Hyman Roth

Hyman Roth
First appearance	The Godfather Part II
Last appearance	The Godfather II (video game)
Information
Gender	Male

Hyman Roth is a fictional character, and the primary antagonist in The Godfather Part II, played by the actor and acting teacher Lee Strasberg, who was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for the role (which he lost to his co-star, Robert De Niro, for the same film). Hyman Roth is based on mobster Meyer Lansky.

In Godfather II

Roth is depicted as boss of the Jewish mob who has long been an associate of the Corleone family, though he is not mentioned in the first film or in the book on which it is based. Much like Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando), Roth is a cunning, methodical and ruthless criminal, but masks it behind a soft-spoken persona.

Roth, whose birth name is Hyman Suchowsky, first meets Vito when the latter hires him to fix a car in 1917. When Vito suggests he change his name, he chooses the name Hyman Roth in honor of Arnold Rothstein. (That scene was deleted from the theatrical release, in which he was played by John Megna.) In the theatrical release he can be seen with the curly-haired young man outside Genco Pura headquarters as the company’s sign is being put into place.

The film's exposition explains that Roth had worked diligently for the Corleone Family during Prohibition, and was a close friend and ally of Moe Greene (Alex Rocco), whom he treated like a little brother when the two were growing up in New York. However, Frank Pentangeli (Michael V. Gazzo) states that Vito Corleone never fully trusted Roth. It is also later established that Roth resents Vito's son and successor Michael (Al Pacino) for ordering Greene's death in the previous film, though he continues to do business with the Corleones.

As Part II opens, Roth is based in Miami with his right hand man, the Sicilian Johnny Ola (Dominic Chianese), and is about to enter into an extraordinarily profitable business partnership with Fulgencio Batista's Cuba, but is thwarted by Fidel Castro’s Communist revolution. At about this time, Roth manipulates Michael's brother Fredo (John Cazale) into giving him information he uses to make an attempt on Michael's life.

Michael concludes on his own that Roth was behind the assassination attempt, but also realizes that he couldn't have pulled it off without the help of a mole in the Corleone family. Remembering his father's advice to "keep your friends close and your enemies closer," he decides to make Roth think they still have a good business relationship — but only until he can smoke out the traitor. During the last night of Batista's leadership, Michael orders Roth killed, telling Fredo, "Hyman Roth will never see the New Year." After ordering the murder of Johnny Ola in the same night, Michael has his bodyguard try to kill Roth. Roth, whose health is failing, is lying in bed when Michael's bodyguard sneaks in and tries to suffocate him with a pillow. Fortunately for Roth, members of the military storm the hospital and kill the bodyguard. That same night, Michael finds out that Fredo was the one who betrayed him.

Roth, however, has already made his next move. A Senate committee is investigating organized crime in America, and the committee's counsel is on Roth's payroll. Roth decides to use the investigation to eliminate Michael from the scene. He has the Rosatos try to kill Pentangeli and make it appear that they did so on orders from Michael. Pentangeli and his bodyguard, Willi Cicci (Joe Spinell), then go to the FBI and tell them that Michael is a powerful Mafia leader who controls virtually all of the gambling in North America and has ordered dozens of murders. Pentangeli is considered very credible, since as a caporegime there is no insulation between himself and Michael. Fredo only tells Michael of Roth's involvement a few days before the hearing, a disclosure that prompts Michael to disown his brother. Realizing that Pentangeli's testimony could send him to prison, Michael has Pentangeli's brother, Vincenzo, fly in from Sicily to remind him not to break the code of omerta.

By the end of the film, Roth publicly states that he wishes to retire and live in Israel. The Israeli High Court refuses his request to live there "as a Jew in the twilight of [his] life", however, and he arrives at the airport and prepares to be taken into federal custody in the U.S. Moments later, he is assassinated by Corleone capo Rocco Lampone (Tom Rosqui), posing as a reporter, who is in turn shot by police as he attempts to flee the scene.