Editing Mario Puzo

{{short description|American author, screenwriter, and journalist (1920–1999)}}
{{Use American English|date=March 2020}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2022}}
{{Infobox writer <!-- for more information see [[:Template:Infobox writer/doc]] -->
| name        = Mario Puzo
| image       = Mario Puzo 1972 (cropped).jpg
| caption     = Puzo in 1972
| birth_name  = Mario Francis Puzo
| birth_date  = {{birth date|1920|10|15|mf=y}}
| birth_place = [[Manhattan]], [[New York City]], U.S.
| death_date  = {{death date and age|1999|7|2|1920|10|15|mf=y}}
| death_place = [[West Bay Shore, New York]], U.S.
| occupation  = {{flatlist|
* [[Novelist]]
* [[screenwriter]]
* journalist
}}
| period      = 1955–1999
| genre       = [[Crime fiction]]
| subject     = [[American Mafia|Mafia]]
| pseudonym   = Mario Cleri
| movement    =
| notableworks =''[[The Godfather (novel)|The Godfather]]'' (1969)
| spouse      = {{marriage|Erika Lina Broske|1946|1978|end=died}}
| partner     = Carol Gino
| children    = 5
| signature   = Mario Puzo signature.svg
| website     = {{URL|http://mariopuzo.com/}}
}}

'''Mario Francis Puzo''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|p|uː|z|oʊ}}; {{IPA|it|ˈmaːrjo ˈputtso, -ddzo|lang}}; October 15, 1920 – July 2, 1999) was an American author and screenwriter. He wrote [[crime novel]]s about the [[Italian-American Mafia]] and [[Sicilian Mafia]], most notably ''[[The Godfather (novel)|The Godfather]]'' (1969), which he later co-adapted into a [[The Godfather (film series)|film trilogy]] directed by [[Francis Ford Coppola]]. He received the [[Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay]] for [[The Godfather|the first film]] in 1972 and for ''[[The Godfather Part II|Part II]]'' in 1974. Puzo also wrote the original screenplay for the 1978 ''[[Superman (1978 film)|Superman]]'' film and its 1980 [[Superman II|sequel]]. His final novel, ''[[The Family (Puzo novel)|The Family]]'', was released posthumously in 2001.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=16esKLrdtYkC|title=Popular Contemporary Writers|last=Sharp|first=Michael D.|date=2006|publisher=Marshall Cavendish|isbn=9780761476092|page=1141|language=en}}</ref>

==Personal life==
Puzo was born in the [[Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan|Hell's Kitchen]] section of [[New York City]] to Italian immigrants from the [[Province of Avellino]]; his father was from [[Pietradefusi]] and his mother from [[Ariano Irpino]].<ref>Homberger, Eric (July 5, 1999). [https://www.theguardian.com/news/1999/jul/05/guardianobituaries "Mario Puzo: The author of the Godfather, the book the Mafia loved"], ''[[The Guardian]]''. Accessed August 10, 2009.</ref> When Puzo was 12, his father, who worked as a trackman for the [[New York Central Railroad]], was committed to the [[Pilgrim Psychiatric Center|Pilgrim State Hospital]] for [[schizophrenia]],<ref name="independent">{{Cite web|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/mario-puzo-at-100-the-godfather-author-never-met-a-real-gangster-but-his-mafia-melodrama-remains-timeless-b863424.html|title=Mario Puzo at 100|website=independent.co.uk|date=October 15, 2020}}</ref> and his wife Maria was left to raise their seven children.<ref name=death/> 

Mario Puzo served in the [[United States Army Air Forces]] in Germany in [[World War II]], and later graduated from the [[City College of New York]].<ref name=death/> Puzo married a German woman, Erika Lina Broske, with whom he had five children.<ref name="nytimes">{{Cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1997/05/08/garden/it-all-comes-back-to-family.html|title=It All Comes Back To Family|first=Camille|last=Paglia|date=May 8, 1997|work=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref> When Erika died of breast cancer at the age of 57 in 1978, her nurse, Carol Gino, became Puzo's companion.<ref name=death/><ref name="nytimes"/>

