Many believe the best scene in the 1972 classic film, The Godfather, is when Michael Corleone (Al Pacino), Virgil Sollozzo (Al Lettieri) and New York City Police Captain McCluskey (Sterling Hayden) are having a dinner meeting at Louis Italian American Restaurant in the Bronx. While McCluskey is there as security for Sollozzo, the other two are discussing (in Italian) a business relationship going forward, at least that's what Sollozzo thinks.
Michael takes a bathroom break and finds the gun planted there by a member of his crime family. He returns to the table and shortly thereafter shoots Sollozzo in the head, killing him instantly.
Michael then turns to McCluskey, who is momentarily stunned. Michael shoots him once in the neck and once in the head. McCluskey falls forward dead, tipping over their table, while Michael drops the gun and walks out of the restaurant.
Sterling Hayden was born in 1916 in Upper Montclair, New Jersey. As a young man, he worked on ships which sailed around the world.
A photo of Hayden taken as a young man wound up on a magazine cover. This led Paramount Pictures to offer him a screen test and then a seven-year contract to act in their movies.
Some of his other memorable films are The Asphalt Jungle (1950), a crime drama with Sam Jaffe and Marilyn Monroe, Johnny Guitar (1954), a western with Joan Crawford and Ernest Borgnine, The Killing (1956), another crime drama with Coleen Gray and Vince Edwards and Dr. Strangelove (1964), a black comedy with Peter Sellers and George C. Scott.
Sadly, Sterling Hayden died of prostate cancer May 23, 1986 at age 70 (35 years ago today). Let's use his memory as a reminder for men to get their prostates checked annually.
I was so glad he got shot at that table, because he had had his thuggish Irish officers hold Mike so he could punch him and break his jaw. Screw him, and screw Sterling Hayden (LOL!)
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