The Godfather actress and jazz singer Morgana King has died aged 87.
She played Carmela Corleone – the wife of Marlon Brando’s Don Vito – in the first two Godfather films, alongside a Grammy-nominated jazz career.
King passed away from cancer on 22 March at her home in Palm Springs, California, the Riverside County coroner’s office confirmed.
Her death had gone unreported until her friend John Hoglund posted a public message of condolence.
Paying tribute on Facebook he said that while “many will remember her as Marlon Brando’s wife and Al Pacino’s mother,” King was also a “major part” of the jazz scene.
Born in New York to Italian parents, her father – a self-taught musician – died when she was 11, leaving her to be raised by her mother in the Bronx and attend James Munroe High School.
King’s singing career began when she performed in clubs throughout her teenage years.
Respected by her peers, King went on to perform in Las Vegas and around the country as well as on television on The Tonight Show, Playboy After Dark and The Hollywood Palace.
A Grammy nomination for her 1964 hit single A Taste of Honey marked the commercial peak of her five-decade, 20-album career.
As rock’n’ roll came to dominate the charts, King got her theatrical break in The Godfather after meeting with the trilogy’s director Francis Ford Coppola.
The crime saga, starring Marlon Brando and Al Pacino as mafia kingpins of the Corleone family, won three Oscars and remains one of the most critically-revered series of all time.
Her portrayal of ‘Mama’ Carmela, Vito’s long-suffering wife in 1972’s opening instalment, featured virtually no spoken lines, but saw her take centre stage during its memorable wedding scene, singing the Italian song Luna Mezz’o Mare.