==Career==
In 1950, Puzo's first short story, "The Last Christmas," was published in ''American Vanguard'' and republished in the 1953 anthology ''New Voices: American Writing Today #1''.<ref>Glicksberg, Charles I., ed. ''American Vanguard 1950.'' New School of Social Research. Cambridge Publishing, New York. 1951.</ref><ref>Wolf, Don M., ed. ''New Voices: American Writing Today #1.'' Perma Books, New York. 1953.</ref> After the war, he wrote his first book, the novel ''[[The Dark Arena]]'',  which was published in 1955.<ref name=death/>

In 1960, [[Bruce Jay Friedman]] hired Puzo as an assistant editor of a group of men's [[pulp magazine|pulp]] magazines with titles such as ''Male'', ''Men''. Under the pen name Mario Cleri, Puzo wrote World War II adventure features for magazine ''True Action''.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://theislandnow.com/uncategorized/two-new-exhibits-at-the-heckscher-museum-of-art/|title=Two new exhibits at the Heckscher Museum of Art|publisher=theislandnow.com|date=August 12, 2019}}</ref><ref>Flamm, Matthew (June 2, 2002). [https://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/02/nyregion/a-demimonde-in-twilight.html "A Demimonde in Twilight"], ''New York Times''. Accessed March 15, 2009.</ref> A November 1965 short story, "Six Graves to Munich", was expanded into a novel in October 1967, and adapted into a ''[[A Time to Die (1982 film)|film]]'' in 1982.<ref>Cleri, Mario. "Six Graves to Munich". ''Male'', Vol. 15, No. 11, November, 1965.</ref><ref>Puzo, Mario. ''Six Graves to Munich''. New American Library, New York, 2010.</ref>

In 1969, Puzo's best-known work, ''The Godfather'', was published. Puzo stated that this story came from research into organized crime, not from personal experience, and that he was looking to write something that would have wide popular appeal.<ref name=death/><ref>''Larry King Live'' on CNN (August 2, 1996). [http://www.mariopuzo.com/lking.shtml "Mario Puzo Interview" transcript]. Accessed September 2, 2014 – via ''MarioPuzo.com''.</ref> The novel remained on [[The New York Times Best Seller list|''The New York Times'' Best Seller list]] for 67 weeks and sold over nine million copies in two years.<ref>{{cite web | title="The Godfather" Turns 40 |work=CBS News|publisher=CBS Interactive Inc. | url=http://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/the-godfather-turns-40/3/ | date=March 15, 2012 | access-date=July 15, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140717004801/http://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/the-godfather-turns-40/3/ |archive-date=July 17, 2014 |url-status=live}}</ref> The book was later developed into the film ''[[The Godfather]]'' (1972), directed by [[Francis Ford Coppola]]. [[Paramount Pictures]] originally found out about Puzo's novel in 1967 when a literary scout for the company contacted then Paramount Vice President of Production [[Peter Bart]] about Puzo's unfinished sixty-page manuscript.{{sfn|Jones|2007|p=10}} Bart believed the work was "much beyond a Mafia story" and offered Puzo a $12,500 option for the work, with an option for $80,000 if the finished work was made into a film.{{sfn|Jones|2007|p=10}}{{sfn|Lebo|2005|p=6}} Despite Puzo's agent telling him to turn down the offer, Puzo was desperate for money and accepted the deal.{{sfn|Jones|2007|p=10}}{{sfn|Lebo|2005|p=6}} Paramount's [[Robert Evans]] relates that, when they met in early 1968, he offered Puzo the $12,500 deal for the 60-page manuscript titled ''Mafia''  after the author confided in him that he urgently needed $10,000 to pay off gambling debts.{{sfn|Phillips|2004|p=88}} The film received three awards of its 11 [[Academy Awards|Oscar]] category nominations, including Puzo's Oscar for [[Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay|Best Adapted Screenplay]].

