How the Stars of The Offer Compare to Their Real-Life Counterparts

The Godfather producer Al Ruddy is the focus of this story, and series creator Michael Tolkin spent time interviewing Ruddy before starting work on The Offer. In fact, 92-year-old Ruddy serves as an executive producer on the show.

“What sealed it for me was when Al said, ‘Every day of making The Godfather was the worst day in my life,’ and that told me we had a show,” Tolkin said. “For every character in the film, getting it made or stopping it from being made was at the core of their actions, and it was a matter of life and death to them. So that’s not a gangster story, that’s a human story. That’s what gave the book and the movie so much power. Everyone is fighting for their existence.”

Paramount Studios chief Robert Evans, who passed away in 2019, is known for Rosemary’s Baby, Love Story, Chinatown, and, of course, The Godfather. As Evans said in 2002, “We didn’t strive for commercial. We went for original. We fell on our asses on some of them, but we also touched magic.”

Director Francis Ford Coppola’s legacy is intertwined with The Godfather series. Coppola, born into an Italian immigrant family, was not Paramount’s first choice to direct the film and disagreed with the studio over casting (particularly of Marlon Brando and Al Pacino), but now, it’s impossible to imagine the film (and its sequels) without Coppola at the helm.

Gulf+Western executive Charles Bluhdorn was called “The Mad Austrian of Wall Street.” Born in Vienna, Austria, he immigrated to New York at age 16, and climbed his way up the corporate ladder. He was chairman of Gulf and Western, Paramount’s parent company, as they made The Godfather, and decisions ultimately laid with him. He died of a heart attack at age 56 in 1983. The Godfather Part III is dedicated to him.

Joseph Colombo Sr. was the boss (er, the Godfather?) of the Colombo Crime Family—one of the infamous Five Families of the Italian American mafia in New York. He created the Italian-American Civil Rights League in 1970, and was the representative of the Five Families who met with Ruddy around the production of the Godfather.

When Ruddy agreed to remove any mentions of “mafia” from the script, Colombo offered his full support. During the filming of The Godfather, he was shot at a rally and paralyzed. He died seven years later at age 54.

Mario Puzo was the son of Italian immigrants, and published The Godfather—his best-known novel, by far—in 1969. He worked with Coppola on the screenplay for the film, and collaborated on both sequels. He died at age 78 in 1999.