Author, journalist, and screenwriter Mario Puzo is best known for his crime novels about the Sicilian and Italian-American mafias.
He got an Academy Award for the first and second iterations of the film trilogy based on his novel The Godfather, which was later co-adapted.
He was raised in poverty as the son of Italian immigrants in the US. After the war, he started his literary career.
He served in the US Army Air Forces during World War II. His literary works make extensive use of his background and his early challenges.
He began releasing his short tales and books in the 1950s, but it took him a while to establish himself as a reputable author.
Mario Puzo eventually dabbled in screenwriting and had great success there as well. His career trajectory was permanently altered by the release of his book, The Godfather.
Millions of copies of the book were sold, and a trilogy of movies was eventually made from them. The Superman movie’s original screenplay was written by Mario Puzo.
In addition to The Godfather, he also wrote a number of other novels, short tales, and non-fiction works. He passed away not long before his book Omerta was released.
Mario Puzo Net Worth
At the time of his passing, American novelist, screenwriter, and journalist Mario Puzo had a net worth of $20 million. He was also a citizen of the United States.
Mario Puzo Personal Life Details
Mario Francis Puzo was born on October 15, 1920, in the neighbourhood of Hell’s Kitchen in New York City, to parents who had immigrated to the United States from Italy.
Antonio and Maria Le Conti Puzo, his parents, were natives of the Province of Avellino in the Italian region of Campania. He was one of six children.
His childhood was fraught with hardship. Mental illness plagued his father, who was employed as a trackman for the New York Central Railroad, and caused him to miss a lot of work.
Because it was suspected that he was suffering from schizophrenia, Mario’s father was institutionalised in the insane asylum at Pilgrim State Hospital when Mario was 12 years old.
His mother was a stay-at-home parent and raised all seven of her children by herself. The family struggled to make ends meet and lived in abject poverty.
In 1946, Mario Puzo wed a German woman named Erika Lina Broske. Erika was born in Germany. They were blessed with five children, including three sons and two girls.
In 1978, his wife passed away as a result of breast cancer.He later started a relationship with Carol Gino, who had been his deceased wife’s nurse.
On July 2, 1999, he passed away as a result of heart failure. He was 78.
Mario Puzo Career
Mario Puzo enlisted in the US Army Air Forces when he was a young man.
The military converted him to a public relations officer because he couldn’t perform combat responsibilities due to his impaired vision.
During World War II, he spent some time stationed in Germany.He enrolled at the City College of New York after his return, where he eventually earned his degree.
He had already begun writing at this point. In 1950, the American Vanguard magazine published his first short story, The Last Christmas. His debut work, The Dark Arena, was published five years later.
Mario Puzo found work at the magazine management company of publisher Martin Goodman in the 1950s as a writer and editor.
After reading Puzo’s writing and being moved by it, author Bruce Jay Friedman offered to hire him as an associate editor for a series of men’s pulp magazines.
Puzo contributed to men’s publications throughout the 1960s, including Swank, True Action, and Male. Under the alias Mario Cleri, he produced adventure stories about World War II for True Action.
He released the novel The Godfather, which would go on to become his best-known work, in 1969. It was a crime book that chronicled a New York City-based Mafia family.
The author was accused of basing the book on his personal experiences, but he refuted the claims.
Within a two-year period, “The Godfather” went on to become a hit and sell over nine million copies.
Francis Ford Coppola, inspired by the book’s popularity, decided to team up with Puzo to turn the book into a movie.
The script for the 1972 movie The Godfather was co-written by Mario Puzo and Coppola. Puzo and Coppola won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, and the movie ended up being the highest-grossing movie of 1972.
Coppola and Puzo once again worked together on the second entry in The Godfather movie series, spurred on by the popularity of the first entry, The Godfather.
The Godfather Part II, which was released in 1974 and outperformed its predecessor, is regarded as one of the best movies of all time.
Midway through 1972, Mario Puzo finished the first draught of the screenplay for the catastrophe movie Earthquake, but he was unable to finish it.
The project was then taken over by George Fox, and the movie was released in 1974. Puzo was given credit in the finished movie.
The original Superman movie script, written by Mario Puzo, included a sequel’s storyline. The movie was released in 1978 and became the second-highest grossing release of the year as a result of its critical and economic success.
Additionally, he made significant contributions to the screenplays for the movies The Cotton Club and A Time to Die (1982). (1984).
Mario Puzo released his book The Fourth K in 1990. It was a fictitious story of a Kennedy family member who was elected president of the United States in the early 2000s.
Despite being a commercial flop, Puzo nevertheless had a soft spot for the book.
His latter two books, The Family and Omerta, were not yet published when he passed away. In the early 2000s, several novels were released after the authors’ deaths.
What is Mario Puzo famous for?
Mario Puzo was an Italian American author and screenwriter. He was the author of the best-selling novel The Godfather, which is considered to be one of the most famous novels in the world.
His cleverly written works of crime fiction and Italian mafia fiction are largely responsible for his rise to stardom.
Where is Mario Puzo buried?
Grave Marker for the Famous American Author Mario Puzo (Godfather). Puzo passed away at his home on Manor Lane in West Bay Shore, Long Island, New York, due to complications related to heart failure.
He was laid to rest in New York’s West Babylon Cemetery, which is located in West Babylon.
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Conclusion
Author of the classic novel “The Godfather,” Mario Puzo is best recognised for his work. In it, a fictitious Mafia family residing in New York City is the focus of the narrative.
Over nine million copies of the book were sold in just two years, and it remained on The New York Times Best Seller list for 67 consecutive weeks. After some time, it was turned into a movie franchise with the same name.
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