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Vito Corleone
Vito Corleone (né Andolini) is a fictional character in Mario Puzo's 1969 novel The Godfather and in the first two of Francis Ford Coppola's film trilogy. Vito is originally portrayed by Marlon Brando in the 1972 film The Godfather, and later by Oreste Baldini as a boy and by Robert De Niro as a young man in The Godfather Part II (1974). He is an orphaned Italian (Sicilian) immigrant who builds a Mafia empire.
He and his wife Carmela have four children: three sons, Santino ("Sonny"), Frederico ("Fredo") and Michael ("Mike"), and one daughter, Constanzia ("Connie"). Vito informally adopts Sonny's friend, Tom Hagen, who becomes his lawyer and consigliere. Upon Vito's death, Michael succeeds him as Don of the Corleone crime family.
Vito oversees a business founded on gambling, bootlegging, prostitution, and union corruption, but he is known as a kind, generous man who lives by a strict moral code of loyalty to friends and, above all, family. He is also known as a traditionalist who demands respect commensurate with his status; even his closest friends refer to him as "Godfather" or "Don Corleone" rather than "Vito".
Vito Corleone is based on a composite of mid-20th-century New York Mafia figures Carlo Gambino, Frank Costello, Joe Bonanno, and Joe Profaci.
Maria Le Conti Puzo, Mario Puzo's mother, was also a basis for the author's depiction of Vito. In 2019, Francis Ford Coppola wrote
Mario told me that all of the great dialogue, those quotable lines he put into the mouth of Don Corleone, were actually spoken by Mario's mother. Yes, "an offer he can't refuse," "keep your friends close but your enemies closer," "revenge is a dish that tastes best when it is cold," and "a man who doesn't spend time with his family can never be a real man," among many others, were sayings he heard from his own mother's lips. Mario later wrote, "Whenever the Godfather opened his mouth, in my own mind I heard the voice of my mother. I heard her wisdom, her ruthlessness, and her unconquerable love for her family and life itself. Don Corleone's courage and loyalty came from her, his humanity came from her.
The character's story begins as Vito Andolini in Corleone, Sicily, in the Kingdom of Italy. In the novel, he was said to be born on April 29, 1887, which his tombstone reads in the first film; however, the second film establishes his birthdate as December 7, 1891. In 1901, the local Mafia chieftain, Don Ciccio, orders Vito's father Antonio murdered when he refuses to pay him tribute. Paolo, Vito's older brother (presumably ret-conned as the one born in 1887), swears revenge, but Ciccio's men kill him too. Vito's mother begs Ciccio to spare Vito, but Ciccio refuses, reasoning the boy will seek revenge as a grown man. Upon Ciccio's refusal, Vito's mother holds a knife to Ciccio's throat, allowing her son to escape while Ciccio's men kill her. Ciccio's men roam the neighborhood demanding that they give up Vito, prompting family friends to smuggle Vito out of Sicily for his safety. They put him on a ship with immigrants traveling to America. At Ellis Island, an immigration official renames him Vito Corleone presumably by mistake, using his village for his surname. He later uses Andolini as his middle name in acknowledgment of his family heritage.
Vito is taken in by his distant relatives, the Abbandando family, in Little Italy on New York's Lower East Side. Vito grows very close to the Abbandandos, particularly their son, Genco, who is like a brother to him. Vito earns an honest living at the Abbandandos' grocery store, but the elder Abbandando is forced to fire him when Don Fanucci, a blackhander and the local neighborhood padrone, demands that the grocery hire his nephew.
Vito Corleone
Vito Corleone (né Andolini) is a fictional character in Mario Puzo's 1969 novel The Godfather and in the first two of Francis Ford Coppola's film trilogy. Vito is originally portrayed by Marlon Brando in the 1972 film The Godfather, and later by Oreste Baldini as a boy and by Robert De Niro as a young man in The Godfather Part II (1974). He is an orphaned Italian (Sicilian) immigrant who builds a Mafia empire.
He and his wife Carmela have four children: three sons, Santino ("Sonny"), Frederico ("Fredo") and Michael ("Mike"), and one daughter, Constanzia ("Connie"). Vito informally adopts Sonny's friend, Tom Hagen, who becomes his lawyer and consigliere. Upon Vito's death, Michael succeeds him as Don of the Corleone crime family.
Vito oversees a business founded on gambling, bootlegging, prostitution, and union corruption, but he is known as a kind, generous man who lives by a strict moral code of loyalty to friends and, above all, family. He is also known as a traditionalist who demands respect commensurate with his status; even his closest friends refer to him as "Godfather" or "Don Corleone" rather than "Vito".
Vito Corleone is based on a composite of mid-20th-century New York Mafia figures Carlo Gambino, Frank Costello, Joe Bonanno, and Joe Profaci.
Maria Le Conti Puzo, Mario Puzo's mother, was also a basis for the author's depiction of Vito. In 2019, Francis Ford Coppola wrote
Mario told me that all of the great dialogue, those quotable lines he put into the mouth of Don Corleone, were actually spoken by Mario's mother. Yes, "an offer he can't refuse," "keep your friends close but your enemies closer," "revenge is a dish that tastes best when it is cold," and "a man who doesn't spend time with his family can never be a real man," among many others, were sayings he heard from his own mother's lips. Mario later wrote, "Whenever the Godfather opened his mouth, in my own mind I heard the voice of my mother. I heard her wisdom, her ruthlessness, and her unconquerable love for her family and life itself. Don Corleone's courage and loyalty came from her, his humanity came from her.
The character's story begins as Vito Andolini in Corleone, Sicily, in the Kingdom of Italy. In the novel, he was said to be born on April 29, 1887, which his tombstone reads in the first film; however, the second film establishes his birthdate as December 7, 1891. In 1901, the local Mafia chieftain, Don Ciccio, orders Vito's father Antonio murdered when he refuses to pay him tribute. Paolo, Vito's older brother (presumably ret-conned as the one born in 1887), swears revenge, but Ciccio's men kill him too. Vito's mother begs Ciccio to spare Vito, but Ciccio refuses, reasoning the boy will seek revenge as a grown man. Upon Ciccio's refusal, Vito's mother holds a knife to Ciccio's throat, allowing her son to escape while Ciccio's men kill her. Ciccio's men roam the neighborhood demanding that they give up Vito, prompting family friends to smuggle Vito out of Sicily for his safety. They put him on a ship with immigrants traveling to America. At Ellis Island, an immigration official renames him Vito Corleone presumably by mistake, using his village for his surname. He later uses Andolini as his middle name in acknowledgment of his family heritage.
Vito is taken in by his distant relatives, the Abbandando family, in Little Italy on New York's Lower East Side. Vito grows very close to the Abbandandos, particularly their son, Genco, who is like a brother to him. Vito earns an honest living at the Abbandandos' grocery store, but the elder Abbandando is forced to fire him when Don Fanucci, a blackhander and the local neighborhood padrone, demands that the grocery hire his nephew.