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Katherine "Kay" Corleone (née Adams) is a fictional character in The Godfather series, created by author Mario Puzo. She is portrayed by Diane Keaton in The Godfather (1972), The Godfather Part II (1974), and The Godfather Part III (1990), all directed by Francis Ford Coppola.

Before their divorce, she is the second wife of Michael Corleone. She is also the mother of Anthony and Mary Corleone. She has an abortion while pregnant with the couple's prospective second son. In contrast to most of the characters in the novel and films, Kay Adams is from a well-to-do White Anglo-Saxon Protestant family.

The Godfather (1972)

In 1945, the New York City Corleone family don, Vito Corleone, listens to requests during his daughter Connie's wedding to Carlo Rizzi. At the reception, Vito's youngest son Michael, a Marine who has thus far stayed out of the family business, introduces Kay to his family as his girlfriend. After an attempt on Vito Corleone's life, Michael kills two of the men responsible, and Michael flees to Sicily. Kay reaches out to Michael's family during his absence, and after the dispute is settled, Michael returns home to enter the family business and marry Kay. Despite her reservations, she marries Michael, believing his assurances that he will lead the family to abandon its criminal activities. Kay gives birth to two children in the early 1950s, and Michael becomes head of the Corleone family. Kay later joins Michael at Vito Corleone's funeral, and at the baptism of Connie's baby. Shortly after, Carlo Rizzi, who had betrayed the family, is murdered on Michael's orders, and Connie later confronts Michael about his involvement in Carlo's death while Kay is in the room. Kay asks Michael if he ordered Carlo's death and is relieved when he denies responsibility. As she leaves, she sees capos enter the office and pay reverence to Michael as "Don Corleone".

The Godfather Part II (1974)

In 1958, Kay lives with Michael at his Lake Tahoe compound. Kay is frightened when Michael narrowly escapes an assassination attempt. After Michael uncovers the source of the threat, he returns home, where Hagen tells Michael that his Kay has miscarried in a third pregnancy. Later, during a heated argument, Kay tells Michael that she had an abortion and intends to leave him and take their children. Michael strikes her in rage and banishes her alone.

The Godfather Part III (1990)

In 1979, Michael and Kay are divorced; their children Anthony and Mary live with Kay. At a reception in Michael's honor at St. Patrick's Old Cathedral that follows a papal order induction ceremony, Anthony tells his father that he is leaving law school to become an opera singer. Kay supports Anthony's decision, while Michael eventually agrees to let him go his own way. Kay reveals to Michael that she and Anthony know the truth about Michael's involvement in the death of Michael's brother Fredo.

After Michael survives another attempt on his life, the family, including Kay, goes to Sicily for Anthony's operatic debut in Palermo at the Teatro Massimo. While Michael and Kay tour Sicily, Michael asks for Kay's forgiveness, and they admit that they still love each other. The family sees Anthony's performance in Cavalleria rusticana in Palermo. After the show, on the opera house steps as they leave, an assassin shoots at Michael, wounding him; but a second bullet hits Mary, killing her. A distraught Kay watches as Michael cradles Mary's body and screams in agony.

Casting

Coppola cast Diane Keaton for the role of Kay Adams owing to her reputation for being eccentric. Keaton read with both James Caan and Martin Sheen before Al Pacino was finally confirmed for the role of Michael.

Keaton was 26 when The Godfather was released. A young actress with a few credits to her name at the time, Keaton said she always felt like an outsider in the movie—a similarity she shared with Kay, who is literally left with a door closing in her face at the end of the first film. ("The door did close on my face," Keaton said of how The Godfather’s iconic final shot came together.)<ref name="Vanity Fair">

References

1. The Godfather DVD Collection documentary A Look Inside, .
2. "Diane Keaton Dismissed 'The Godfather Part III.' Then She Saw the New Version". Vanity Fair. December 1, 2020. Archived from the original on May 29, 2023. Retrieved January 4, 2024.

External links

• Kay Adams Corleone on IMDb