Don?s dilemma: Brando in The Godfather

Los Angeles, Feb. 2 (Reuters): Marlon Brando repeatedly rejected playing the role of Don Corleone in The Godfather, telling an assistant: ?It?s about the mafia. I won?t glorify the mafia,? according to an article in the new issue of Vanity Fair released yesterday.

In the magazine?s annual Hollywood issue, novelist and Brando?s longtime friend Budd Schulberg said the actor?s assistant, Alice Marchak, begged him to read the book.

Schulberg, who wrote the screenplay for On the Waterfront, one of Brando?s most famous films, said at one point, the actor threw the book at her, saying, ?For the last time, I won?t glorify the mafia!?

But Schulberg said that by some magic, the next time Marchak showed up, Brando had used an eyebrow pencil to draw a little mustache on himself and said, ?How do I look??

Each time she went to see Brando, Marchak told Schulberg, he was wearing a different mafia-don mustache.

Despite his initial reservations, Brando obviously had a change of heart. But Paramount studio executives objected to Brando playing the role and demanded he take a screen test. Brando obliged. The role revived his career.