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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.

Significance

Kay and Connie Corleone are the only female characters who are well-represented in The Godfather media. In the opening wedding scene of The Godfather, Kay is the only female character who "speaks more than a few lines, and she only then asks questions", which serve as a means to provide exposition about the male members of the family who dominate the story. Kay is described as "the ultimate outsider in the Corleone household", and it has been noted that "Coppola needs to present her as clueless about her husband's Mafia activities and ask questions that no Mafia wife would ask—because she would know the answers". Nevertheless, she marries Michael, even after he disappears for over a year during his family's gang war with other mafia families.

Kay's character arc across films has been described as "plausible", portraying her initial concern, and then increasing estrangement from Michael Corleone, as she confronts the moral and emotional toll of his criminal empire. In The Godfather Part II, her alienation intensifies as she challenges Michael's loyalty to the family's Sicilian traditions and ultimately separates from him after revealing her abortion of their child. By The Godfather Part III, Kay is remarried, and more aggressively confronts Michael over his hypocrisy while seeking to shield their children from his influence. Their fleeting attempt at reconciliation is permanently shattered by the violence inherent in Michael's life. The conclusion of her character arc in the first Godfather film differs from that of the novel, in which she converts to Roman Catholicism and begins to partake in the same rituals of seeking absolution for her husband's sins as Michael's mother seeks for Vito Corleone.

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. Kay sits behind Michael, supporting him while he testifies during a Senate investigation into his business activities. 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 from the family. When Kay comes to visit the children later in the film, Connie tries to hurry her out before Michael returns home, but Michael sees her standing at the back door trying to get their son to give her a kiss before she leaves; Michael closes the door on her.

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. One report noted that "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".

References

1. ^ Raymond Angelo Belliotti, The Godfather and Sicily: Power, Honor, Family, and Evil (2021), p. 204-5.
2. Paul Loukides, Linda K. Fuller, Beyond the Stars: Plot conventions in American popular film (1991), p. 13.
3. Joel R. Campbell, Politics Go to the Movies: International Relations and Politics in Genre Films and Television (2022), p. 100.
4. The Godfather DVD Collection documentary A Look Inside, .
5. ^ "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

• Diane Keaton: Kay Adams on IMDb

• The Godfather characters
• Characters in American novels of the 20th century
• Characters in American novels of the 21st century
• Literary characters introduced in 1969
• Female characters in literature
• Female characters in film
• Cultural depictions of the Mafia
• Fictional victims of domestic abuse
• Fictional characters from the 20th century
• Film characters introduced in 1972