Tom Hagen
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Tom Hagen | |
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The Godfather character | |
First appearance | The Godfather |
Last appearance | The Godfather's Revenge |
Created by | Mario Puzo |
Portrayed by | Robert Duvall |
In-universe information | |
Gender | Male |
Occupation | Lawyer/Consigliere |
Family | Corleone family |
Spouse | Theresa Hagen |
Children | Frank Hagen Andrew Hagen Christina Hagen Gianna Hagen |
Relatives | Martin/Henry Hagen (father) Bridget Hagen (mother) Unnamed sister Vito Corleone (adopted father) Carmela Corleone (adopted mother) Sonny Corleone (adopted brother) Fredo Corleone (adopted brother) Michael Corleone (adopted brother) Connie Corleone (adopted sister) |
Thomas Hagen is a fictional character in Mario Puzo's 1969 novel The Godfather and Francis Ford Coppola's films The Godfather (1972) and The Godfather Part II (1974). He is portrayed by Robert Duvall in the films.[1] He also appears in the Mark Winegardner sequel novels The Godfather Returns and The Godfather's Revenge, as well as Ed Falco's novel The Family Corleone. Duvall was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and a BAFTA for his performance in the first film.
He operates as the consigliere and as a lawyer for the Corleone family, and is an informally adopted member of the family.
Character overview
Hagen is the informally adopted son of the mafia boss Don Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando). He is a lawyer and the consigliere to the Corleone American mafia family. Logical and gentle, he serves as the voice of reason within the family. The novel and first film establish that he is of German-Irish ancestry.
Vito's eldest son Santino (James Caan) befriends 11-year-old Tom, who was living on the street after running away from an orphanage. When Sonny brings Tom home and demands he be taken in, the Corleone family welcome him as a family member. Hagen considers Vito his true father, although Vito never formally adopts him, believing it would be disrespectful to Hagen's deceased parents.
After
Hagen immerses himself in the Sicilian-American culture and speaks fluent Sicilian. His Northern European appearance, though distracting to the Five Families, is an advantage to his job. He is able to travel and conduct family business in non-Italian circles without potential witnesses noticing him.
While Hagen loves all the Corleones, he is closest to Sonny, and blames himself for Sonny's murder. When Vito semi-retires and his youngest son Michael (Al Pacino) succeeds him as the head of the family, Michael removes Hagen as consigliere, preferring his father informally assume the role; Michael claims Hagen is "not a wartime consigliere". Hagen is hurt, but respects their decision, and begins managing the family's legitimate businesses.
The novel and first film, set in 1945–1955, portray Hagen aiding Vito and Michael in warring against the other ruling New York Mafia families. In The Godfather Part II, set in 1958–1960, Hagen serves as Michael's right-hand man during his power struggle with Hyman Roth (Lee Strasberg). In The Godfather Part III, set in 1979–1980, he is said to have died some years before in an unspecified manner. His role in the story between the second and third films, including his death, is portrayed in Mark Winegardner's sequel novels, The Godfather Returns and The Godfather's Revenge.
Appearances
The Godfather (novel and film)
In both the novel and film, Hagen is introduced as an important member of the Corleone family. As a child he grew up in a broken family, the son of an abusive alcoholic. Sonny Corleone finds the orphaned Hagen living on the street and suffering from an eye infection, takes him home, and asks his parents to take him in. Sonny's father Vito becomes a surrogate father to Hagen, but never officially adopts him out of respect for the boy's biological parents.
In the novel, Hagen asks to work for Vito after graduating from law school, knowing full well that his adoptive father is the most powerful Mafia chief in the nation. Vito is happy to employ Hagen into his empire, having often said that lawyers can steal more than a phalanx of gangsters. Hagen marries an
After Vito's longtime consigliere
When singer Johnny Fontane (
Hagen arranges a meeting between Vito and drug kingpin Virgil Sollozzo (Al Lettieri), who wants Vito to help finance his narcotics business and provide legal protection and political influence. Vito ultimately rejects the deal, however, on the grounds that it would cost him his influence over the judges and police if they knew he was in the drug trade.
Offended at the rejection of his deal, Sollozzo has Vito's personal assassin Luca Brasi (Lenny Montana) murdered, Vito himself shot, and Hagen kidnapped off the street. Sollozzo tells Hagen that Vito is dead, and tasks him with persuading Sonny to make peace and accept his narcotics deal. The meeting is interrupted when Sollozzo receives word that Vito has survived the shooting, ruining Sollozzo's original plan. Hagen tricks Sollozzo into believing that he will broker the narcotics deal with the Corleones, and Sollozzo releases him, unharmed.
Hagen meets with Sonny, Michael, and Corleone caporegimes Peter Clemenza (Richard S. Castellano) and Salvatore Tessio (Abe Vigoda), and advises them that if Vito dies, Sonny should agree to Sollozzo's deal, since the other Mafia families would most likely support Sollozzo to avoid a war.
After Michael thwarts a second assassination attempt on Vito by Sollozzo, he calls the Corleone compound to warn Sonny. Hagen goes to the hospital with private detectives who are licensed to carry firearms to protect Vito and stops
Hagen again acts as an intermediary when Michael's girlfriend
When Sonny is murdered by men working for Vito's chief rival
After Michael returns to the U.S., Vito semi-retires in 1954 and Michael becomes operating head of the family. Michael removes Hagen as consigliere in favor of having Vito fill the position, restricting Hagen to handling the family's legal business in Nevada, Chicago, and Los Angeles. Michael and Vito explain that the Corleones risk inciting a fight with the planned move to Nevada, and they need a "wartime consigliere". Hagen is hurt, but accepts the decision and remains loyal. In truth, Michael and Vito have been secretly planning to wipe out the other New York Dons and establish the Corleone family as the most powerful crime family in the country. In the novel (and in a deleted scene from the film), Hagen notices that bodyguard Rocco Lampone has been secretly promoted to caporegime and hitman Al Neri reports directly to Michael, rather than through Clemenza and Tessio.
