IT’S has been hailed as a Hollywood classic and 50 years after its release, The Godfather is still being discovered by new movie buffs every day.
Yesterday it was announced that James Caanone of the legendary stars of the gangster movie, has passed away at age 82.
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The ill-fated Sonny Corleone proved to be a breakthrough role for the actor, who starred in more than 100 films over the next half-decade.
It also launched the careers of movie legends Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Robert Duvall and Dianne Keaton, as well as Hollywood great Marlon Brando as the Godfather himself, Vito Corleone.
But what was the next step for the rest of the cast?
From the real-life mobster who slept with Marilyn Monroe at age 15 and met Pablo Escobar, to the baby in the infamous christening scene, this is what happened to The Godfather mob after the film’s release in 1972 .
Playboy Model and Drug Addiction
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In one of the most famous scenes in the movie, James Caan’s mob boss Sonny died in a hail of bullets at a road toll, but his film career came to life.
He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for the role and went on to star in a string of hits, including Eleven with Will Ferrell and the thriller Misery, opposite Cathy Bates.
The troubled star was married four times and had five children, including actor Scott Caan, who starred in Hawaii Five-O and Entourage.
In the 1970s and 1980s, James lived a decadent life of drink and drugs and became a regular at the Playboy house.
Second wife Sheila Marie Ryan, whom he married in 1976 and divorced a year later, was a Playboy model who also dated Elvis Presley.
After the death of his sister Barbara, who suffered from leukemia in 1981, he became addicted to cocaine and lost his life savings and his home, leaving him with hundreds of thousands of dollars in tax debt.
He was also charged with beating and choking his girlfriend and pulling a gun during an argument over a parking lot.
He briefly walked away from his film career in the 1980s, saying that “the fun of it was taken away,” but Misery restarted his career in 1990.
He recently finished filming Fast Charlie and was set to shoot two more movies this year.
Real gangster who put Marilyn to bed
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Gianni Russo played Carlo Rizzi, Connie Corleone’s abusive husband, but was actually a real gangster, having worked as a messenger for mob boss Frank Costello.
“Fortunately, he took me under his wing early in my life and guided me in a way that no one could do,” Russo told Vice in 2019. an Italian immigrant from Mulberry Street.”
Gianni also starred in The Godfather Part II before starring in over 40 films. He is now a businessman, singer and motivational speaker.
In 2009 he launched his own wine brand.
He dated legendary actress Zsa Zsa Gabor and Cabaret star Liza Minnelli and in 2019, he claimed that Marilyn Monroe took his virginity when he was 15.
In 1988, Russo killed a man in a Las Vegas nightclub after intervening to avoid harassing a female patron. The man stabbed him with a broken champagne bottle and Russo pulled out a gun and shot him in the head.
Russo was not charged with the murder because it was considered a justifiable murder by the Nevada District Attorney’s Office.
Incredibly, drug lord Pablo Escobar linked Russo’s life over the murder, as the victim was an associate, and even had him kidnapped.
But when he found out that Russo was an actor in the iconic film, Escobar’s favorite, he stopped the hit — after letting him re-enact the final scene.
Drug catch at airport
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Sterling Hayden was working on a boat when he was spotted in a magazine, promoting an annual fishing race and a movie career offered by Paramount.
His first role was in the 1941 film Virginia, co-starring future wife Madeleine Carroll.
Between breaks to go sailing again, Hayden starred in a series of films, including the thriller The Asphalt Jungle, The Star, which starred Bette Davis, and the heist film The Killing.
After playing the corrupt police captain McCluskey in The Godfather, he landed roles in the sci-fi show The Starlostand and starred in the 1980 thriller The Outsider, as well as Dolly Parton and Jane Fonda’s classic 9 to 5.
In 1981, he was arrested at Toronto International Airport for carrying hashish.
He was married three times and had six children. He died of pancreatic cancer in 1986 at the age of 70.
tragic death
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John Cazale, who starred as the third Corleone son Fredo, had a brief but brilliant film career in just five films – The Godfather I and II, Dog Day Afternoon, The Deer Hunter and The Conversation.
All five were nominated for best picture at the Oscars and three took home the top prize.
John was in a long-term relationship with Meryl Streep, whom he planned to marry, when he was diagnosed with lung cancer in 1977.
He died a year later with Streep by his side.
Al Pacino later paid tribute to the Mamma Mia star’s loyalty, saying, “I have rarely seen anyone as devoted to someone falling away as John was. To see her in that act of love for this man was overwhelming.”
He also described Cazale as “one of the great actors of our time – that time, at any time”.
Baby at baptism
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In an infamous scene in the film, Michael Corleone (Pacino) renounces Satan when he becomes godfather to sister Connie’s baby at a christening, while his henchmen carry out a slew of execution orders against his enemies.
Director Francis Ford Coppola used his own daughter Sofia as baby Michael and she is the only person to have appeared in all three films.
Sofia followed in her father’s footsteps and became an Oscar-winning director, with hit films The Virgin Suicides, The Bling Ring and Lost in Translation to her credit.
She was married to director Spike Jonze for four years from 1999 and was also in a relationship with Quentin Tarantino.
Sofia is now married to French musician Thomas Marrs, with whom she shares daughters Romy (15) and Cosima (12), and lived in Paris for several years before moving to New York.
Dead at 47
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Al Lettieri, who played Virgil “The Turk” Sollozzo, was fluent in Italian and had connections to the Mafia through his brother-in-law, Thomas Eboli, who was the head of the Genovese crime family.
His cousin, Louis “The Mooch” Eboli, later became a mob boss in Chicago.
In addition to The Godfather, he played with Steve McQueen in The Getaway and Charles Bronson in Mt Majestyk.
Tragically, he died of a heart attack in 1975 at the age of 47.
rocky star
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Coppola cast his own sister, Talia Shire, as Connie Corleone, but was initially hesitant because he thought the character was more “homey,” an adjective he would never use to describe his sister,” according to Vanity Fair.
The gamble paid off when Talia was nominated for an Oscar for her role in the sequel, The Godfather: Part II.
She moved on to another major franchise, starring Adrian, Sylvester Stallone’s love interest, in Rocky and was again nominated for an Academy Award.
More recently, Shire, now 76, appeared in Netflix’s Grace and Frankie and Girlfriends’ Guide to Divorce.
She has three sons – her first, Matthew, from her marriage to composer David Shire; and two more, Jason and Robert, from her second marriage to film producer Jack Schwartzman.
Both Jason and Robert Schwartzman are successful Hollywood actors.