Michael Corleone is a fictional character and the protagonist of Mario Puzo's 1969 novel The Godfather, as well as the villain protagonist of the movie trilogy it launched. In the three Godfather films, directed by Francis Ford Coppola, Michael was portrayed by Al Pacino, for which he was twice nominated for Academy Awards. Michael is the youngest son of Vito Corleone, a Sicilian immigrant who builds a Mafia empire. Upon his father's death, Michael succeeds him as the don of the Corleone crime family.
In June 2003, Michael Corleone was recognized as the 11th most iconic villain in film history by the American Film Institute, although some critics consider him to be a tragic hero. The British film magazine Empire selected Michael Corleone as the 11th greatest movie character, with Pacino's performance as Michael Corleone widely regarded as one of the greatest performances in cinematic history.
Family Born on March 23, 1920, to Mafia don Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando) and his wife Carmela (Morgana King), Michael has two older brothers, Santino "Sonny" Corleone (James Caan) and Frederico "Fredo" Corleone (John Cazale), and a younger sister, Constanzia "Connie" Corleone (Talia Shire). The family consigliere, Tom Hagen (Robert Duvall), is their informally adopted brother.
The Godfather In his novel The Godfather, Mario Puzo introduces Michael with the following physical description: "He did not have the heavy, Cupid-shaped face of [his siblings], and his jet black hair was straight rather than curly. His skin was a clear olive-brown that would have been called beautiful in a girl. He was handsome in a delicate way."The Godfather by Mario Puzo. (1972, Book Club Associates by arrangement with William Heinemann Ltd), p.17 Later in the novel, Puzo writes, "Michael was not tall or heavily built but his presence seemed to radiate danger."The Godfather by Mario Puzo. (1972, Book Club Associates by arrangement with William Heinemann Ltd), p.135
Michael initially wants nothing to do with the Corleone "family business", and enrolls at Dartmouth College in order to escape any potential involvement in crime. (In truth, his father never wanted Michael to be involved in the family's criminal enterprise and actually hoped he would go into politics.) After the United States' entry into World War II in 1941, he enlists in the Marines and fights in the Pacific, even though his father had expended great effort to wrangle a deferment for him. For his bravery in battle, Michael is awarded the Navy Cross and featured in Life magazine in 1944. The next year, Michael is discharged as a Captain to recover from wounds. However, unbeknownst to Michael, the doctor treating him had been bribed by his father to exaggerate his injury in order to send him home. Michael returns home to attend his sister Connie's wedding at the end of August accompanied by Kay Adams (Diane Keaton), his college sweetheart. Michael stays for a few weeks, intending to re-enter college without telling his family.
Just before Christmas 1945, Vito is critically wounded in an assassination attempt by drug kingpin Virgil Sollozzo (Al Lettieri), pushing Michael into the Mafia world he has avoided for so long. Arriving at the hospital, he finds his bedridden father unprotected from potential attack. While awaiting Corleone reinforcements, Michael prevents a second assassination attempt on Vito by Sollozzo, then affirms his loyalty to his father. Captain Mark McCluskey (Sterling Hayden), a corrupt NYPD captain on Sollozzo's payroll, breaks Michael's jaw before more Corleone button men arrive.
As Vito Corleone recuperates, Sollozzo requests that Michael broker a truce, but acting boss Sonny, suspecting a trap, refuses and demands the other Mafia families hand over Sollozzo to the Corleone family or else face war. Michael volunteers to meet Sollozzo in a public place in order to kill him and McCluskey. Hagen warns that killing McCluskey would violate a long-standing Mafia rule not to kill police officers, and says it would incite deadly backlash from rival Mafia families and law enforcement. Michael argues that they can publicly expose McCluskey to the newspapers/media on their payroll as a corrupt cop involved in the drug trade. He also argues that since McCluskey is serving as Sollozzo's bodyguard, McCluskey has crossed into their world and is fair game. Sonny agrees and approves the hit.
After careful preparation, Michael meets with Sollozzo and McCluskey at an Italian restaurant in The Bronx. He retrieves a handgun that Corleone caporegime Peter Clemenza (Richard Castellano) had planted beforehand in the bathroom and kills Sollozzo and McCluskey at point-blank range. This ignites the New York underworld's first Mafia war in a decade.
Michael escapes to Sicily and spends two years under Corleone ally Don Tommasino's (Corrado Gaipa) protection. Michael falls in love with and marries a young local woman named Apollonia Vitelli (Simonetta Stefanelli). Back in the United States, Sonny is murdered. After Michael is notified of Sonny's murder, he and Apollonia prepare to move to Siracusa, but she is killed by a car bomb meant for Michael, proving the other Mafia families know where he is hiding.
Michael returns to the United States in 1950 and assumes Sonny's role as Vito's heir apparent. After Vito's suspicions are confirmed that Don Emilio Barzini (Richard Conte), his main rival in New York City, is the mastermind of his shooting and Sonny's murder, he and Michael begin a secret, complex plot to wipe out the other New York Dons. They deliberately allow their rivals to whittle away at Corleone interests to lull them into inaction. Meanwhile, Michael convinces his father that it is time to remove the family from crime. More than a year following his return, Michael reunites with Kay and they marry. He promises her the Corleone family will be completely legitimate in five years. Within three years, they have two children, Anthony and Mary.
