Morgana King, perhaps best known for portraying the wife of Marlon Brando's Don Vito Corleone in the first two Godfather films, has died. She was 87.

King actually died on 22 but her death had gone unreported until a friend, John Hoglund, wrote about her this week on Facebook.

King started her career as a jazz musician and recorded three albums for Frank Sinatra's Reprise label, including 1965's It's a Quiet Thing, described as "an aching diary of loss" released after the death of her second husband, trombone player Willie Dennis, who was killed in a car crash.

In Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather (1972), King as Mama Carmela Corleone dances with Brando and sings "Luna mezz' 'o mare" during the opening wedding sequence. When she didn't want to be photographed in a coffin in the 1974 sequel, Coppola's mother, Italia, doubled for her.

Read more at The Hollywood Reporter