Vito Corleone
via the Canadian Press Vito Corleone is the fictional head of one of the five big New York Mafia families in the movie The Godfather (played by Robert de Niro in his youth and by Marlon Brando when older). He is depicted as an ambitious Italian immigrant to Little Italy who builds a mafia empire, yet still loves his family. His youngest son, Michael Corleone becomes the Don upon his death. His other sons are Sonny Corleone and Fredo Corleone. Born Vito Andolini in 1887 in Corleone, Sicily, his family was murdered by the local don when he was 14 years old (a crime he would avenge years later when he himself was don) and he fled to New York He was accidentally listed on Ellis Island as Vito Corleone because he was given a name tag with his hometown and couldn't speak the English necessary to correct the mistake. He later took the name as a point of pride.
He soon learned to survive and prosper through petty crime and performing favors in return for loyalty. He committed his first murder, killing the neighborhood don, in 1919. He found out later that Sonny saw him commit the murder, and he afterwards blamed himself for his son's violent streak. As a young man, he started an olive oil business with his lifelong friend and "consigliere" (advisor) Genco Abbandando, and over the years used it to amass a fortune and as a legal front for his organized crime syndicate. While he oversaw a business founded on gambling, prostitution, bootlegging and murder, he was known as a kind, generous man who lived by a strict moral code of loyalty to friends and, above all, family. In 1946, a rival tried to have him assassinated when he refused to have his underlings sell drugs, sparking a chain of events that resulted in Sonny's murder and Michael's eventual ascension to the head of the family, which he never wanted for his favorite son. In 1955, he died of a heart attack while playing with his grandson, Anthony.
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