Vito Corleone (December 7, 1891 – June 25, 1955), born Vito Andolini, aka 'The Godfather' or The Don, is a fictional character in Mario Puzo's novel The Godfather, as well as Francis Ford Coppola's trilogy of films based on it. In the first film, he was portrayed by Marlon Brando. He was portrayed as a younger man in The Godfather Part II by Robert DeNiro. Both performances won Academy Awards.
In Puzo's novel, Vito is the head of the Corleone crime family, one of the most powerful Mafia families in New York. He is depicted as an ambitious Italian immigrant who moves to Little Italy and builds a mafia empire, yet retains (and strictly adheres to) his own personal code of honor. His youngest son, Michael Corleone becomes the Don upon his death at the end of the novel. He has two other sons, Santino "Sonny" Corleone and Fredo Corleone, and a daughter, Connie Corleone, all of whom play major roles in the story. He also informally adopted another son, Tom Hagen, who grew up to become the Family's consigliere.
DON BIO
In the chronology of the Godfather saga, Vito first appears in 1901, as a young boy in the small Sicilian town of Corleone. As documented in the novel (and in Godfather Part II) his father, Antonio Andolini, was murdered by a Sicilian mob boss named Don Ciccio because he refused to pay tribute to him. His older brother, Paolo, swore revenge, but was himself murdered soon after; in the film Paolo's murder was timed with the ultimate insult: during the funeral procession for his father. Eventually, Ciccio's henchmen came to the residence of the Andolinis to take Vito away and have him killed. Desperate, Signora Andolini took her son to see the mafia chieftain herself.
When she went to see Don Ciccio, she begged for forgiveness, but Ciccio refused, reasoning that the younger boy Vito would also seek revenge as an adult. Upon Ciccio's refusal, Signora Andolini put a knife to his throat, allowing her son to escape at the expense of her own life (in the book, there is no mention of her dying). Later that night, he was smuggled away, fleeing Sicily to seek refuge in America on a cargo ship full of immigrants. Unable to speak English, he was renamed on Ellis Island as Vito Corleone when the immigration clerks saw the tag pinned to his clothes labelled "Vito Andolini from Corleone" (in the book, he chose the name himself.)
Corleone was later adopted by the Abbandando family in New York, and he befriended Genco Abbandando, who later became like a brother to him. In the years to come, Corleone married and started a family. Corleone began making an honest living at Abbandando's grocery store, but lost the job, as an intimidated Abbandando was forced to employ the nephew of Don Fanucci, the local neighborhood padrone.
Corleone soon learned to survive and prosper through petty crime and performing favors in return for loyalty. In 1919, he committed his first murder, killing Don Fanucci, who had tried to extort money from him. Vito had chosen the day of a major festival to spy on Fanucci from the rooftops as Fanucci went home, and surprised him at the door to his apartment. He shot Fanucci three times, as the din from the festival drowned out the noise from the gunshots.
As a young man, Corleone started an olive oil business, Genco Importers, with his friend Genco Abbandando. Over the years he used it as a legal front for his organized crime syndicate, while amassing a fortune with its illegal operations. During a journey with his family to his native Sicily in 1925, he avenged his murdered parents and brother by killing the aged Don Ciccio with a knife to the stomach.
By the early 1930's, Vito Corleone had established the Corleone Family along with old friends Peter Clemenza and Salvatore Tessio, who would become his Caporegimes. Genco Abbandando would become the first consigliere of the family.
While he oversaw a business founded on gambling, bootlegging, and union corruption, he was known as a kind, generous man who lived by a strict moral code of loyalty to friends and, above all, family. He tried to spread these values throughout the New York crime world; he disagreed with many of the vicious crimes carried out by gangs and so sought to control crime in New York by either consuming or eliminating rival gangs. He also disapproved of hard drugs.
By this time, he was married with four children. While he loved all of them, he was most proud of Michael, a college graduate and decorated World War II veteran, and wished for him a life away from the "family business."
For the most part, the portrayal of him as a family man is favorable. However, the novel reveals a side of male chauvanism and sadism. When his daughter Connie was being severely abused by her husband Carlo, she turned to her father for help. Vito did nothing about it and even blamed Connie for not being a good wife. He said that he himself never abused his wife Carmella because she never gave him a reason to. (Carmella was a submissive wife who never questioned him about his business.) When Connie threatened to divorce Carlo, Vito scolded her, saying she couldn't allow her unborn child to grow up with divorced parents. None of these details are mentioned in the movie.
In 1945, Corleone was badly injured in an assassination attempt, provoked when he refused the request of Virgil Sollozzo to invest in a drug operation and use his political contacts for the operation's protection. His near death sparked a chain of events that resulted in Sonny's murder and Michael's eventual ascension to the head of the family. Corleone then acts an unofficial consigliere to his son.
At the end of the novel and near the end of the film, he died of a heart attack while playing with his grandson, Anthony in his garden. His last words in the novel (not in the movie) were, "Life is so beautiful."
Vito Corleone is said to be a composite based on real mafia dons Joseph Bonanno, Carlo Gambino, Frank Costello, and Vito Genovese[citation needed]. Puzo claimed to have used his own mother as a model for the character.
