9 Insulting Ways Characters Were Killed Off Between Movies

5. Peter Has A Heart Attack (Because His Actor Wanted To Write Dialogue) - The Godfather Part 2

There have been plenty of characters killed off between movies because an actor pissed off a director, writers or producer. Blofeld in Bond might be the biggest example, where a rift between the performer and the studio resulted in the villain returning for a sequel, played by a body double, only to be dropped down a chimney in the opening prologue, as a direct f*** you.

Something similar happened on The Godfather Part 2, albeit in a slightly subtler way. Peter Clemenza is depicted as being one of Don Corleone's oldest friends in original crime classic, but he's suspiciously absent in the sequel, succeeded by Frank Pentangeli. His demise gets a throwaway line, with it being reported he suffered a heart attack, but that it might have been foul play.

He's barely mentioned again, and that's because his swift exit was actually down to a rift between the actor, Richard Castellano and Paramount Pictures. Castellano apparently wanted to write his own dialogue, and refused to gain weight for the sequel, which resulted in him butting heads with Francis Ford Coppola and being shunted from the project completely. The script was rewritten, and Clemenza was killed off.