As we continue our 80 Day Countdown to the 80th anniversary Golden Globes show, we are going back in time this week to 1973, when The Godfather celebrated seven Golden Globe nominations and five wins, including Best Actor Marlon Brando, Best Director Francis Ford Coppola and Best Motion Picture – Drama.

In our new podcast, HFPA member Silvia Bizio sat down for an exclusive interview with colorful actor Gianni Russo, who played Carlo Rizzi in the first and second Godfather films. We look back on the origin story of the classic franchise and how much the mob was really involved behind the scenes.

We also explore the extraordinary life of Gianni Russo, who started out as a Sicilian mobster who lost his virginity to Marilyn Monroe and ended up as a pivotal player in bringing The Godfather to the screen by using the mob to extort the studio into giving him a major role and then ending up with the rights to the Corleone brand for life.

As we also celebrate the 50^th anniversary of that film, you will be shocked and delighted as you hear for the first time Russo’s unbelievable true confessions that are almost more entertaining than any film and – Russo is quick to point out – not included in the ‘making of The Godfather’ series The Offer which he describes as an ‘alternate reality.’