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Tom Hagen

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Thomas "Tom" Feargal Hagen is a fictional character in the Godfather books and films. He was portrayed by Robert Duvall in the films. He is the informally adopted son of Don Vito Corleone and serves as the family lawyer and consigliere (advisor).

Some have speculated that Hagen is based on real-life mobster Frank DeSimone. While both men were lawyers that came from Mafia families, DeSimone was heavily involved in illicit and violent activities of the gang while Hagen mostly kept his hands clean.

Backstory

According to the backstory established in the various Godfather novels, Thomas Hagen is an orphan, the son of Martin and Bridget Hagen. He also has a younger (unnamed) sister. His father, Martin, is a carpenter and a violent alcoholic. When Hagen is 10 years old, his mother catches an eye infection that results in blindness and dies soon after from venereal disease. A few months after his mother's passing, his grief-stricken father drinks himself to death. Hagen and his sister are placed in an orphanage but Hagen runs away. The sister ends up in a foster home while the social agencies of the time fail to follow up on Hagen's case. Hagen lives on the streets for more than a year, and during that time he develops a similar eye infection.

A flashback sequence in the novel The Godfather's Revenge reveals that Hagen first encounters the eleven-year-old Sonny Corleone when Sonny and two older boys wander into a dangerous alley in the Irish part of Hell's Kitchen, an alley in which Hagen is hiding. Sonny and his companions encounter a man selling switchblades and try to buy one. The man pulls a knife and drags Sonny into the alley while the other boys run away. Hagen recognizes the man as a pedophile who kills his victims and defends Sonny by killing the man using a board with a nail in it. After they introduce themselves, Sonny takes Hagen home and persuades his father to take him into the family. Hagen is given warm food and a cot to sleep on, and the Don personally sees to it that Hagen's eye infection is given medical attention. Although the Don never formally adopts him, thinking that this would be disrespectful to Hagen's parents, Hagen thinks of Vito Corleone as his true father.

After graduating from law school, Hagen marries an Italian girl, Theresa, and offers to work for Vito as his lawyer. His German-Irish ancestry precludes his formal membership in the Mafia, which does not accept non-Italians. But when Vito's consigliere Genco Abbadando is hospitalized with cancer, Hagen takes his place as the first non-Italian to achieve this important position. Hagen's ascension to consigliere provokes rival Mafia families to refer jokingly to the Corleones as "the Irish gang". Hagen's keen mind and legal expertise make him a masterful consigliere and an integral part of the Corleone Family empire.

The Godfather

After Connie Corleone's wedding, Hagen is dispatched by Vito Corleone to Hollywood in order to convince Jack Woltz, a big-time movie studio head, to give singer/actor Johnny Fontane (Vito's godson) the lead role in his new war film. When he first approches Woltz, he offers help with some union trouble, as well as getting one of Woltz's actors off of heroin, in return for giving Fontane the part. Woltz at first angrily refuses, but becomes more cordial once he finds out who Hagen works for. Woltz invites him over to his palatial estate for dinner, and shows him his prized racehorse, Khartoum. During the dinner, Woltz tries to work out another deal with Hagen, but refuses to cast Fontane, who had slept with one of his mistresses. Later on that night, men working for the Corleones steal into Woltz's stables and decapitate Khartoum, and place the horse's severed head and a large amount of its blood in Woltz's bed. The next day Hagen receives a call from a ranting Woltz, who threatens to bring the law down on the Corleones' heads. Hagen gives a nonchalant response and hangs up. Shortly afterwards, Woltz gives Fontane the coveted role.

Hagen later compiles information on drug lord Virgil "the Turk" Sollozzo, who had approached Vito Corleone on behalf of the Tattaglia crime family to help fund and provide political protection for a heroin operation in New York, in exchange for 30 percent of the profits. Vito, after considering his options, refuses the Turk's proposal, though Sonny shows a slight interest.

That December, Hagen is abducted by the Turk and his bodyguards. At an undisclosed location, Sollozzo informs Hagen that Don Corleone has been shot and killed, and tells Hagen to convince Sonny to go along with the original deal. Hagen promises to calm Sonny down, but warns the Turk about inevitable reprisal from Luca Brasi, the Don's fanatically loyal bodyguard and hitman. Unbeknownst to Hagen, Brasi was killed by Sollozzo and Bruno Tattaglia. The meeting is interrupted when Sollozzo receives word that Don Corleone survived the shooting, which ruins all of Sollozo's plans, as Sonny would listen to no deal while his father was still alive.

While he loves all the Corleones, Hagen idolizes Sonny, and so blames himself when Sonny is murdered by the Tattaglias. After becoming the new head of the family, Michael Corleone removes Hagen as consigliere, restricting him to handling the Family's legal business in Nevada, Chicago, and Los Angeles. Hagen accepts the decision, and remains loyal.

The Godfather, Part II

After an attempt on Michael's life in The Godfather, Part II, Hagen takes over as acting Don while Michael tries to find out who in his organization had betrayed him and aided the assassins. Hagen is instrumental in both securing the friendship of powerful Senator Pat Geary and defending Michael during the Senate hearings on the Mafia.

The fall of Fulgencio Batista's regime in Cuba forces Michael to abandon his dream of becoming a legitimate businessman and retake his place as the Don of the Corleone family. As a result, he gives Hagen back his old position as consigliere.

Even as Michael becomes increasingly ruthless and paranoid, Hagen dutifully fulfills his role as not just a legal adviser but a dispassionate envoy for the Family. For example, he gives Frank Pentangeli, who had betrayed Michael, the "option" of committing suicide so that Pentangeli's family would continue to be taken care of after his death.

The Godfather, Part III

According to The Godfather, Part III, Hagen dies at some point prior to the timeframe of the film, 1979-1980. There is no specific indication in the film as to when or how he dies, except that it is before the ordination of his son, Andrew.

The Godfather's Revenge

Mark Winegardner's sequel The Godfather's Revenge explains that Hagen is murdered in August 1964 by former Corleone underboss Nick Geraci, who drowns him in the Florida Everglades. Geraci then sends Michael a package containing a dead baby alligator along with Hagen's wallet, a message similar to the one that is sent to Sonny in the original novel following Luca Brasi's death.

Behind the scenes

The Hagen character was originally intended to have been featured in The Godfather, Part III, but was written out because of a financial disagreement between Duvall and the film's producers. Coppola has stated that Part III was originally planned to feature a split between Michael and Hagen as its central plot. Coppola stated in the film's commentary that Duvall demanded the same salary as Al Pacino (who portrayed Michael Corleone).

Family



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Last updated on Monday March 10, 2008 at 17:16:32 PDT (GMT -0700)
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