Brando rejected Godfather twice

Marlon Brando repeatedly rejected playing the role of Don Corleone in The Godfather, telling an assistant: “It’s about the Mafia. ...

Marlon Brando repeatedly rejected playing the role of Don Corleone in The Godfather, telling an assistant: “It’s about the Mafia. I won’t glorify the Mafia,” according to an article in the new issue of Vanity Fair.

In the magazine’s annual Hollywood issue, novelist and Brando’s longtime friend Budd Schulberg said the actor’s assistant, Alice Marchak, begged him to read the book.

Schulberg, who wrote the screenplay for On the Waterfront, one of Brando’s most famous films, said at one point, the actor threw the book at her, saying, “For the last time, I won’t glorify the Mafia!”

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But Schulberg said that by some magic, the next time Marchak showed up, Brando had used an eyebrow pencil to draw a little moustache and said, “How do I look?” “Like George Raft,” said Marchak, referring to an actor who often played gangsters on the big screen. Each time she went to see Brando, Marchak told Schulberg, he had a different Mafia-don moustache.

Despite his initial reservations, Brando obviously had a change of heart. The role revived Brando’s career and won him a second Academy Award, which he turned down. Brando died last July at the age of 80.

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