3. Richard S. Castellano - The Godfather Part II

Trivia factoid: Richard S. Castellano received the highest salary of any actor to appear in The Godfather. That's hard to believe given the phenomenal cast of the film but let's not forget that Marlon Brando was considered more or less washed up, Al Pacino was a complete unknown, and Robert Duvall and James Caan were hardly household names at the time. Add the fact that Castellano had received an Academy Award nomination for his role in Lovers and Other Strangers in 1970 and maybe his salary was not surprising. But when it came to The Godfather Part II, the producers were unwilling to give in to Castellano's new demands. In addition to a salary increase, Castellano wanted complete creative control over the Clemenza character, including having his wife Ardell Sheridan, who also played Clemenza's wife, write the character's dialogue. This was unacceptable to director Francis Ford Coppola. Instead the character was written out of the script (Clemenza having died between films) and replaced with a new character Frank Pentangeli. Sheridan, however, later stated that Castellano refused to regain the 50 pounds required to play the role, and Coppola replaced him. I guess no Clemenza was better than a non-Fat Clemenza. Luckily for audiences, Michael Gazzo was brilliant in his Oscar-nominated performance as Frank Pentangeli.