https://en.bharatpedia.org/w/index.php?action=history&feed=atom&title=Mario_PuzoMario Puzo - Revision history2026-09-06T19:15:41ZRevision history for this page on the wikiMediaWiki 1.43.6https://en.bharatpedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mario_Puzo&diff=139099&oldid=prevHoci Mini: Created page with "{{short description|Italian American author, screenwriter, and journalist}} {{Use American English|date=March 2020}} {{Use mdy dates|date=March 2020}} {{Infobox writer <!-- fo..."2021-08-25T15:19:59Z<p>Created page with "{{short description|Italian American author, screenwriter, and journalist}} {{Use American English|date=March 2020}} {{Use mdy dates|date=March 2020}} {{Infobox writer <!-- fo..."</p>
<p><b>New page</b></p><div>{{short description|Italian American author, screenwriter, and journalist}}<br />
{{Use American English|date=March 2020}}<br />
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2020}}<br />
{{Infobox writer <!-- for more information see [[:Template:Infobox writer/doc]] --><br />
| name = Mario Puzo<br />
| image = Mario Puzo 1972 (cropped).jpg<br />
| caption = Puzo in 1972<br />
| birth_name = Mario Francis Puzo<br />
| birth_date = {{birth date|1920|10|15|mf=y}}<br />
| birth_place = [[New York City]], New York, U.S.<br />
| death_date = {{death date and age|1999|7|2|1920|10|15|mf=y}}<br />
| death_place = [[West Bay Shore, New York|West Bay Shore]], New York, U.S.<br />
| occupation = {{flatlist|<br />
* [[Novelist]]<br />
* [[screenwriter]]<br />
* journalist<br />
}}<br />
| period = 1955–1999<br />
| genre = [[Crime fiction]]<br />
| subject = [[American Mafia|Mafia]]<br />
| pseudonym = Mario Cleri<br />
| movement =<br />
| notableworks =''[[The Godfather (novel)|The Godfather]]'' (1969)<br />
| spouse = {{marriage|Erika Puzo|1946|1978|end=died}}<br />
| partner = Carol Gino<br />
| children = 5<br />
| relatives =<br />
| awards =<br />
| signature = Mario Puzo signature.svg<br />
| website = {{URL|http://mariopuzo.com/}}<br />
}}<br />
'''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, screenwriter, and journalist of [[Italians|Italian]] descent. He is known for his [[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><br />
<br />
==Personal life==<br />
Puzo was born in the [[Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan|Hell's Kitchen]] area of [[New York City]] to Italian immigrants from [[Pietradefusi]], [[Province of Avellino]], [[Campania]].<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]] insane asylum 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|date=15 October 2020}}</ref> and his wife Maria was forced to raise their seven children.<ref name=death/> He served in the [[US 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, 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 58 in 1978, her nurse, Carol Gino, became Puzo's companion.<ref name=death/><ref name="nytimes"/><br />
<br />
==Career==<br />
In 1950, his first short story, "The Last Christmas," was published in ''American Vanguard''. After the war, he wrote his first book, ''[[The Dark Arena]]'', which was published in 1955.<ref name=death/><br />
<br />
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><br />
<br />
In 1969, Puzo's most well-known work, ''[[The Godfather (novel)|The Godfather]]'' was published. Puzo stated this story came from research into organized crime, not from personal experience, and was looking to write something that would appeal to the masses.<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]]. The film received three awards of the eleven [[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).<br />
<br />
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><br />
<br />
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 working on it because of his commitment to ''[[The Godfather Part II]]''. Work continued on the script, with writer George Fox taking the helm, with a final draft completed by director [[Mark Robson (film director)|Mark Robson]]. Puzo retained screen credit in the completed film, and 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]]''.<br />
<br />
In 1991, Puzo's [[speculative fiction]] ''[[The Fourth K]]'' was published; it hypothesizes a member of the [[Kennedy family]] 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><br />
<br />
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><br />
<br />
==Death==<br />
Puzo died of heart failure on July 2, 1999 at his home in [[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=nytimes.com|date=July 3, 1999}}</ref><br />
<br />
==Works==<br />
<br />
===Novels===<br />
* ''[[The Dark Arena]]'' (1955)<br />
* ''[[The Fortunate Pilgrim]]'' (1965)<br />
* ''[[The Runaway Summer of Davie Shaw]]'' (1966)<br />
* ''Six Graves to Munich'' (1967), as Mario Cleri<br />
