Apollonia Vitelli was Michael Corleone's first wife.
Biography[]
Apollonia Vitelli was born in the hills around Corleone, Sicily. Apollonia was the only daughter of a Greek mother and a Sicilian father, who were incredibly protective of her and never wanted her heritage to be confused. She was the third child, having two older brothers. Apollonia was seventeen and Michael was 27, during the course of the event.
Courtship[]
- "In Sicily, women are more dangerous than shotguns."
- ―Calò[src]
Michael and Apollonia at their wedding.
After escaping New York and finding refuge in Sicily, Michael sees Apollonia for the first time while he is walking with his bodyguards Calò and Fabrizio, towards the town of Corleone (in the book, he is resting with his guards under an orange tree). He is immediately lusts after her. In the film, She is walking with others girls and appears more serious, and in the book she is running chased by some girls and the atmosphere is more noisy and happy. Running, she comes across the men resting, a moment of general silence follows, and after an ecstatic comment from Fabrizio she runs away in fear.
After seeing Apollonia for the first time, he immediately wanted to find out who the beautiful young woman was. Calò and Fabrizio told Michael that he had been hit by what Italians call "the Thunderbolt.” After discovering that she is the daughter of an innkeeper, who also produces wine, he asks her father to meet her. Michael threatens the life of her father and even thinks about killing her brothers. Out of fear and the fact that Michael is an American, he allows him to court her. They are married in the presence of Don Tommasino, Apollonia's family and many of the people of Corleone.
Marriage[]
- "I know English. Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Wednesday, Friday, Sunday, Saturday."
- ―Apollonia Vitelli[src]
Michael and Apollonia on their wedding night.
During their quick marriage, Michael considers Apollonia a slave and something to posses and Apollonia sees him as freedom as he is an Americans Michael teaches her English and how to drive a car, and promises to take her with him to America. Apollonia begins to wear Americanized up-do hairstyles; smoke and drive which is discouraged among Sicilian women to which her parents begin to worry about her.
Death[]
- "No! No, Apollonia!"
- ―Michael seconds before Apollonia's death.[src]
When Michael was readying to relocate from Don Tommasino's villa due to concern for his safety after the murder of his brother Sonny, Apollonia wished to impress her husband and show him her newfound driving skills — Sicilian women at that time generally did not learn how to drive. When she started the car to drive towards him, she unknowingly ignited a bomb planted in the car, intended for Michael, the subsequent explosion killed her instantly. The attack was orchestrated by Michael's trusted bodyguard, Fabrizio, who was paid off by the Barzini family from New York.
Michael's car explodes, with an unfortunate Apollonia behind the wheel.
Michael finally returns to America a few months later, and after six months, quickly recovers from her death. Two years later and many attempts to find Kay, he proposes to her within their first encounter in years. Apollonia is never mentioned again before The Godfather Part III (in book, he never stopped looking for Fabrizio, that after will be kill in the pizza parlor where he worked) ; in the The Godfather Part III, Michael reveals to his daughter Mary that he had a first wife, whom he loved, and who died due to an attack that was supposed to hit him, and he makes his daughter understand that she must not date a man like her cousin Vincent, because is dangerous.
Apollonia's death was one of the reasons that made Michael a man with an uncontrollable thirst for revenge, which would set a chain reaction of events in motion. Ultimately, Michael's attitude he gained when he was widowed would cause the self-destruction of the Corleone family.
Legacy[]
- "She was wonderful, beautiful. I loved her. And then she died. My trusted bodyguard planted a bomb in my car. She drove it before I did."
- ―Michael Corleone[src]
Michael's photos of Apollonia, decades after her death.
Along with the murder of his brother Santino, and the attempted assassination of his father Vito, Appolonia’s death was one of the final tipping point that caused Michael’s transformation into the ruthless and revenge driven crime lord he became. He was particularly reminded of her by the Sicilian ballad "Brucia La Terra", which his son Anthony performed for him upon his return to Sicily in 1980.
Michael considered a Apollonia possession and quickly recovered from her death, as she represented the conservative and sexiest side of Michael and Sicilian culture. He of course did return to America and marry Kay, the woman whom he loved the entire time and attempted to have a loving marriage with her but his lies and hunger for revenge got in the way.
In 1997, 49 years after her death, Michael died in the courtyard of Don Tommasino's villa, the same courtyard where her life was taken.
Behind the scenes[]
- In The Godfather novel, Apollonia was pregnant at the time of the explosion. This detail is not specified in the film, though it may have been true.
- In a deleted scene of The Godfather Part II (later restored in The Godfather Saga), Michael avenges Apollonia's death by killing Fabrizio with a bomb placed in his car at his pizzeria in Buffalo. In the novel, Michael loses contact with Fabrizio, taking a long time to find him again, where it is learned he has opened a pizzeria in Buffalo, NY. However, Fabrizio's endgame is slightly different. He is at work when a man walks in appearing to be a potential customer. The man, actually a member of the Corleone crime family, produces a lupara (a Sicilian short-barrelled shotgun, designed to hunt wolves, but known to be mainly used by mafiosi for executions) and says "Michael Corleone sends his regards" and opens fire. Fabrizio is hit in the chest, whereupon he bleeds to death almost immediately. The hitman identifies Fabrizio by the elaborate tattoo on his chest.
Gallery[]