Coppola and Puzo then collaborated on sequels to the original film, ''[[The Godfather Part II]]'' (1974) and ''[[The Godfather Part III]]'' (1990). Coppola and Puzo preferred the title ''The Death of Michael Corleone'' for the third film, but Paramount Pictures found that unacceptable.<ref name=pre>{{cite web |url=https://datebook.sfchronicle.com/movies-tv/the-godfather-part-iii-makes-a-little-more-sense-in-the-streaming-era |title='The Godfather: Part III' makes a little more sense in the streaming era |publisher=sfchronicle.com |date=December 26, 2019 |access-date=December 28, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191227100958/https://datebook.sfchronicle.com/movies-tv/the-godfather-part-iii-makes-a-little-more-sense-in-the-streaming-era |archive-date=December 27, 2019 |url-status=live}}</ref> In September 2020, for the film's 30th anniversary, it was announced that a new cut of the film titled ''Mario Puzo's The Godfather, Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone'' would have a limited theatrical release in December 2020 followed by digital and Blu-ray.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/francis-ford-coppola-recutting-godfather-part-iii-for-30th-anniversary|title=Adam Beach's 'Monkey Beach' to Open Hybrid Vancouver Film Fest|publisher=hollywoodreporter.com|date=September 3, 2020}}</ref> Coppola said the film is the version he and Puzo had originally envisioned, and it "vindicates" its status among the trilogy.<ref>{{cite web|url= https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/francis-ford-coppola-says-godfather-part-iii-recut-vindicates-film-daughter-sofia |title= Francis Ford Coppola Says 'Godfather: Part III' Recut Vindicates Film, Daughter Sofia |publisher= [[The Hollywood Reporter]] |author= Ryan Parker |date=December 3, 2020|access-date=December 3, 2020}}</ref>

In mid-1972, Puzo wrote the first draft of the script for the 1974 disaster film ''[[Earthquake (1974 film)|Earthquake]]'', but he was unable to continue work because of his prior commitment to ''The Godfather Part II''.  Work continued on the script without his involvement, with writer George Fox (working on his first, and only, motion picture screenplay) and producer / director [[Mark Robson (film director)|Mark Robson]], who remained uncredited as a writer. Puzo retained screen credit in the completed film as a result of a quickly-settled lawsuit over story credit (most elements from his first draft made it into the final film), and Puzo's name subsequently featured heavily in the advertising. Puzo also wrote the original screenplay for [[Richard Donner]]'s ''[[Superman (1978 film)|Superman]]'', which then also included the plot for ''[[Superman II]]'', as they were originally written as one film. He also collaborated on the stories for the 1982 film ''A Time to Die'' and the 1984 Francis Ford Coppola film ''[[The Cotton Club (film)|The Cotton Club]]''.

In 1991, Puzo's [[speculative fiction]] ''[[The Fourth K]]'' was published. It centres on a fictional member of the [[Kennedy family]] dynasty who becomes President of the United States early in the 2000s.<ref>"Mario Puzo", in "Obituaries", in ''Newsmakers: The People Behind Today's Headlines'', 2000, Issue 1, Farmington Hills, MI: Gale.</ref>

Puzo never saw the publication of his penultimate book, ''[[Omertà (novel)|Omertà]]'', but the manuscript was finished before his death, as was the manuscript for ''[[The Family (Mario Puzo novel)|The Family]]''. However, in a review originally published in the ''[[San Francisco Chronicle]]'', [[Jules Siegel]], who had worked closely with Puzo at [[Magazine Management Company]], speculated that ''Omertà'' may have been  completed by "some talentless hack". Siegel also acknowledged the temptation to "rationalize avoiding what is probably the correct analysis,&nbsp;that [Puzo] wrote it and it is terrible".<ref>{{cite news |last=Siegel |first=Jules |url=http://cafecancun.com/bookarts/omerta.shtml |title=The computer wrote it |newspaper=San Francisco Chronicle |access-date=February 10, 2015 |date=July 9, 2000 |via=Book@arts}}</ref>

==Death==
Puzo died of [[heart failure]] on July 2, 1999, at his home in [[West Bay Shore, New York]], at the age of 78.<ref name=death>{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1999/07/03/movies/mario-puzo-author-who-made-the-godfather-a-world-addiction-is-dead-at-78.html|title=Mario Puzo, Author Who Made 'The Godfather' a World Addiction, Is Dead at 78|work=The New York Times|date=July 3, 1999}}</ref>

