It’s hard to imagine anyone other than Marlon Brando playing crime boss Vito Corleone inThe Godfather. Brando’s Oscar-winning portrayal of Don Corleone has become the stuff of legend. His physical adaptation to the role, perfecting a unique vocal delivery and detailed facial movements and mannerisms, made him almost unrecognizable from the actor written off by most in the film industry as an unprofessional troublemaker. Yet the casting of Brando as the mafia don very nearly didn’t happen.The Godfather’s originator, Mario Puzo and director Francis Ford Coppola had to push back against enormous pressure from Paramount Studios to cast someone else in the role.
Even after production on the movie had begun,various other high-profile names were bandied about as possible options to play Corleone, with some of those suggested not even professional actors. Meanwhile, famous fans of Puzo’sGodfathernovel lobbied Puzo, Coppola and the studio to be cast in the part. In the end, though, the two creative visionaries behind the film got their way. After executives were bowled over by his screen tests,Paramount simply couldn’t refuse to cast Brando inThe Godfather. No fewer than 11 other potential Don Corleones were left disappointed.
11Ernest Borgnine
An Italian-American Oscar Winner
Paramount executive Robert Evans, who oversaw the production ofThe Godfatheralongside a string of other New Hollywood classics, strongly believed that the part of Vito Corleone should go to someone with an Italian background. Ernest Borgnine was the first name he put forward with this belief in mind (viaVanity Fair).
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Although not widely remembered today, Borgnine certainly had the acting pedigree to take on the role. He started out in Hollywood acting in a string of noir and Western movies, before winning the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1956, for playing the title role in the acclaimed romantic dramaMarty. At the age of 54, Borgnine was muchcloser to Vito Corleone’s age than the 47-year-old Brando. ButCoppola and Puzo knew what they wanted, and Brando’s performance saw him transform into a much older Italian-American character seemingly at will.
10Charles Bronson
The Preferred Choice Of Paramount Studios CEO
At the timeThe Godfatherwas made, Paramount Studios was under the control of CEO, Chairman and President Charles George Bluhdorn, a metals and auto parts magnate with absolutely no background in cinema. Bluhdorn liked to be personally involved in casting decisions concerning his studio’s major productions, andThe Godfatherwas no exception. He was incensed at the idea thatMarlon Brando should be cast as Don Corleone, labeling the actor “box-office poison”, and instead proposed Charles Bronson for the role (viaVanity Fair).
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Bronson was one of Hollywood’s biggest stars at the time, off the back of a string of commercial and critical successes that includedThe Magnificent Seven,The Great Escape,The Dirty Dozen,Once Upon a Time in the West, and the French filmsAdieu l’amiandRider on the Rain. Bluhdorn’s suggestion wasn’t completely out of left field, as Bronson had proven himself to be a specialist at fronting star-studded casts in sprawling epics, and was a considerable box office draw. In retrospect, however, it’s clear that his acting style wouldn’t have suitedThe Godfather’s understated, simmering intensity.
9Richard Conte
He Still Made It Into The Godfather As Emilio Barzini
Richard Conte was, in many ways,a sensible choice to play Don Corleone. He was an experienced actor from an Italian-American background, who transitioned from being typecast in noir films to big-budget movies with broader scopes in the 1960s. He’d have been quite at home inThe Godfather, and so it proved, after he was cast as Vito Corleone’s rival mafia don Emilio Barzini.
Conte played Don Barzini to perfection, as the man who covertly undermines Corleone’s position in New York’s Five Families.
Conte was likely never seriously considered for the role of Vito Corleone, though (viaChicago Tribune). He was just one of several names that Paramount executives threw at Coppola to try and counter his insistence on Brando for the part. In any case, Conte playedDon Barzini to perfection, as the man who covertly undermines Corleone’s position in New York’s Five Families.
8Laurence Olivier
The Actor’s Agent Turned It Down
Laurence Olivier was the only actor that Francis Ford Coppola considered suitable for the role of Vito Corleone inThe Godfatheraside from Marlon Brando. Olivier was offered the part, but his agent refused it on his behalf, falsely claiming that the actor was too ill to perform.
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It could be that Olivier was already booked to star in Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s mystery thrillerSleuth(viaThe Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences), and there would have been a scheduling clash if he signed on for both movies. Either way, the legendary thespian went head-to-head with Brando for the Best Actor Oscar, after being nominated for his role inSleuthas Andrew Wyke.Brando had the last laugh, winning the Oscarand walking away with a cool $1.6 million fromThe Godfather’s massive box office takings, while Sleuth barely made enough to cover its budget.