Vito semi-retires in 1951, and Michael becomes operating head of the family. He offers to buy out casino owner Moe Greene's (Alex Rocco) stake in the Las Vegas casino the Corleones bankrolled, intending to move the family to Nevada as part of his effort to legitimize the Corleone interests; Greene refuses to sell. Corleone family caporegimes Salvatore Tessio (Abe Vigoda) and Clemenza request permission to begin operating their own families in Corleone territory. Michael, with Vito's support, advises them to be patient and wait until the move to Las Vegas is completed. Tessio and Clemenza agree, but are clearly dissatisfied.
In 1955, Vito warns Michael that Barzini will likely attempt to assassinate Michael under the pretense of negotiating peace between the families, using a disloyal contact within the Corleone regime. Whoever approaches Michael about the meeting, Vito explains, will be the traitor within the family. Shortly thereafter, Vito dies of a heart attack while playing with his grandson Anthony in his tomato garden.
At Vito's funeral, Tessio tells Michael that Barzini wants to arrange a meeting, confirming Vito's prediction. Michael sets his plan in motion to murder the other New York Mafia heads: Barzini, Philip Tattaglia (Victor Rendina), Carmine Cuneo (Rudy Bond), and Victor Stracci (Don Costello), as well as Greene. The plot unfolds on the same day Michael stands as godfather to Connie's newborn son, Michael Francis Rizzi. Later the same day, he has Tessio and Carlo Rizzi (Gianni Russo), Connie's abusive husband who conspired in Sonny's murder, executed. In one stroke, Michael re-establishes the Corleone family as the nation's most powerful crime family and establishes a reputation as being even more cunning and ruthless than his father.
A few days later, Connie furiously accuses Michael of murdering Carlo. When challenged by Kay, Michael denies having ordered Carlo's murder. Kay, initially believing Michael, later observes him receiving his capos. Clemenza addresses Michael as "Don Corleone" and kisses his hand in the same manner that he did with Michael's father. Kay realizes Connie's accusations were true, and that Michael has become his father's successor in every way. In the novel, Kay sees Michael standing "arrogantly at ease," which is enough to convince her that Connie was telling the truth. Also in the novel, Kay leaves Michael, but Hagen persuades her to return.
A few years after the move to Nevada, Michael, now in his mid-thirties, names Clemenza as consigliere and head of the family's New York operations. Although he is now firmly entrenched as the most powerful crime boss in the nation, he steps up his efforts to make the Corleone family legitimate. For instance, he buys a construction company and several other businesses in an effort to lead a more normal life. However, his efforts at redeeming the family are largely unsuccessful, as his many enemies keep him involved in the underworld.
The Godfather Part II The Godfather Part II is set in 1958 and 1959. The Corleone family has relocated to Nevada, while capo Frank Pentangeli (Michael V. Gazzo) runs the family's operations in New York, Clemenza having died a few years before. While Michael's many enemies and growing obsession with revenge keep him tethered to the criminal underworld, he still plans to finally legitimize the family by negotiating with Hyman Roth (Lee Strasberg), his father's former business partner, over controlling casino operations in Cuba.
Hours after Anthony's First Communion party, assassins open fire on the Corleone house, nearly killing Michael and Kay. Michael suspects Roth ordered the hit, and believes a mole within the Corleone family aided him. To uncover Roth's involvement, Michael maintains their business relationship, and orders Pentangeli to settle a dispute with Roth's business partners, the Rosato Brothers. When Pentangeli meets with them, they try to kill him, but he survives.
Michael, Roth, and Fredo travel to Cuba to forge a partnership with Fulgencio Batista allowing them to operate casinos in Cuba without interference in exchange for generous payments to the Cuban government. Michael sends his bodyguard to eliminate Roth on New Year's Eve, but Cuban soldiers kill the bodyguard during the attempt. That same night, Fredo unintentionally reveals that he was the mole within the family; Michael confronts Fredo and gives him the Sicilian "kiss of death". During the New Year's Eve festivities, victorious rebel forces enter Havana, forcing Batista into exile and ruining Michael's plans. Fredo, afraid of his brother, runs off, while Roth escapes to Miami.
Meanwhile, Pentangeli, believing Michael had ordered a hit on him, prepares to testify against him in the Senate's investigation of organized crime. However, Michael has Pentangeli's brother Vincenzo (Salvatore Po) brought from Sicily. Just prior to the hearing, Vincenzo and Frank exchange glances. Understanding the threat, Pentangeli recants his earlier sworn statements, throwing the hearings into chaos and effectively destroying the government's case against Michael.
Fredo confesses to Michael that Roth's right-hand man, Johnny Ola (Dominic Chianese), had promised to reward him for information about Michael. Fredo also says that he resents being "passed over" to head the family in favor of Michael, and that he withheld key information about the Senate investigation. Michael disowns Fredo and tells his personal assassin Al Neri (Richard Bright) that nothing is to happen to his brother while their mother is alive — the implication being that Neri is to kill Fredo after she dies.