Frank Puglia more often played evil Latinos than Italians.

I bought a multi-tape VHS set of the Trilogy ca. 1990. Each tape had an intro. In the GF intro, Puzo said he'd heard that Danny Thomas was planning to buy Paramount Studios so he could play Vito. (!) "I was kinda disturbed by that," said Puzo (master of understatement). He said he wanted Brando, so his agent got Brando's home address. Puzo sent him the script. Brando replied, saying he was interested, but would wait until the director was announced.