CORLEONE FAMILY
DON VITO CORLEONE – ANDOLINI “1891-1955″ (The Godfather)
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.”
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.
(Vito dead – July 28th, 1955)
DON MICHAEL CORLEONE “1920-1997″ (The Godfather II )
Michael initially wants nothing to do with the Corleone’s “family business,” and enrolls at Furman University in order to escape it. After the United States’ entry into World War II, he enlists in the Marines and fights in the Pacific Theatre. For his bravery, Michael is featured in Life magazine in 1944. Michael is discharged as a Captain to recover from wounds in 1945. He later re-enters Dartmouth College, where he meets his future wife, Kay Adams (Diane Keaton). When his father is nearly assassinated in 1945, he volunteers to murder the men responsible, Virgil “The Turk” Sollozzo (Al Lettieri) and Captain McCluskey (Sterling Hayden), a police captain who was acting as Sollozzo’s bodyguard. After committing the murders, Michael flees to Sicily under the protection of Don Tommasino and stays in hiding for two years. While in Sicily, he marries a young woman named Apollonia (Simonetta Stefanelli), but she is killed by a car bomb intended for Michael.
While in Sicily, he learns that his older brother Sonny (James Caan) had been murdered, and he returns to New York in 1950. There, he reluctantly becomes involved in his family’s criminal enterprises, taking over for his deceased brother as head of the family under Vito’s supervision. He marries Kay a year later. Michael tries to buy out casino owner Moe Greene’s stake in the casino, intending to move his family to Nevada. After his father’s death in 1955, he becomes official Don of the Corleone crime family. Before his death, Vito had warned Michael that after he was gone, the head of the rival Barzini family would make an attempt on his life under the pretense of organizing a meeting in order to make peace between the two families. After his father’s caporegime, Sal Tessio (Abe Vigoda), inadvertently reveals that he had conspired with Emilio Barzini against him, Michael arranges the murders of the leaders of the New York Mafia’s other ruling families: Dons Emilio Barzini, Philip Tattaglia, Carmine Cuneo, and Victor Stracci. Also targeted are Greene, Tessio, and Carlo Rizzi (Gianni Russo), his brother-in-law, who beat his sister Connie (Talia Shire) and sold out Sonny.
Michael appears as a secondary character in Puzo’s The Sicilian. During his two-year exile in Sicily, Michael is eager to return home to his family in New York, but is told by caporegime Peter Clemenza that his father wants him to escort Salvatore “Turi” Guiliano safely back to America with him. As he learns more about the reputation and exploits of the legendary Giuliano, Michael becomes extremely intrigued to meet him, but due to Guiliano’s later death, is unable to do so, much to his distress.
Michael and Roth travel to Cuba under Fulgencio Batista in order to forge a partnership with the Cuban government, allowing them to be free to conduct their operations in Cuba without interference from the authorities. In the midst of the chaos of the revolution of 1959, Michael discovers that Fredo had betrayed him.
By the time of The Godfather Part III (the late 1970s) Michael has taken great steps to making the family legitimate; he is preparing to hand over his interests in gambling to the other Mafia families, setting up a charitable foundation, and is even being recognized by the Vatican for his good works. This new connection to the Church gives Michael the opportunity to purchase a controlling stake in the large property conglomerate, Immobiliare. He also begins to rekindle his relationship with Kay, as well as taking Sonny’s illegitimate son, Vincent Mancini (Andy Garcia), under his wing. He finds himself pulled back into the underworld, however, when almost the entire Mafia Commission is wiped out by an assassin as Michael prepares to hand over his criminal interests. Vinnie responds to this new threat against the Family with brutal violence, publicly gunning down Michael’s rival, Joey Zasa (Joe Mantegna), who was thought to have ordered the hit on Michael. Vinnie also begins a relationship with Michael’s daughter, Mary (Sofia Coppola), a romance Michael strongly disapproves of.
At the end of the film, weary of the bloody, lonely life of a Don, he retires and makes his nephew the new head of the family, on condition that he end the relationship with Mary. Realising that powerful interests in Italian politics and business were working to prevent the family’s takeover of Immobiliare, Michael, with Vinnie’s assistance, once again prepares to move against his enemies. This wave of murders takes place as Michael watches his son Anthony perform in the opera Cavalleria Rusticana. That same night, however, Mary is inadvertently killed in an assassination attempt on her father. Devastated by this loss, Michael retires to Sicily, where he dies years later (1997) of a stroke, alone.
DON VINCENT MANCINI CORLEONE ”1948-????” (Nephew and succeeding Don)
Vincent is the illegitimate son of Sonny Corleone and Lucy Mancini. (This plotline is exclusive to the movie, as it directly contradicts Puzo’s original storyline, in which Lucy tells Tom Hagen she is not pregnant when he questions the motive for her suicide attempt). Vincent has never been treated as a real member of the Corleone family and so is never given access to the family’s criminal empire. He endears himself to his uncle, Michael Corleone, by trying to protect him from rival Mafia families, and the aging Don takes the hot-headed young man under his wing.
Vincent saves Michael from an assassination attempt orchestrated by rival Joey Zasa, whom Vincent then personally murders. Vincent’s irrepressible violent streak often angers Michael, but not nearly as much as his burgeoning romance with Michael’s daughter (and Vincent’s cousin) Mary, whom Michael fears would be endangered by being involved in Corleone family business.
Despite their personal differences, Michael appoints Vincent the new Don and head of the Corleone family. His time spent with Michael has made him into a new man: much wiser, patient, and aware of his status as the new Don. In return for being elevated, Vincent ends his relationship with Mary. The same night the romance ends, however, Mary is killed in an assassination attempt on Michael. Vincent quickly kills the assassin responsible.
- Tom Hagen — Consigliere
- Santino Corleone — Underboss
- Connie Corleone — Sister
- Fredo Corleone — Underboss
- Apollonia Vitelli — Michael first wife
- Kay Adams — Michael second wife
- Anthony Corleone — Michael Son
- Mary Corleone — Michael Daughter
