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Christopher Vito Biography & Facts

Vito Corleone (born Vito 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 Sicilian immigrant who builds a Mafia empire. He and his wife Carmela have four children: 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". Concept and Creation 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 wroteMario 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. Fictional biography and early years 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, murders Vito's father Antonio 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. Family friends smuggle Vito out of Sicily, putting 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 the Abbandando family, who are distant relatives of his, 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. In 1920, Vito is befriended by small-time criminals Peter Clemenza and Salvatore Tessio, who teach him how to survive by fencing stolen dresses and performing favors in return for loyalty. Fanucci learns of Vito's operation and demands a cut of his illegal profits or he will report Vito and his partners to the police. Vito then devises a plan to kill Fanucci. During the festival of Saint Rocco, Vito trails Fanucci from Little Italy's rooftops, jumping from one building to the next, as Fanucci walks home. Vito enters Fanucci's building and shoots him in the chest, face and mouth, killing him. Vito then takes over the neighborhood, treating it with far greater respect than Fanucci did. Vito and Genco start the Genco Pura Olive Oil Company, an olive oil importer. It eventually becomes the nation's largest olive oil importing company, and the main legal front for Vito's growing organized crime syndicate. Between Genco Pura and his illegal operations, Vito becomes a wealthy man. In 1922, he returns to Sicily for the first time since fleeing as a child. He and his partner Don Tommasino systematically eliminate Don Ciccio's men who were involved in murdering Vito's family and arrange a meeting with Ciccio himself. The elderly Ciccio is nearly blind and deaf, and fails to recognize the now adult Vito. When Ciccio asks him to approach, he reveals himself to be the son of Antonio Andolini and carves open the elderly Don's stomach, thus avenging his family. Tommasino takes over the town and is the family's staunchest ally in the old country for the next half-century. By the early 1930s, Vito has organized his criminal operations as the Corleone crime family, one of the most powerful in the nation. Genco Abbandando is his consigliere, and Clemenza and Tessio are caporegimes. As a boy, Vito's oldest son, Sonny, brings his friend Tom Hagen, a homeless orphan, to stay with the Corleones and Vito unofficially adopts him. As an adult, Sonny becomes a capo, Vito's heir apparent and de facto underboss. Fredo, Vito's second-born son, is deemed too weak and unintelligent to handle important family business and takes on only minor responsibilities. Vito has a difficult relationship with his youngest son, Michael, who wants nothing to do with the family business. Michael enlists to fight in World War II against Vito's wishes. When Michael is wounded in combat, Vito pulls strings to have him honorably discharged and sent back to the U.S., without Michael's knowledge. Around 1939, Vito moves his home and base of operations to Long Beach, New York on Long Island, where Genco serves as his most trusted adviser until he is stricken with cancer and can no longer fulfill his duties. Hagen, who by now has become a practicing attorney, takes Genco's place. Vito prides himself on being careful and reasonable, but does not completely forsake violence. When his godson, singer Johnny Fontane, wants to be released from his contract with a bandleader, Vito offers to buy him out for the sum of $10,000, but the bandleader refuses. Vito then makes the bandleader an "offer he can't refuse": he has his fearsome personal assassin, Luca Brasi, put a gun to the bandleader's head, and tells the bandleader that, in five seconds, either his signature or his brains will be on the contract. In the end, Vito buys o.... Discover the Christopher Vito popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Christopher Vito books.