Top 15 Hot Rods From The Movies: #3 Sonny Corleone’s Death Lincoln

Francis Ford Coppola launched his career with the movie Patton in 1970. Two years later he solidified his place in cinema history with another movie that paid great attention to detail, The Godfather. Richard Nelson and Chuck Hannah played an important part in creating the factual recreation of the scenes in the movie by coordinating the cars for the film.

The Godfather Lincoln Continental Model 57 Coupe highlighted the Sonny Corleone death scene. Photos from www.edmunds.com

It was Hannah that actually found Charles Eugene Beardslee, owner of the 1941 Continental coupe used to shoot Sonny Corleone’s famous death scene. Beardslee was found through the Lincoln Continental Owners Club, Mid-Atlantic Region. The movie spans the years from 1945 to 1955 which makes the 1941 Lincoln Coupe a historically accurate vehicle for the film.

Sonny Corleone’s death scene was suppose to take place at the Jones Beach Causeway tollbooth in Long Island. The scene was actually shot on a runway at Mitchel Field in Mineola where three tollbooths were built, along with features like guardrails and billboards that set the scene. Thankfully, Beardslee’s Continental was removed from the scene and replaced by two other Continental coupes before the shooting starts.

Seconds before the bullets begin to fly at the tollbooth.

One of the coupes was drilled with holes that simulated .45 caliber bullet holes. The other was fitted with electrical activated charges to simulate the bullets impacting the car. The scene took three days to shoot and cost over $100,000 in 1971. One interesting mistake in the movie takes place in this scene. When Sonny is shot at the toll booth the front windshield is torn apart by bullets yet when the bodyguards arrive thirty seconds later, the windshield is intact.

The vintage Lincoln Continental coupe was an elite car in its time.

As for the 1941 Lincoln Continental coupe, the estate of Eugene Beardslee sold the coupe at a Bonhams auction in Scottsdale, Arizona, on 17, January, 2013 for $69,000.

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