No writer perpetuated the legend of the Italian-American Mafia more than Mario Puzo who died on 2 July 1999 aged 78.

Although he claimed never to have met a gangster, Mr Puzo’s novel The Godfather captured the reading public’s imagination and stayed on The New York Times best-seller list for 67 weeks.

The book details the history of the Corleone family, a tightly structured crime syndicate, and deals with themes of honour, family bondage and violence.

The novel, adapted by Mr Puzo into three highly acclaimed and popular films, also drew criticism for the negative way in which it portrayed Italian-Americans

Mario Gianluigi Puzo was born on 15 October 1920 in the Hell’s Kitchen district of Manhattan, New York . He was one of seven children in a family of poor Sicilian immigrants.

Through public libraries the young Puzo discovered the world of literature and set his heart upon becoming a writer.

During the Second World War Puzo served in the US Air Force in East Asia and Germany. Poor eyesight ruled him out of frontline combat and he worked, for the most part, as a public relations officer.

After the war he attended the New School for Social Research in New York and then Columbia University where he enrolled in literature and creative writing classes.

His first published work was a short story in American Vanguard magazine in 1950 and in 1955 he published his first novel, The Dark Arena, which was praised by critics but failed to sell many copies.

From 1963 Mr Puzo worked as a journalist writing action stories for men’s magazines and it was during this period that he began to hear anecdotes about the Mafia that would form the basis of his most famous work.

The Godfather was published in 1969 and quickly became a best-seller much to the relief of the near-bankrupt Puzo. It would eventually sell more than 21 million copies world wide.

Mr Puzo co-wrote the screenplay for The Godfather with Francis Ford Coppola who directed the film which was released in 1972 winning an Oscar for best picture. The pair collaborated on two more films and the trilogy won a total of nine Oscars.

He married Erika Lina Broske in 1946 and together they had five children. When he died in 1999 Mr Puzo had been living with his long-time companion, Carol Gino, for 20 years.

As well as the The Godfather series he wrote the screenplays for Earthquake (1974), two Superman movies (1978 and 1980) and The Cotton Club (1984).

He also wrote 10 novels in all but none was as successful or memorable as The Godfather and in Vito Corleone he created a character who will rank for ever as one of the most indelible icons of American fiction.

After Mr Puzo’s death from heart failure, actor James Caan said: “His talent was obvious. I had the good fortune of working with him on The Godfather and the misfortune of not knowing him better.”