The Godfather Saved Marlon Brando’s Career

Woodcut of Marlon Brando as Don Vito Corleone.

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…