A Godfather Star Was The First Actor The Oscars Permanently Banned - Here's Why

Over the years, the Oscars have permanently barred a few people, usually for committing heinous crimes. Examples of former Academy members hit with lifetime bans include Harvey Weinstein, Roman Polanski, and Bill Cosby. However, the first person the Academy expelled was Carmine Caridi, who appeared in "The Godfather Part II" and "The Godfather Part III." What did he do to warrant such punishment? He shared VHS tapes.

The Hollywood Reporter recounted the tale in 2017. After some Broadway roles, Caridi was cast in "The Godfather," but an untold truth of that movie is that some reshuffling was required behind the scenes. He lost out on appearing in the trilogy's first installment. After some other setbacks, the actor bounced back, and director Francis Ford Coppola brought him back into the fold with a role in "The Godfather Part II." He continued appearing in various movies and TV shows, including 1981's "Prince of the City" and a recurring role on the TV series "Fame." In 1982, he was formally invited to join the Academy. 

Membership brought with it the privilege of being sent screeners, which at the time were VHS tapes. While a requirement for getting movies for free was to not show them to anyone else, Caridi did precisely that, as he told THR, "I sent screeners to people, besides my brother and sister, who couldn't afford them. I made a lot of people happy." Things may have been fine if he had kept it in the family, but his decision to go in cahoots with Russell Sprague led to his eventual Academy expulsion.

The rise of the internet put a greater emphasis on preventing piracy in Hollywood. In 2003, the Academy made members sign confidentiality agreements stipulating they wouldn't share screeners, which was bad news for Carmine Caridi. He had befriended a man named Russell Sprague; the two kept in touch even though Sprague lived in Illinois, and before long, he asked Caridi to send him the VHS tapes that he would then copy. It didn't take long for the pirated tapes to get linked back to Caridi, and early in 2004, the Academy reached out to him after his screeners appeared online.

The Academy acted swiftly, permanently banning Caridi that same year. He also faced lawsuits from Warner Bros. and Columbia Pictures, and he was interrogated by the FBI, where he gave up Sprague in exchange for immunity. Caridi told The Hollywood Reporter he wasn't aware that movies could be put on the internet, and he ultimately agreed with the Academy's decision, saying, "I did violate their law." Even after his expulsion, Caridi continued acting in a variety of projects until he died in 2019, one of many actors from "Fame" who have since passed away.

Through such actions, Caridi joined a small group of people who have resigned or been expelled from the Academy. At the time of his THR interview, he mentioned still being in the Screen Actors Guild and getting some screeners from that organization. Somewhat amazingly, he added, "I lend them to my neighbor."