* ''[[The Godfather (novel)|The Godfather]]'' (1969)<br />
* ''[[Fools Die]]'' (1978)<br />
* ''[[The Sicilian]]'' (1984)<br />
* ''[[The Fourth K]]'' (1990)<br />
* ''[[The Last Don]]'' (1996)<br />
* ''[[Omertà (novel)|Omertà]]'' (2000)<br />
* ''[[The Family (Puzo novel)|The Family]]'' (2001) (completed by Puzo's longtime girlfriend Carol Gino)<br />
<br />
===Non-fiction===<br />
* "Test Yourself: Are You Heading for a Nervous Breakdown?" as Mario Cleri (1965)<br />
* ''[[The Godfather Papers and Other Confessions]]'' (1972)<br />
* ''[[Inside Las Vegas]]'' (1977)<br />
<br />
===Short stories===<br />
<br />
All short stories, except "The Last Christmas", were written under the pseudonym Mario Cleri.<br />
<br />
* "The Last Christmas" (1950)<br />
* "John 'Red' Marston's Island of Delight" (1964)<br />
* "Big Mike's Wild Young Sister-in-law" (1964)<br />
* "The Six Million Killer Sharks That Terrorize Our Shores" (1966) <br />
* "Trapped Girls in the Riviera's Flesh Casino" (1967)<br />
* "The Unkillable Six" (1967)<br />
* "Girls of Pleasure Penthouse" (1968)<br />
* "Order Lucy For Tonight" (1968) <br />
* "12 Barracks of Wild Blondes" (1968) <br />
* "Charlie Reese's Amazing Escape from a Russian Death Camp" (1969)<br />
<br />
===Screenplays and film adaptations===<br />
* ''[[The Godfather]]'' (1972)<br />
* ''[[The Godfather Part II]]'' (1974)<br />
* ''[[Earthquake (1974 film)|Earthquake]]'' (1974)<br />
* ''[[Superman (1978 film)|Superman]]'' (1978)<br />
* ''[[Superman II]]'' (1980)<br />
* ''[[A Time to Die (1982 film)|A Time to Die]]'' (1982)<br />
* ''[[The Cotton Club (film)|The Cotton Club]]'' (1984)<br />
* ''[[The Sicilian (film)|The Sicilian]]'' (1987)<br />
* ''[[The Fortunate Pilgrim (miniseries)|The Fortunate Pilgrim]]'' (1988)<br />
* ''[[The Godfather Part III]]'' (1990)<br />
* ''[[Christopher Columbus: The Discovery]]'' (1992)<br />
* ''[[Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut]]'' (2006)<br />
<br />
===Video game adaptations===<br />
*''[[The Godfather (1991 video game)|The Godfather]]'' (1991)<br />
*''[[The Godfather (2006 video game)|The Godfather]]'' (2006)<br />
*''[[The Godfather II (video game)|The Godfather II]]'' (2009)<br />
<br />
== See also ==<br />
* [[The Godfather (book series)]]<br />
<br />
==References==<br />
{{Reflist}}<br />
<br />
==Further reading==<br />
*{{cite book|date= March 8, 2019|title= Mario Puzo: An American Writer's Quest|isbn=9781942762638|last1=Moore|first1=M. J.}}<br />
<br />
==External links==<br />
{{Library resources box}}<br />
* [https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4212820 FreshAir Interview] – Audio interview from [[Fresh Air]]. Originally broadcast July 25, 1996.<br />
* {{IMDb name|0701374}}<br />
* {{Books and Writers |id=mpuzo |name=Mario Puzo}}<br />
* [http://www.toptenplus.com/top-10-best-mario-puzo-books/ Mario Puzo Books]<br />
* [http://mariopuzo.com/ The Official Mario Puzo Library]<br />
* [http://www.cafecancun.com/bookarts/mario.shtml "Saying Goodbye to Mario Puzo"], an affectionate recollection of Mario Puzo written by his friend [[Jules Siegel]] on being notified of his death.<br />
<br />
{{The Godfather}}<br />
{{Mario Puzo}}<br />
{{Navboxes<br />
| title = Awards for Mario Puzo<br />
| list = <br />
{{Academy Award Best Adapted Screenplay}}<br />
{{Golden Globe Award Best Screenplay}}<br />
{{Writers Guild of America Award for Best Adapted Screenplay}}<br />
}}<br />
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{{Authority control}}<br />
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Puzo, Mario}}<br />
[[Category:1920 births]]<br />
[[Category:1999 deaths]]<br />
[[Category:20th-century American novelists]]<br />
[[Category:American male novelists]]<br />
[[Category:American crime fiction writers]]<br />
[[Category:American male screenwriters]]<br />
[[Category:United States Army Air Forces personnel of World War II]]<br />
[[Category:American science fiction writers]]<br />
[[Category:City College of New York alumni]]<br />
[[Category:American writers of Italian descent]]<br />
[[Category:Organized crime novelists]]<br />
[[Category:People from Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan]]<br />
[[Category:People from Islip (town), New York]]<br />
[[Category:Writers Guild of America Award winners]]<br />
[[Category:Writers from Manhattan]]<br />
[[Category:United States Army Air Forces soldiers]]<br />
[[Category:Best Screenplay Golden Globe winners]]<br />
[[Category:Best Adapted Screenplay Academy Award winners]]<br />
[[Category:20th-century American male writers]]<br />
[[Category:Novelists from New York (state)]]<br />
[[Category:Screenwriters from New York (state)]]<br />
[[Category:20th-century American screenwriters]]<br />
[[Category:20th-century pseudonymous writers]]</div>Hoci Mini