The Godfather Saved Marlon Brando’s Career
Though it’s hard to imagine anyone else portraying Don Corleone, Marlon Brando was not the first choice for the patriarch in The Godfather. Paramount initially considered the following actors: Ernest Borgnine, Orson Welles, Edward G. Robinson, George C. Scott, Burt Lancaster, Anthony Quinn and Frank Sinatra. Francis Ford Coppola narrowed the list to Brando & Laurence Olivier. When Olivier became ill, Coppola chose Brando.
Paramount didn’t want Brando. They were afraid the actor was washed up. He’d made three flops in a row (One-Eyed Jacks, Mutiny on the Bounty and Burn!). He’d also become an unruly diva. He demanded expensive provisions on set and caused delays by not leaving his trailer. He refused to learn his lines opting instead to tape cue cards to actors’ foreheads.
Studio executives told Coppola that Brando made a film less commercial than using a complete unknown. “I was told by the president of Paramount that ‘Brando will not appear in this picture, and I prohibit you from bringing up his name again,’” Coppola said. Coppola begged the studio to give Brando a screen test. The studio relented as long as Brando did the test for free and put up a million dollar bond promising not to cause trouble during production if cast.
On the day of the screen test Coppola drove to Brando’s house on Mulholland Drive. “It was…
