How a Hollywood Has-Been Landed the Role of a Lifetime
By the late sixties, the legendary star once considered the greatest actor in the world was an overweight, out of work, washed up has-been. Worse yet, after a string of bad movies and a reputation for being difficult to work with, he was considered "box office poison." No studio in Hollywood would touch him…
So when Godfather author Mario Puzo and director Francis Ford Coppola told the studio execs at Paramount that they wanted the once-great 47-year-old Marlon Brando to play The Godfather, the suggestion was met with ridicule.
The very mention of Brando's name sent Paramount owner "Hurricane" Charlie Bluhdorn into a fit of rage. Studio head Robert Evans said "anyone but Brando - Marlon is as dead as could be." Another Paramount exec insisted that Brando would tank the movie. "He's washed up, he's finished," they warned Bluhdorn. I
n fact, studio president Stanley Jaffe had a meeting with Coppola and stated: "As long as I'm president of the studio, Marlon Brando will not be in this picture, and I will no longer allow you to discuss it."
Today, it's hard to imagine anyone but Brando in the role of Don Vito Corleone, but at the time, everyone involved had an opinion about who should play The Godfather…
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