Salvatore Maranzano - Popular Culture

Popular Culture

• Maranzano plays a small fictionalized role in Mario Puzo's The Godfather. Maranzano refused Don Vito Corleone's proposal to share his monopoly on gambling in New York City, in exchange for police and political contacts and expansion into Brooklyn and the Bronx. Maranzano arranged for two of Al Capone's gunmen to come to New York and finish Corleone. Through his contacts in Chicago, Corleone found out, and sent Luca Brasi to murder the gunmen. With Capone out of the picture, the great mob war of 1933 had begun. Desperate for peace, Maranzano agreed to a sit down in a restaurant in Brooklyn, where he was killed by Salvatore Tessio and his men. Afterwards, Corleone called a meeting to reorganize the American Mafia, something that the real life Maranzano did.
• In the 1972 film The Valachi Papers, Maranzano is portrayed by Joseph Wiseman.
• In the 1990 film Mobsters, Maranzano is portrayed by Michael Gambon, but is known as 'Faranzano'.
• In the 1999 film Lansky, Maranzano is portrayed by Ron Gilbert.
• In the 1999 Lifetime movie Bonanno: A Godfather's Story, Maranzano is portrayed by Edward James Olmos.
• In the 2011 Torchwood episode "Immortal Sins", Maranzano is portrayed by Cris D'Annunzio.