Mario Puzo, (born October 15, 1920, New York, New York, U.S.—died July 2, 1999, Bay Shore, New York), American novelist and screenwriter who chronicled a fictional Mafia family, the Corleones, in The Godfather (1969), which became one of the most successful novels ever—selling some 21 million copies worldwide, spawning three critically and financially successful motion pictures, and placing its characters into the contemporary American cultural mythology.