Don Michael Corleone

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Vito Andolini Corleone 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 Rober...t De Niro. Both performances won Academy Awards. Brando and De Niro remain the only two actors to each win Oscars for playing the same character. In Puzo's novel, Vito is the head of the Corleone crime family, one of the most powerful Mafia families in New York if not the country. 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. 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, is murdered by a Sicilian mob boss named Don Ciccio because he refused to pay tribute to him. His older brother, Paolo, swears revenge, but is himself murdered soon after. Eventually, Ciccio's henchmen come to the residence of the Andolinis to take Vito away and have him killed. Desperate, Signora Andolini takes her son to see the mafia chieftain herself. When she goes to see Don Ciccio, she begs for forgiveness, but Ciccio refuses, reasoning that Vito would also seek revenge as an adult. Upon Ciccio's refusal, Signora Andolini puts a knife to his throat, allowing her son to escape, but is shot herself. Later that night, he is smuggled away, fleeing Sicily to seek refuge in America on a cargo ship full of immigrants. In the novel, he deliberately changes his name to Corleone, after his home town. The movie, however, plays that he is renamed "Vito Corleone" because the immigration workers at Ellis Island mistake the name of his town for his last name. According to The Godfather: Part II, he later adopted the middle name "Andolini" to acknowledge his heritage, though this could have been done posthumously by his family. Corleone is later adopted by the Abbandando family in New York City's Little Italy, and he befriends their son, Genco, who becomes like a brother to him. Corleone begins making an honest living at Abbandando's grocery store, but loses the job, as an intimidated Abbandando is forced to employ the nephew of Don Fanucci, a blackhander and the local neighborhood padrone. Corleone soon learns to survive and prosper through petty crime and performing favors in return for loyalty. During this time, he also befriends two other low-level hoods, Peter Clemenza and Salvatore Tessio. In 1919, he commits his first murder, killing Fanucci, who had tried to extort money from him. Corleone chooses the day of a major festival to spy on Fanucci from the rooftops as Fanucci goes home, and surprises him at the door to his apartment. He shoots Fanucci three times, as the din from the festival drowns out the noise from the gunshots. As a young man, Corleone starts an olive oil business, Genco Pura (known as simply Genco Olive Oil in the films) with his friend Genco Abbandando. The company eventually becomes the biggest olive oil importer in the nation. Over the years he uses it as a legal front for his organized crime syndicate, while amassing a fortune with his illegal operations. In 1925, he returns to Sicily for the first time since leaving 24 years earlier and is reunited with his mother, who survived despite being gunned down by Ciccio's men. He and his partner, Don Tommasino then set up a meeting with the aging Don Ciccio, where he kills him by carving his stomach open--thus avenging his murdered father and brother. By the early 1930's, Vito Corleone has organized his illegal operations as the Corleone crime family. Genco Abbandando becomes his consigliere, or advisor, with Clemenza and Tessio as caporegimes. Later, his son Sonny becomes a capo as well, and eventually his underboss. While he oversees a business founded on gambling, bootlegging, and union corruption, he is known as a kind, generous man who lives by a strict moral code of loyalty to friends and, above all, family. At the same time, he is known as a traditionalist who demands respect commensurate with his status. Even his three closest friends--Genco, Clemenza and Tessio--never call him "Vito," but either "Godfather" or "Don Corleone." In both the book and the first scene of the first Godfather, he chastises his old friend, undertaker Bonasera, for not coming to him first after his daughter is beaten up instead of going to the police. Although he has a reputation for ruthlessness, he disagrees with many of the vicious crimes carried out by gangs and so seeks to control crime in New York by either consuming or eliminating rival gangs. By this time, he has four children--Sonny, Fredo, Connie and Michael. While he loves all of them, he is most proud of Michael, a college student who had to drop out due to his decision to join the Marines and wishes for him a life away from the "family business." In 1945, Corleone is nearly assassinated when he refuses the request of Virgil Sollozzo to invest in a drug operation and use his political contacts for the operation's protection. His near death sparks a chain of events that results in Sonny's murder and Michael's eventual ascension to the head of the family. Corleone then acts as unofficial consigliere to his son. At the end of the novel and in the movie, he dies of a heart attack while playing with his grandson Anthony in his garden. His last words in the novel are, "Life is so beautiful."

