Born in the tough New York neighbourhood of Hell's Kitchen on Manhattan's West Side, Puzo wrote several other novels chronicling organised crime families, including The Sicilian (1984) and The Last Don (1996) which was made into a hit 1997 television miniseries. ``He had a great life. It's the true American immigrant success story, and it's reflected in his books,'' Jon Karp, Puzo's editor at Random House, told Reuters.

But it was 1969's The Godfather, which sold more than 21 million copies, with which Puzo would always be associated, although the author said he wished he had ``written it better... I wrote below mygifts.'' Still, the saga of the Corleone family become one of the best-selling books of all time, and the films The Godfather and The Godfather Part II both won the Best Picture academy award. The first film also won a best actor Oscar for Marlon Brando, whose portrayal of Don Corleone became one of his trademark roles.

It was a casting decision for which Puzo took partial credit. ``That was my suggestion,'' he told Larry King on CNN in an interview to promote The Last Don. ``I had read somewhere that, and it may be true, that Danny Thomas wanted to play it, and no reflection on Danny Thomas but I got so scared that I wrote Brando a letter and he called me up and he told me that no studio would take him. ``I went back to Paramount and I said, `Brando's the guy,' and they all said no. And then when Francis (Ford Coppola) came on the film, he finessed them into accepting his decision.''

Born in 1920 to illiterate Italian immigrants, he served in Germany during World War II. He started writingpulp stories for men's magazines and published his first novel in 1955, The Dark Arena, to enthusiastic reviews. His second book, The Fortunate Pilgrim (1964) which Puzo took nine years to write, was an autobiographical family novel about Italian immigrants and brought Puzo some of his strongest reviews. Puzo himself said it was his best book, but when it did not bring in a lot of money, the author said he ``looked around and I said... I'd better make some money,'' and he set out to do just that, with a 5,000 advance from Putnam.

The result was The Godfather, which became a seminal work in the American pantheon of popular literature and was the basis for three Hollywood films, with a fourth instalment in the Corleone family saga rumoured in recent weeks.