11 Best Recast Movie Roles Of All Time
2. Robert De Niro As Vito Corleone
Upon release in 1972, The Godfather was showered with unanimous praise. It was nominated for a then record-breaking eleven Academy Awards, taking home three of them, including Best Picture. One of the other Oscars it took home was for Marlon Brando's iconic performance as Vito Corleone. Brando's take on the all-powerful lord of crime was menacing, heartfelt, and poignant, leading all the way up to the character's death.
Which is why it must have seemed utterly insane to everyone back in 1974 when the Godfather Part II was released and Coppola had cast a then practically-unheard-of actor to play a young Vito Corleone. But crazily enough, that young actor just happened to be Robert De Niro, and his performance was so great that it rivaled Brando's own.
De Niro steered clear of Brando's performance in the first film and instead did something completely new and different. With decades between the roles, De Niro was able to play Corleone as a young immigrant coming to America for the first time and learning what it takes to survive, planting the seeds for the man he would grow to become.
De Niro was so good that when Godfather Part II was also nominated for eleven Academy Awards, one of the ones it took home was a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for De Niro, marking the first and only time two actors both won Oscars for the same role.