Michael Corleone is a fictional character and protagonist in Mario Puzo's novels, The Godfather and The Sicilian. He is also the main character of the film trilogy that was directed by Francis Ford Coppola, in which he was portrayed by Al Pacino. Corleone, as portrayed ...by Pacino, was ranked as the 8th Greatest Movie Character of all time by Total Film Magazine, and was recognized as the 11th most iconic villain in film history by the American Film Institute[1]. Michael is the youngest son of Don Vito Corleone (played by Marlon Brando in The Godfather and Robert De Niro in The Godfather Part II). He is the youngest brother of Sonny and Fredo. He becomes the new Don of the Corleone crime family towards the end of Part I, when his father dies. Michael Corleone's ascension to the head of the Corleone crime family is portrayed in Puzo's novel and the first film. Michael initially wants nothing to do with the Corleone's "family business", and wants to live a more Americanized life, and is enrolled at Dartmouth College. 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, having been awarded the Silver Star. Michael is discharged as a Captain to recover from wounds in 1945. He later re-enters Dartmouth, where he meets his future wife, Kay Adams (Diane Keaton). When his father is nearly assassinated in 1945, he volunteers to murder the man responsible, Virgil "The Turk" Sollozzo (Al Lettieri). He also proposes to kill Captain McCluskey(Sterling Hayden), a police captain who removed his father's bodyguards from the hospital, presumably to set up his father to be killed. Although it is normally a hard-and-fast rule in the Mafia that law enforcement officials are not to be harmed, Michael successfully convinces his older brother Sonny (James Caan) that since McCluskey is serving as Sollozzo's bodyguard, he has crossed into their world and is fair game. After committing the murders, Michael flees to Sicily under the protection of Don Tommasino, a longtime friend of his father's, and stays in exile 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. Fabrizio, one of his bodyguards, was paid by a rival family to plant the bomb. 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. The family's consigliere and lawyer, Tom Hagen, and one of the caporegimes, Peter Clemenza, are somewhat skeptical of his ability, but the other capo, Sal Tessio, thinks somewhat more of him. He marries Kay a year later, promising to make the family legitimate within five years. Michael tries to buy out casino owner Moe Greene's stake in a casino partly owned "off the record" by the Corleone family, 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. After Tessio inadvertently reveals that he had conspired with Emilio Barzini against him, Michael arranges the murders of Barzini and Philip Tattaglia. In the film, he also kills the other two Mafia chiefs, Carmine Cuneo, and Victor Stracci. Also targeted are Greene, Tessio, Fabrizio and Carlo Rizzi (Gianni Russo), his brother-in-law, who plotted with Barzini to have Sonny killed. With this violent attack, Michael cements his reputation and returns the Corleone family to its position as the most powerful crime family in New York. When Connie finds out that Michael had Carlo killed while he stood godfather to their baby, she flies into a rage. Michael dismisses it as hysteria, and when pressed by Kay, denies any involvement in the murder. Just minutes later, however, he meets with his capos, and Clemenza greets him as "Don Michael." During this scene in the film, Clemenza greets him as "Don Corleone" and kisses his hand. Unknown to him, Kay is watching this meeting, and realizes that Connie was telling the truth after all--and that her husband has become the new Don Corleone. 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. Realizing 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 Michael himself. Devastated by this loss, Michael withdraws from life and retires to Sicily, where he dies years later (1997) of a Diabetic Stroke, alone while relaxing in a lawn chair Michael returns in Mark Winegardner's sequel novels The Godfather Returns and The Godfather's Revenge. He is also a character in the Anno Dracula novel Judgement of Tears.