what does it mean to be loved by death?

The only people on the Godfather set to have any faith in their director, it seemed, were the actors. Francis [Ford Coppola], as he had done on The Rain People and would try to do again and again, had cast actors whose real-life dynamics he felt mirrored those of their characters on the page. Never did that alchemy work better than on The Godfather. [James] Caan and [Robert] Duvall, who were more experienced, treated [Al] Pacino with all the affection and ribbing older siblings reserve for their kid brother, all three of them -- as well as fourth brother John Cazale -- looked up to [Marlon] Brando, the actor they all idolized, the way sons do to a father of whom they are in awe. Visitors to the set on any given day might have seen Caan and Duvall mooning each other, Brando reading his lines off hidden cue cards (in one instance, a huge chalkboard sign propped up in a tree; in another, sheets of paper taped around Duvall's body), and Francis looking serious and alone. His sister, Talia, felt, at times, like she shouldn't have been on the movie, put in a position to see her older brother so vulnerable.