Mario Puzo

Author / Screenwriter

1 title

Date of Birth: 1920-10-15 (Passed away at age 78)
Nationality: United States
Place of birth: New York City, New York, USA

Awards:

He adapted the novel into a film trilogy with director Francis Ford Coppola, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay in 1972 and 1974.

Mini Bio

Mario Gianluigi Puzo (October 15, 1920 – July 2, 1999) was an American author and screenwriter, known for his novels about the Mafia, including The Godfather (1969). He also co-wrote the screenplays for the first two Christopher Reeves Superman films (1978 and 1980).

Backstage

In the 1950s and 1960s he worked at Magazine Management which was owned by Martin Goodman, whose company also owned Timely Comics, which later became known as Marvel Comics. He decided to try his hand at writing a comic book, but told Stan Lee that he couldn't meet the monthly deadlines. Stan Lee had the opposite problem: he could work under pressure to produce a monthly comic, but didn't have the discipline to write a novel. While Puzo became better known for writing novels, he did eventually succeed in the comic book genre by writing the first two Superman films.
He had five children: Anthony, Joseph, Dorothy Ann Puzo, Virginia and Eugene.
Biography in: "American National Biography". Supplement 1, pp. 494-496.
Met his wife Erika Lina Broeske while stationed with the United States Army Occupation Forces in Germany during 1946. He brought her to America on the SS Salvador Brau on 21 December 1947.
Sold his book "The Mafia", retitled "The Godfather" to Paramount Pictures to pay a $10,000 gambling debt.

Movies

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