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60 free The Godfather trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
51 free The Godfather trivia questions with answers. Paramount wanted The Godfather set in modern Kansas City, wanted Robert Redford as Michael, and thought Marlon Brando was box-office poison. This quiz covers how the greatest gangster film ever made got made anyway, and what is actually in it: the horse's head, Luca Brasi's fish, Sonny at the toll booth, Apollonia in Sicily, the baptism, Tessio's betrayal, and the offer he can't refuse. It then moves on to Part II (young Vito, Fanucci, Lake Tahoe, Hyman Roth, Fredo on the lake, six Oscars) and Part III (Winona Ryder's exit, Andy García, the Vatican deal, the Teatro Massimo, the 2020 Coda recut), with detours into Mario Puzo's novel, Nino Rota's disqualified score and Sacheen Littlefeather at the Oscars. It starts with questions any movie fan can answer and works up to the production trivia that only obsessives know: which two roles Coppola fired pre-emptively, what car Sonny was driving, and which Sicilian towns played Corleone. Every answer has been checked against the Wikipedia articles on the three films, the novel and the characters, and each question shows its source. Ideal for a movie quiz night.
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Q 01Who directed The Godfather (1972)?
Francis Ford Coppola
He initially turned it down as sleazy; debts from THX 1138 changed his mind, and Evans later tried to have Kazan replace him.
Q 02Who wrote the 1969 novel on which the film is based?
Mario Puzo
He was paid $80,000 for the rights and, by his own account, needed $10,000 urgently to pay off gambling debts.
Q 03Who plays Don Vito Corleone?
Marlon Brando
Paramount resisted him; Coppola snuck a screen test, in which Brando stuffed his cheeks with tissue, into the middle of a pile of audition tapes.
Q 04Which actor did Paramount want for Michael Corleone before settling on Al Pacino?
Robert Redford
Warren Beatty, Alain Delon and Ryan O'Neal were also floated; Jack Nicholson turned it down saying an Italian-American should play it.
Q 05Which film convinced Evans and Ruddy to accept Pacino as Michael, if James Caan played Sonny?
The Panic in Needle Park
Caan replaced Carmine Caridi, who had already been cast, partly because he was several inches shorter and better matched Pacino.
Q 06Which actor, originally cast as Paulie Gatto, left The Godfather and later won an Oscar as young Vito in Part II?
Robert De Niro
He also read for Sonny; Pacino's departure from the other film opened the slot De Niro took.
Q 07Which singer, warned off by Frank Sinatra, ended up playing crooner Johnny Fontane?
Al Martino
Damone had been given the role first but dropped it, not wanting to provoke the mob and unhappy with the pay.
Q 08What was the name of the racehorse whose severed head ends up in Jack Woltz's bed?
Khartoum
A real horse's head was used, obtained from a dog-food plant; the $600,000 stallion persuades Woltz to cast Fontane.
Q 09Vito Corleone is gunned down after refusing to protect which drug baron's narcotics business?
Virgil Sollozzo
Sollozzo has the Tattaglias behind him; Michael later kills him and the corrupt Captain McCluskey in a restaurant.
Q 10Which former wrestler and Colombo family enforcer plays Luca Brasi?
Lenny Montana
His nervous, flubbed rehearsal of the birthday speech was written into the film; the fish wrapped in his vest means he 'sleeps with the fishes'.
Q 11Which real-life mobster is Las Vegas casino boss Moe Greene based on?
Bugsy Siegel
Alex Rocco played him; he is shot through the eye on a massage table during the baptism montage.
Q 12Sonny Corleone is ambushed and machine-gunned where?
At a highway toll booth
The scene was shot on a runway at Mitchel Field on Long Island, using a 1941 Lincoln Continental pre-drilled with bullet holes.
Q 13What make of car is Sonny driving when he is killed?
A 1941 Lincoln Continental
The shoot took three days and reportedly cost over $100,000.
Q 21Which Italian composer wrote the score, including the Love Theme?
Nino Rota
Robert Evans thought it too highbrow; Rota lifted part of it from his 1958 score for Fortunella, which cost him an Oscar nomination.
Q 22Rota's Oscar nomination for the score was withdrawn because he had reused music from which 1958 film?
Fortunella
A re-ballot gave the slot to John Addison's Sleuth; Rota won for Part II two years later.
Q 23Which three Oscars did The Godfather win at the 1973 ceremony?
Best Picture, Best Actor and Adapted Screenplay
Q 14Who does Michael marry while hiding in Sicily?
Apollonia Vitelli
She is killed by a car bomb meant for him; the actress, Simonetta Stefanelli, was 16 during filming.
Q 15In the climactic montage, Michael is godfather at whose baptism while his enemies are murdered?
Connie's newborn son
The infant is played by Coppola's own daughter Sofia; Bach's Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor plays over the killings.
Q 16Which caporegime betrays Michael by arranging a meeting with Barzini, and is led away to be killed?
Salvatore Tessio
Abe Vigoda played him; 'Tell Mike it was only business' is his farewell.
Q 17Coppola gave the role of Connie Corleone to which family member?
His sister Talia Shire
His father Carmine plays the piano-playing extra and wrote extra music; baby Sofia is the christened infant.
Q 18Which mob-linked group pressured The Godfather's producers to drop the words 'Mafia' and 'Cosa Nostra'?
The Italian-American Civil Rights League
Joseph Colombo led it; the script had used 'mafia' only twice anyway, and producer Al Ruddy became an honorary league captain.
Q 19Paramount originally wanted the film set in the present day in which Midwestern location, shot on the backlot?
Kansas City
Coppola insisted on the 1940s and 50s and on location shooting in New York and Sicily, and won as the novel's sales grew.
Q 20Which cinematographer, the 'Prince of Darkness', shot the film in underexposed amber?
Gordon Willis
He first turned it down as chaotic, then agreed with Coppola to use no zoom lenses or helicopters and a tableau format.
It had 11 nominations, including Pacino, Caan and Duvall all for Supporting Actor; Pacino skipped the ceremony, feeling he should have been up for lead.
Q 24Who did Brando send to the Oscars to decline his Best Actor award?
Sacheen Littlefeather
He was protesting Hollywood's portrayal of Native Americans and the Wounded Knee standoff; after her 2022 death her sisters said she had no Native ancestry.
Q 25Brando was not the first actor to decline a Best Actor Oscar. Who had done it in 1971?
George C. Scott
Scott had refused for Patton, calling the ceremony a 'meat parade'.
Q 26Roughly how much did The Godfather gross worldwide, making it for a time the highest-grossing film ever?
$250 to $291 million
It reached $101 million after 18 weeks at number one, then the fastest ever; ticket prices in New York were hiked to $4.
Q 27What was the film's budget after Coppola won his fights with the studio?
About $6 million
Paramount originally offered $2.5 million; costs ran to about $40,000 a day amid Coppola's clashes with executives.
Q 28Which Staten Island neighbourhood provided the Corleone compound and wedding location?
Todt Hill
About 750 locals were extras; roughly 90% of the film was shot in and around New York City at over 120 locations.
Q 29Which two Sicilian towns stood in for Corleone in the film?
Savoca and Forza d'Agrò
The real Corleone was judged too developed; Bar Vitelli in Savoca is where Michael asks for Apollonia's hand.
Q 30Which 1990 honour did the movie receive from the Library of Congress?
Selection for the National Film Registry
It was in the registry's second-ever class; AFI later ranked it the second-greatest American film.