==In popular culture==
In April 2022, [[Paramount+]] began streaming ''[[The Offer]]'', a 10-episode dramatic mini-series telling a fictionalized story of the making of ''The Godfather'', including Puzo's decision to write [[The Godfather (book series)|the first book in what came to be a series]]. [[Patrick Gallo]] plays Puzo. Victoria Kelleher plays his wife, Erika.<ref>{{Cite web |title="The Flight Attendant" Victoria Kelleher On Working With Kaley Cuoco And "The Offer" – New Scene Magazine |url=https://newscenemagazine.com/2022/05/the-flight-attendant-victoria-kelleher-on-working-with-kaley-cuoco-and-the-offer/ |access-date=2022-06-01 |website=newscenemagazine.com}}</ref>

==Works==

===Novels===
* ''[[The Dark Arena]]'' (1955)
* ''[[The Fortunate Pilgrim]]'' (1965)
* ''[[The Runaway Summer of Davie Shaw]]'' (1966)
* ''[[Six Graves to Munich]]'' (1967), as Mario Cleri
* ''[[Fools Die]]'' (1978)
* ''[[The Fourth K]]'' (1990)
* ''[[The Last Don]]'' (1996)
* ''[[Omertà (novel)|Omertà]]'' (2000)
* ''[[The Family (Puzo novel)|The Family]]'' (2001) (completed by Puzo's longtime girlfriend Carol Gino)

====Series====
# ''[[The_Godfather_(book_series)|The Godfather]]'' (1969)
# ''[[The Sicilian]]'' (1984) – takes place between the 6th and the 7th books of ''The Godfather''

===Non-fiction===
* "Test Yourself: Are You Heading for a Nervous Breakdown?" as Mario Cleri (1965)
* "The Six Million Killer Sharks That Terrorize Our Shores" as Mario Cleri (1966)
* "Choosing a Dream: Italians in Hell's Kitchen" (1971)
* ''[[The Godfather Papers and Other Confessions]]'' (1972)
* ''[[Inside Las Vegas]]'' (1977)

===Short stories===

All short stories, except "The Last Christmas" and "First Sundays", were written under the pseudonym Mario Cleri.

* "The Last Christmas" (1950)
* "John 'Red' Marston's Island of Delight" (1964)
* "Big Mike's Wild Young Sister-in-law" (1964)
* "Six Graves to Munich" (1965)
* “Saigon Nymph Who Led the Green Berets to the Cong's Terror Headquarters” (1966)
* "Trapped Girls in the Riviera's Flesh Casino" (1967)
* "The Unkillable Six" (1967)
* "First Sundays" (1968)
* "Girls of Pleasure Penthouse" (1968)
* "Order Lucy For Tonight" (1968) 
* "12 Barracks of Wild Blondes" (1968) 
* "Charlie Reese's Amazing Escape from a Russian Death Camp" (1969)

===Screenplays===
* ''[[The Godfather]]'' (1972)
* ''[[Earthquake (1974 film)|Earthquake]]'' (1974 – August 1972 script draft only)
* ''[[The Godfather Part II]]'' (1974)
* ''[[Superman (1978 film)|Superman]]'' (1978)
* ''[[Superman II]]'' (1980)
* ''[[The Cotton Club (film)|The Cotton Club]]'' (1984 – story only)
* ''[[The Godfather Part III]]'' (1990)
* ''[[Christopher Columbus: The Discovery]]'' (1992)
* ''[[Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut]]'' (2006)
* ''[[The Godfather Part III#Recut version (2020)|The Godfather, Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone]]'' (2020)

===Film adaptations===
* ''[[A Time to Die (1982 film)|A Time to Die]]'' (1982)
* ''[[The Sicilian (film)|The Sicilian]]'' (1987)
* ''[[The Fortunate Pilgrim (miniseries)|The Fortunate Pilgrim]]'' (1988)
* ''[[The Last Don (miniseries)|The Last Don]]'' (1997)
* ''The Last Don II'' (1998)

===Video game adaptations===
*''[[The Godfather (1991 video game)|The Godfather]]'' (1991)
*''[[The Godfather (2006 video game)|The Godfather]]'' (2006)
*''[[The Godfather II (video game)|The Godfather II]]'' (2009)

