After the betrayers-topic, I just asked myself what the cause of mama Corleones death was.

According to the dvd timeline she was born in 1897, and died in 1958. That makes her 61 years old when she dies. Thats not really a high age. Did I miss something or did she have some kind of desease? Because otherwise I think it's strange to die at such a young age.

I don't think it's all too unordinary. Look at the year she was to have died - 1958. The life expectancy was nowhere near what it is today - I think that's where you're not seeing the reasonableness of dying at 61 in those times. The wonders of medicine still had many breakthroughs to come. In addition, she was a large woman - it could have been heart disease from a poor diet.

She died from a bad pear her husband had given her 40 years earlier.

Seriously though, I suspect her stressful lifestyle added to her quick demise. With the possible exception of Connie, none of the Corleones lived a long life*:

Vito died at age 63
Sonny died at age 32
Fredo died at age 40
Mike died at age 77

* all ages approximate within a year

Well Vito died at an older age then Carmella then. I just thought it's strange, a woman who lives shorter than her husband. Vito died of a stroke, but it's not mentioned what caused Carmella's death.

I was just curious.

I always thought of that timeline with absolute distrust. And here's the proof! The book says that at the age of 19 Vito married a girl of 16 years old. She was 3 years younger than him.

The book and the movie's timelines are very diffrent, even the book and the book's timelines are very diffrent,and I have no idea who came up w/ the DVD timeline/family tree/whatever you want to call it.

She probably spent too much time sitting by that fireplace. Fumes must've gotten to her....

On the other hand, perhaps the old broad was lingering a bit too long and Michael had her killed so he could go ahead and get Fredo's whacking overwith.



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I believe that Mama Corleone died of "Natural Causes."


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I think Anthony killed her. She yelled at him for spraying too much water on her tomatoes, so he whacked her on the head with the spray can.

It must have been Connie's Cooking

I think mama died because she was so miserable without her husband. When Vito was alive she was spoiled and ran the family but once he died, she was just there, left to live in the small guest house. There was no one to spoil her with pears.
She was so sad that there would no longer be Sunday family dinners and she probably hated Kay's meatloaf.

Agreed.

A broken heart

Connie had her whacked. It was the beginning of her "fearsome" side. Mama Corleone was very curt with her at the beginning. Connie isn't someone to wait online to see her brother. She's a Corleone, dammit! It was Connie.

Mike said he would not kill Fredo untill the mother was dead. But when he said that the mother was not sick. There was no mention of her being ill. So how long would mike have waited to kill Fredo? What if the momther had lived another 20 years? Would Mike have waited? MAybe he thought the mother would live a long time and he would not have to kill Fredo. Am I right or did they mention the mother being sick and I just missed it. And she looked like she was in her 80's not 60's. I understand the timeline but they made her look really older then she was. I understand that back then most Italian women after losing there husbands kind of let themselves go and almost wanted to die but she looked pretty banged up.

I thought Mama Corleone looked good for age. I didn't think she looked like she was in her 80's.

That's a good (and new) question.

Michael's statement to Neri makes sense if Mama was sick at the time, but she looked pretty healthy at Anthony's party, not very long before her death.

Ah but you never know with you old timers when you're about to pop your clogs.

Well gee Turi, that's a nice thought

I may be an old timer, but I'm not expecting to "pop" my "clogs" anytime soon.

As someone previously posted - a broken heart. She outlived her murdered son, obviously knew about the murder of her son-in-law, the father of her grandchild, the murder of a long-time trusted almost family member - Tessio, and the death of her husband. To top off all the grief, she witnessed her son's degeneration into a monster killer, something she probably knew her husband did not want for Michael, and as his mother, something she did not want for her son.

I know I listed a response up above but heres a new thought, maybe Mike had his mother wacked so he could kill Fredo.

C'mon now!


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