7Carlo Ponti
He Was A Personal Friend Of Paramount Executives
Carlo Ponti was arguably the most peculiar suggestionfor the role of Don Corleone, since he wasn’t even an actor. He was actually a movie producer revered in the industry for making Federico Fellini’sLa stradaand David Lean’sDoctor Zhivago, and launching the career of his wife Sofia Loren. Robert Evans put his name forward on the sole basis that Ponti was Italian, and he happened to know him personally following their work together on some previous Paramount productions (viaVanity Fair).
He apparently reminded Evans of the Vito Corleone he saw in Puzo’sGodfathernovel.
Ponti’s paternalistic disposition and mild manners contrasted with his ruthless determination to see through his cinematic vision, which apparently reminded Evans of the Vito Corleone he saw in Puzo’sGodfathernovel (viaLos Angeles Times). Ponti really wasn’t meant to be in front of the camera, however, and his name was soon crossed off the list of prospective Godfathers.
6Elvis Presley
The King Wanted To Be The Don
Elvis Presley might have already been the King of Rock and Roll with a string of hits and musical comedies under his belt, but in 1971 there was one career aim he still wanted to fulfill.Presley wanted to be taken seriously as an actor, by starring as the titular character in a movie adaptation of his favorite gangster novel,The Godfather.
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He pressured Paramount to give him an audition for a role in the film, with every intention of playing Vito Corleone himself (viaThe Guardian). In the end, Presley was offered the chance to audition for the part of Tom Hagen, Corleone’s consigliere, instead. Allegedly, Elvis was thrilled with the opportunity, but it’s not clear whether he ever showed up to his screen test for the role.
5Anthony Quinn
A Double Oscar Winner Who Often Portrayed Italians
Anthony Quinn is another actor whose consideration for the role of Vito Corleone made a certain amount of sense. At 56, he was the ideal age to play the part, and although he was Mexican-American,he had a lot of experience playing Italian characters. An imposing screen presence, Quinn won two Oscars, for his performances inViva Zapata!andLust for Life, and was nominated by the Academy twice more, including for his titular role inZorba the Greek.
He did end up playing another mob boss a year afterThe Godfather’s release, in Richard Fleischer’s crime filmThe Don Is Dead.
If Brando wasn’t the firm favorite of both Puzo and Coppola, it seems that Quinn would have been in with a good chance of getting the part of Don Corleone (viaChicago Tribune). He did end up playing another mob boss a year afterThe Godfather’s release, in Richard Fleischer’s far less successful crime filmThe Don Is Dead.
4George C. Scott
Fresh from his Best Actor Oscar for playing the title role in the 1970 biopicPatton, George C. Scott was considered at the top of his game when casting forThe Godfatherwas taking place.Scott was undoubtedly one of the finest actors of his generation and deserved to be in the conversation, but it’s hard to see how this all-American actor with his brusque vocal delivery would have captured the nuances of Don Corleone.
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Scott may have been in the conversation, but he was never close to getting the part of Corleone, by all accounts (viaChicago Tribune). Coppola was almost certainly against the idea, and justifiably so. Still, Brando did take after Scott in declining the Academy Award for Best Actor he won for his portrayal or Corleone, just as Scott had done two years earlier.
3Frank Sinatra
Sinatra Lobbied Paramount To Be Given The Role
Before production started onThe Godfather, the movie’s director bumped into Frank Sinatra, who suggested he play the role of Don Corleone (viaUSA Today). Given his reputation as an Italian-American with some very powerful friends, both in the entertainment industry and in the mob, Sinatra had reason to believe he’d be a good fit for the part. However, Coppola wasn’t going to be swayed from his conviction that Corleone needed to be played by a serious dramatic actor.
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The “Chairman of the Board”, as he was nicknamed, hadcredentials as a big star who happened to be Italian-American, but these didn’t make him more qualified for the role than Brando or Laurence Olivier. Sinatra did end up being acknowledged in the movie, though, in the shape of Johnny Fontaine, a character based on the singer, who’s seen performing at Connie Corleone’s wedding. Viewing Fontaine as a parodic slight against him,Sinatra famously hatedThe Godfatherwhen he saw it, and refused to appear inThe Godfather Part IIIwhen he was asked.
2Raf Vallone
He Ended Up In The Godfather Part III
Raf Vallone was the only Italian-born actor considered for the role of Vito Corleone (viaChicago Tribune), a character who was born in Sicily and traveled to New York’s Ellis Island when he was a young boy. American audiences became acquainted with Vallone during his transition to Hollywood cinema during the 1960s, andhe played an Italian mafia boss in the 1969 British gangster movieThe Italian Job, immediately before casting forThe Godfatherbegan.
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Nevertheless, Vallone’s lack of lead roles in English-language movies probably counted against him. He was eventually cast by Coppola inThe Godfather Part III18 years later, but in the minor role of Pope John Paul I, a native Italian speaker.
