonissima, interpreting the traditional Sardinian Ave Maria Deus ti salvet Maria. She reached the final and was ranked second in the group of folk music with the song Amore disisperadu. In 1975, she held an important concert at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow. In 1976, she served as Communal Councilwoman for the Italian Communist Party, in the city council of Rome and remained in office until 1981.
In 1980, she participated in the Festival d'Avignon; in 1987 she performed in St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City; and in 1988 in St. Mary's Cathedral in San Francisco.
She caught the attention of such directors as Francis Ford Coppola – who gave her the first of two of her widely-seen film roles as the mother of Vito Corleone in The Godfather Part II (1974) – and Franco Zeffirelli, who cast her as Martha, the sister of Lazarus, in Jesus of Nazareth (1977).
In 1985, she was awarded, as songwriter, the Targo Tenco for dialectal/regional music.
In the last years of her life, Carta gave her time to the University of Bologna where she conducted a series of classes and advised student theses on which she had relevant personal, human experience and scholarly background.
In 1991, the President of Italy, Francesco Cossiga, named her a "Commendatore della Repubblica" ("Knight of the Republic"), similar to the British CBE.
Source: Article "Maria Carta" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
Angelo Infanti (16 February 1939 – 12 October 2010) was an Italian film actor. He appeared in more than 90 films between 1961 and 2010. He was born on 16 February 1939 in Zagarolo, Italy. He died on 12 October 2010 in Tivoli, Italy due to cardiac arrest.
Infanti is best known to non-Italian audiences as Fabrizio in The Godfather. Fabrizio was a bodyguard to Michael Corleone who was hiding in Sicily. Fabrizio betrays Michael by setting up explosives in his car, but kills his new bride instead. In the novel, Fabrizio is later shot dead in revenge for the killing. A scene was filmed of him being killed by the Corleones using a car bomb but was cut from the motion picture before its theatrical release. It appears in the 1977 The Godfather: A Novel for Television, which combined the first two films – The Godfather and The Godfather Part II, adding back scenes that had been previously cut and telling the story chronologically beginning with Vito Andolini's childhood in Sicily.
Source: Article "Angelo Infanti" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
Corrado Gaipa was an Italian actor and voice actor.
Born in Palermo, Sicily, Gaipa enrolled in the Silvio d’Amico Academy of Dramatic Arts, graduating in 1946. He appeared in many Italian films, notably playing Don Tommasino in Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather.
Also active on stage, radio and television, he was mainly active as a voice actor and a dubber. He was in a wheelchair. At the time of his death, he had just signed to reprise the role of Don Tommasino in The Godfather Part III.
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Franco Citti (born 23 April 1935 in Rome) is an Italian actor. He came to fame at the age of 26, playing the title role in Pier Paolo Pasolini's film Accattone. In 1967 he appeared in the title role in Pasolini's version of Oedipus Rex.
He is perhaps best-known to non-Italian audienes as Calo in The Godfather I and III and uttering the line 'In Sicily, women are more dangerous than shotguns'.
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Tall, dour-faced and slouch-shouldered character actor Abraham Charles Vigoda (February 24, 1921 – January 26, 2016) proved himself in both gritty dramatic roles, and as an actor with wonderful comedic timing.
Vigoda was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Lena (Moses) and Samuel Vigoda, both Russian Jewish immigrants. His father was a tailor on the Lower East Side. He made his first stage appearance at the age of 17 and plodded away in small theater shows for over 20 years. For the majority of film-goers, Vigoda first came to prominence in The Godfather (1972) as the double-crossing Tessio, pleading with Robert Duvall to get him off the hook "for old times' sake." He also appeared in its sequel.
Vigoda had roles in a few nondescript TV films before landing the plum part of Sgt. Phil Fish on the brilliant sitcom Barney Miller (1974). Perhaps his best known role, Sgt. Fish proved popular enough to be spun off to his own (short-lived) series Fish (1977).
With his long face and unusual looks, Vigoda remained in high demand in mafioso-type roles, and for a while in the mid-1980s, he was mistakenly believed to have been dead, leading producers to remark, "I need an Abe Vigoda type actor," not realizing Vigoda was still alive and well. The 1990s and beyond became busy again for him, with appearances in North (1994), The Misery Brothers (1995), A Brooklyn State of Mind (1998), and Crime Spree (2003). He continued acting into his 90s, surprising audiences with his entertaining style.
Abe Vigoda died in his sleep on January 26, 2016 in Woodland Park, New Jersey.
Tall and solidly built, this Italian-American professional wrestler turned actor was born Lenny Passaforo in Brooklyn, New York, and is best remembered for his first on-screen role as the not too bright but ever loyal bodyguard Luca Brasi in The Godfather (1972). Montana didn't get a lot of screen time before being eliminated by the henchmen of opposing gangster Al Lettieri with a garrote and a knife; however, he caught the eye of casting agents and over the next ten years racked up roles in 16 movies. Usually cast as "muscle for hire", he was equally good at playing the intimidating thug or a buffoonish hoodlum, such as in Battle Creek Brawl (1980) and The Jerk (1979). His last film appearance was in the B-thriller Blood Song (1982), which he also co-wrote. He died in May 1992 of a heart attack while in Italy.
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Alex Rocco (born Alessandro Federico Petricone Jr.; February 29, 1936 – July 18, 2015) was an American actor. Known for his distinctive, gravelly voice, he was often cast as villains, including Moe Greene in The Godfather (1972) and his Primetime Emmy Award–winning role in The Famous Teddy Z. Rocco did a significant amount of voice-over work later in his career.
Description above from the Wikipedia article Alex Rocco, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Tony Giorgio was born in Herkimer, NY on September 27, 1923. He grew up in Schenectady, NY during The Great Depression and began his career in show business as a professional "amateur", performing magic in talent shows for pay. At the age of twelve, he ran away from home to join a circus and performed magic in the side show. His first appearance in films was as a card dealer in "Big Hand for the Little Lady." He subsequently appeared in over 100 movies and TV shows; won an Emmy for "Ziggy's Gift" and appeared on stage as Big Julie in "Guys and Dolls" starring Milton Berle. His most iconic film appearances were as Bruno Tattaglia in "The Godfather", Frank Palancio in "Magnum Force", and Don Scagnelli in "American Me".