== See also ==
* [[The Godfather (book series)|''The Godfather'' (book series)]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

===Works cited===
{{refbegin|2}}
* {{cite book |last=Jones |first=Jenny M. |title=The Annotated Godfather: The Complete Screenplay |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=evrkAgAAQBAJ |access-date=July 15, 2014 |year=2007 |publisher=Black Dog & Leventhal |location=New York, New York |isbn=978-1-57912-739-8 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151025085017/https://books.google.com/books?id=evrkAgAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover |archive-date=October 25, 2015 |url-status=live}}
* {{cite book |last1=Lebo |first1=Harlan |title=The Godfather Legacy: The Untold Story of the Making of the Classic Godfather Trilogy Featuring Never-Before-Published Production Stills |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EA1SCEmDyBMC |access-date=July 15, 2014 |year=2005 |publisher=Simon & Schuster |location=London, England |isbn=978-0-7432-8777-7 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151109125603/https://books.google.com/books?id=EA1SCEmDyBMC&printsec=frontcover |archive-date=November 9, 2015 |url-status=live}}
* {{cite book |last1=Phillips |first1=Gene D. |title=Godfather: The Intimate Francis Ford Coppola |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6XBHAgAAQBAJ |access-date=July 15, 2014 |year=2004 |publisher=University Press of Kentucky |location=Lexington, Kentucky |isbn=978-0-8131-4671-3 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200629231320/https://books.google.com/books?id=6XBHAgAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover |archive-date=June 29, 2020 |url-status=live}}
{{refend}}

==Further reading==
*{{cite book|date= March 8, 2019|title= Mario Puzo: An American Writer's Quest|isbn=9781942762638|last1=Moore|first1=M. J.|publisher= Heliotrope Books LLC}}
*{{cite book|date= October 15, 2018|title= Me and Mario: Love, Power & Writing with Mario Puzo, author of The Godfather|isbn=9781936530335|last1=Gino|first1=Carol|publisher= Aaha! Books}}

==External links==
{{Library resources box}}
* [http://mariopuzo.com/ The Official Mario Puzo Library]
* [https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4212820 FreshAir Interview] – Audio interview from [[Fresh Air]]. Originally broadcast July 25, 1996.
* {{IMDb name|0701374}}
* {{Books and Writers |id=mpuzo |name=Mario Puzo}}
* [http://www.cafecancun.com/bookarts/mario.shtml "Saying Goodbye to Mario Puzo"], a recollection of Mario Puzo by his friend [[Jules Siegel]]
* [https://archives-manuscripts.dartmouth.edu/repositories/2/resources/3500 Mario Puzo Papers] in Rauner Special Collections Library at Dartmouth College

{{The Godfather}}
{{Mario Puzo}}
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{{Academy Award Best Adapted Screenplay}}
{{Golden Globe Award Best Screenplay}}
{{Writers Guild of America Award for Best Adapted Screenplay}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Puzo, Mario}}
[[Category:1920 births]]
[[Category:1999 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century American male writers]]
[[Category:20th-century American novelists]]
[[Category:20th-century American screenwriters]]
[[Category:20th-century pseudonymous writers]]
[[Category:American crime fiction writers]]
[[Category:American male novelists]]
[[Category:American male screenwriters]]
[[Category:American science fiction writers]]
[[Category:American travel writers]]
[[Category:American writers of Italian descent]]
[[Category:Best Adapted Screenplay Academy Award winners]]
[[Category:Best Screenplay Golden Globe winners]]
[[Category:City College of New York alumni]]
[[Category:Deaths from congestive heart failure in the United States]]
[[Category:Hugo Award–winning writers]]
[[Category:Military personnel from New York City]]
[[Category:Mythopoeic writers]]
[[Category:Novelists from New York (state)]]
[[Category:Organized crime novelists]]
[[Category:People from Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan]]
[[Category:People from Islip (town), New York]]
[[Category:Screenwriters from New York City]]
[[Category:United States Army Air Forces personnel of World War II]]
[[Category:United States Army Air Forces soldiers]]
[[Category:Writers from Manhattan]]
[[Category:Writers Guild of America Award winners]]
[[Category:Yaddo alumni]]
[[Category:Writers of Gothic fiction]]