By Lee Pfeiffer
Popular crooner Al Martino has passed away at age 82. No cause of death has yet been released. Although primarily known for singing love songs, Martino gained immortality on the screen as
The Godfather's Johnny Fontaine, the down-in-the-dumps singer whose career is revived when Don Corleone makes a film producer an offer he can't refuse to give Johnny the starring role in a war movie. The character was said to have been based on Frank Sinatra, whose career followed a similar trajectory and was revived with his Oscar winning performance in a war movie -
From Here to Eternity. The similarities resulted in Sinatra having to contend with an untrue urban legend - that he got the part in the film by having gangsters cut off the head of a race horse belonging to a Columbia Pictures mogul. In fact, that part was pure fiction invented by the novelist Mario Puzo. Nevertheless, when casting for the part of Fontaine was taking place, Sinatra exerted pressure on several would-be contenders not to take the role. Martino, who had a hit with the title theme from
The Godfather, revived the role of Johnny Fontaine in
The Godfather Part III. For more
click here
