Jack Woltz
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Jack Woltz is a fictional character from the novel The Godfather and the 1972 film adaptation. In the film, he is portrayed by John Marley.
He is a Jewish movie producer who refuses to cast the singer/actor Johnny Fontane in his movie due to his jealousy over Fontane's role in the break up of one of his previous relationships. Fontane asks Don Vito Corleone, who is his godfather, as well as the head of an organized crime family, to lean on Woltz. Corleone sends his consigliere, Tom Hagen (Robert Duvall), to Hollywood to "reason" with Woltz. At first Woltz becomes enraged shouting anti-Italian slurs at Hagen and refuses to bargan. Later, after researching exactly who Hagan worked for, he appeared more eager to listen, but in the end he still refused to cast Fontane. Woltz is finally persuaded in perhaps one of the most famous scenes in movie history; when he wakes up the next morning to find the decapitated head of his prized racehorse, Khartoum, in his bed.
In the novel, Woltz is portrayed as a man who has achieved great success in the film industry, having come up from nothing. To complement his financial success, he employed an English butler to teach him to interact in polite society, though he still has a number of rough edges. When the story opens, Woltz is a widower who is sexually frustrated and can only be aroused by very young women and girls. He is a pedophile who routinely abuses young girls who audition for his movies, as well as the daughters of some of his actresses. This side of the character is largely left out of the movie, though it is much more evident when one views several of the excised scenes.
In the film, Woltz's palatial home is actually "Greenacres," the estate of Harold Lloyd, situated in Beverly Hills, California [1].
[edit] Khartoum
Khartoum was the name of the horse owned by Woltz. This was the unfortunate horse whose head was severed and put in the bed where Woltz was sleeping in the now-infamous scene of the book and film.
Of note is the fact that an actual horse-head was used for this scene.
