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Supporting Cast

The character actors who make the trilogy feel like a world rather than a story.

The Godfather (1972)

Richard S. Castellano — Peter Clemenza. A Bronx-born stage actor who had been nominated for an Oscar the previous year for Lovers and Other Strangers. The cannoli line is his, contributed on set. He did not return for Part II; the most persistent account is a dispute over money and his wish to write his own dialogue, and the character was killed off-screen and replaced by Frank Pentangeli. He later starred in the sitcom The Super and died in 1988, aged 55.

Abe Vigoda — Salvatore Tessio. A 51-year-old stage actor, essentially unknown, cast for the face. He became far more famous as Detective Fish on Barney Miller and Fish, and then — after a 1982 magazine erroneously reported his death — spent thirty-four years as the subject of a running national joke about whether he was still alive, which he participated in with total good humor. He was, until January 26, 2016, aged 94.

Sterling Hayden — Capt. McCluskey. The most extraordinary biography in the cast: merchant seaman, OSS operative who ran guns to Yugoslav partisans in WWII, briefly a Communist Party member, and a HUAC witness in 1951 who named names and spent the rest of his life calling it the shame of his existence. Also The Asphalt Jungle, The Killing, and General Ripper in Dr. Strangelove. Died 1986.

Al Lettieri — Virgil Sollozzo. A superb heavy — The Getaway, Mr. Majestyk — reportedly connected to organized crime by marriage, which was not unusual on this production. Died of a heart attack in 1975, aged 47.

Richard Conte — Emilio Barzini. A film noir veteran (Cry of the City, The Big Combo, Thieves' Highway) who had himself been considered for Vito. Plays the film's actual antagonist in about a dozen lines. Died 1975.

Alex Rocco — Moe Greene. Had a genuine background in the Boston underworld during the Irish Gang War before moving west. Later won an Emmy for The Famous Teddy Z. Died 2015.

John Marley — Jack Woltz. A veteran character actor, Oscar-nominated for Love Story. The scream is his. Died 1984.

Lenny Montana — Luca Brasi. A professional wrestler and genuine Colombo family associate, not an actor, whose real nervousness rehearsing his speech to the Don was kept and built into a scene. Died 1992.

Al Martino — Johnny Fontane. A real star — "Here in My Heart" was the first UK number one in 1952 — with real mob connections; his godfather was the Pennsylvania boss Russell Bufalino. Cast, dropped when Coppola arrived, and reinstated under pressure nobody has ever fully explained. Died 2009.

Morgana King — Carmela Corleone. A jazz contralto with a substantial recording career and essentially no acting background. She is singing at the wedding, undubbed. Died 2018.

Gianni Russo — Carlo Rizzi. Not an actor; talked his way in and screen-tested by choreographing the street fight. Has told a great many stories about his own background since, most of them undocumented.

Simonetta Stefanelli — Apollonia. Sixteen at the time of filming; a substantial subsequent career in Italian cinema. Dubbed in the English release.

Richard Bright — Al Neri, in all three films. A New York stage and screen fixture. Killed by a bus in 2006.

John Cazale, Talia Shire, and the principals have their own pages: see People.

Part II (1974)

Lee Strasberg — Hyman Roth. Artistic director of the Actors Studio and the most influential acting teacher in America; Pacino's own teacher. He was 72 and had barely acted in decades. Nominated for Best Supporting Actor. Died 1982.

Michael V. Gazzo — Frank Pentangeli. Primarily a playwright — A Hatful of Rain (1955) was a landmark Broadway drama — who acted rarely. Nominated for Best Supporting Actor. Died 1995.

Bruno Kirby — young Clemenza. Later This Is Spinal Tap, When Harry Met Sally…, City Slickers. Died 2006, aged 57.

Gastone Moschin — Don Fanucci. A major Italian stage and screen actor, best known at home for the Amici Miei films. Died 2017.

Dominic Chianese — Johnny Ola. Went on to play Uncle Junior on The Sopranos, which makes his appearance here retroactively load-bearing for the whole genre.

Danny Aiello — Tony Rosato. Improvised the line Michael Corleone says hello while garroting Pentangeli — which is the reason Pentangeli spends the rest of the film believing Michael tried to kill him. Later Oscar-nominated for Do the Right Thing. Died 2019.

G. D. Spradlin — Senator Pat Geary. A former oil lawyer who became American cinema's definitive corrupt official. Died 2011.

Oreste Baldini — Vito Andolini, aged nine. Carries the film's opening ten minutes almost wordlessly.

Roger Corman — a senator. Coppola's first employer, repaying the favor. Harry Dean Stanton plays an FBI agent. Troy Donahue plays Connie's fiancé "Merle Johnson," which was Donahue's real name.

Part III (1990)

Eli Wallach — Don Altobello. The Magnificent Seven, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, a founding member of the Actors Studio, and — at 75 — the most purely enjoyable thing in the film. He got the part after Frank Sinatra agreed to it and couldn't clear the schedule. Died 2014, aged 98.

Joe Mantegna — Joey Zasa. A Mamet regular (Glengarry Glen Ross on Broadway, House of Games), and one of the few Part III performances nobody complained about.

Raf Vallone — Cardinal Lamberto. A distinguished Italian actor and former journalist and footballer. Gives the film its best scene, opposite Pacino in the confession. Died 2002.

Bridget Fonda — Grace Hamilton. George Hamilton — B. J. Harrison, the character invented to fill Tom Hagen's absence. Franco Citti returns as Calò, seventeen years on. Helmut Berger — Keinszig; a Visconti veteran.

Franc D'Ambrosio — Anthony Corleone. An actual opera singer, which is why the Teatro Massimo sequence works.

See also