After Vito's death, Hagen accompanies Michael to the funeral, where Michael deduces that Tessio has betrayed the family to Barzini. Hagen is present when Tessio is taken away to be executed, and is also present when Carlo Rizzi (Gianni Russo), the abusive husband of Vito's daughter Connie (Talia Shire), is garroted and murdered by Clemenza for his complicity in Sonny's murder.
In the novel, Kay learns that Michael ordered Rizzi's death, and flees to her parents' home in New Hampshire. Michael sends Hagen there to persuade Kay to return. Hagen ultimately risks his own life by "hypothetically" revealing some family secrets to Kay so she can understand Michael's motives.
Sequel films
The Godfather Part II
In The Godfather Part II, Hagen remains Michael's lawyer after their move to Nevada, but his role in the family has been reduced. For instance, he is excluded from the negotiations with Hyman Roth (Lee Strasberg) to legitimize the Corleone family by going into business with Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista. After an attempt is made on Michael's life, Michael realizes he cannot trust anyone in his inner circle. Assuring their fraternal bond and explaining that he withholds information from him out of admiration, Michael proclaims Hagen acting Don while he leaves and attempts to find out who betrayed him.
Hagen later goes to see Senator Pat Geary (
The fall of Batista's regime in Cuba forces Michael to temporarily abandon his plans to become a legitimate businessman, and he resumes his role as the Don of the Corleone family. During the Senate hearings on the Mafia, Hagen is instrumental as the defense when Michael is interrogated. Near the end of the film, Hagen is unable to disguise his displeasure over Michael's increasing ruthlessness and paranoia, questioning the need to kill an already dying Roth. In response, Michael confronts Hagen about his competing job offers, and obliquely threatens to inform Hagen's wife about his mistress. Challenged point blank to confirm his loyalty to the Corleone Family, Hagen responds to Michael (in Italian) that he remains loyal. He dutifully fulfills his role as legal adviser, and also in the consigliere's traditional role as dispassionate family envoy. He gives Frank Pentangeli (Michael V. Gazzo), who had betrayed Michael, the "idea" of committing suicide so that Pentangeli's family will be taken care of, while agreeing with Pentangeli that at one point the Corleone Family "was like the Roman Empire".
In a deleted subplot, Sonny's widow
The Godfather Part III
According to
Hagen was originally intended to have been featured in The Godfather Part III, but was written out due to a salary dispute between Duvall and the film's producers. Coppola stated in the film's commentary that Duvall demanded the same salary as Al Pacino (who portrayed Michael Corleone). However, Duvall said in an interview that he was happy for Pacino to earn twice his salary, but not triple or quadruple it for the same film.[2] Coppola has stated that Part III was to feature a split between Michael and Hagen as its central plot, as seeds of dissension were planted in the first two films.[3][4]
Sequel novels
The Godfather Returns
The novel also portrays Hagen covering up for Michael's brother Fredo when he kills a man in San Francisco, and bailing him out of jail when he attacks his wife's lover. Hagen and Fredo get into an intense argument over Fredo's recklessness and Hagen's blind loyalty to Michael. When Michael has Fredo killed (as originally portrayed in The Godfather Part II), Hagen suspects what really happened, but remains willfully ignorant.
Toward the end of the novel, Hagen personally murders Corleone rival Louie Russo, who conspired with the novel's antagonist, traitorous Corleone caporegime Nick Geraci.
The Godfather's Revenge
In Winegardner's 2006 novel The Godfather's Revenge, Hagen acts as Michael's right-hand man in dealing with the Shea family, especially Attorney General Danny Shea, who publicly declares war on organized crime. When Hagen's longtime mistress, Judy Buchanan, is murdered by thugs working for Don Carlo Tramonti, Hagen becomes a person of interest in the investigation, though he is later cleared of the charges.
In August 1964, Geraci kidnaps Hagen and drowns him in the
The novel also expands on how Hagen became an unofficial member of the Corleone family. Hagen recalls that when he was living on the streets, he saved Sonny Corleone from a pimp who was notorious for raping and murdering boys. Sonny was so grateful that he brought Hagen home to live with his family.
The Family Corleone
Edward Falco's The Family Corleone, which takes place before the events of The Godfather, expands upon Tom Hagen joining the Corleone family crime business and becoming the family's consigliere.
Family
- Vito Corleone – Unofficial adopted father
- Carmela Corleone – Unofficial adopted mother
- Santino, Michael, Fredo, and Connie Corleone – Unofficial adopted siblings
- Theresa Hagen – Wife
- Frank and Andrew Hagen – Sons. Frank is played by an uncredited Lou Martini Jr.
- Christina and Gianna Hagen – Daughters
- Martin/Henry Hagen – Father
- Bridget Hagen – Mother
- Unnamed sister
See also
References
- ^ "The Godfather (1972)". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times. 2014. Archived from the original on April 18, 2014. Retrieved June 24, 2014.
- ^ "Robert Duvall". Comxa.com. Archived from the original on January 26, 2014.
- ^ Zachary, Brandon (August 4, 2022). "The Godfather Part III Almost Focused on a True Corleone Civil War". CBR.com. Retrieved January 20, 2023.
- ^ Uytdewilligen, Ryan (April 17, 2022). "What If The Godfather: Part III Had Starred Duvall's Hagen". Screen Rant. Retrieved January 20, 2023.
- The New York Post. Retrieved January 20, 2023.