Mario Puzo

Mario Puzo
Puzo in 1972
Born	Mario Francis Puzo (1920-10-15)October 15, 1920 New York City, New York, U.S.
Died	July 2, 1999(1999-07-02) (aged 78) West Bay Shore, New York, U.S.
Pen name	Mario Cleri
Occupation	Novelist screenwriter journalist
Period	1955–1999
Genre	Crime fiction
Subject	Mafia
Notable works	The Godfather (1969)
Spouse	Erika Puzo ​ ​ (m. 1946; died 1978)​
Partner	Carol Gino
Children	5
Signature
Website
mariopuzo.com

Mario Francis Puzo (/ˈpuːzoʊ/; Italian: [ˈmaːrjo ˈputtso, -ddzo]; October 15, 1920 – July 2, 1999) was an American author and screenwriter. He wrote crime novels about the Italian-American Mafia and Sicilian Mafia, most notably The Godfather (1969), which he later co-adapted into a film trilogy directed by Francis Ford Coppola. He received the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for the first film in 1972 and for Part II in 1974. Puzo also wrote the original screenplay for the 1978 Superman film and its 1980 sequel. His final novel, The Family, was released posthumously in 2001.^[1]