Michael Corleone

Don Michael Corleone
Biographical information
Gender	Male
Born	1920, 23 March Hell's Kitchen, New York, U.S.
Died	1997 Bagheria, Sicily, Italy
Affiliation	Corleone family
Title(s)	Don, The Godfather
Behind the scenes
Portrayed by	Al Pacino Joseph May (voice) Carlos Ferro (voice)

"Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer."

―Michael Corleone

Michael Corleone was the Don of the Corleone family after his father Vito Corleone stepped down.

Biography

"Michael, your father loves you very much."

―Vito Corleone

Vito Corleone and the young Michael and his brothers.

Born in 1920, to Vito and Carmela Corleone, Michael was deeply loved by his father, even prompting Vito to murder blackmailer Don Fanucci so he could support Michael and the rest of his family. He became a bright and handsome young man and of all of Vito Corleone's children, Michael was said to be most like him in terms of intelligence, personality, and cunning.

During childhood, Michael harbored interests in politics and wondered if there would be an Italian president someday; these musings were soon shot down by his brother, Fredo.

The Prodigal Son

"That's my family Kay, not me."

―Michael Corleone

Michael at his sister Connie's wedding.

Michael initially wanted nothing to do with the Corleone "family business", and enrolled 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'd go into politics. After the United States' entry into World War II in 1941, he enlisted in the Marines (training under Sergeant Bradshaw) and fought in the Pacific, even though his father had expended great effort to wrangle a deferment for him. For his bravery in battle, Michael was awarded the Navy Cross, and was also featured in Life magazine in 1944. Michael was discharged as a Captain to recover from wounds- along with friend Hank Vogelsong in 1945. However, unbeknownst to Michael, the doctor treating him had been bribed by his father to exaggerate his injury in order to send him home.

Returning to Dartmouth, he met a young teaching student, Kay Adams; where the two eventually fell in love. Kay went with Michael as he returned to New York to attend his sister Connie's wedding. He assured Kay on numerous occasions that he wanted a more normal life, and wanted nothing at all to do with the Mafia.

However, when his father was nearly assassinated in 1945, he became more involved in the "family business". After saving his father from another assassination attempt at the hospital, Michael's jaw was broken a corrupt policeman, Captain Mark McCluskey. After this, Michael volunteered to murder the men responsible, Virgil Sollozzo and McCluskey, who was now acting as Sollozzo's bodyguard.

Michael's older brother, Sonny Corleone, was shocked at this suggestion, since it had long been a hard and fast rule in the American Mafia that policemen were not to be harmed. However, Michael showed his cunning when he argued that McCluskey was fair game since he was corrupt and serving as Sollozzo's bodyguard. He also suggested that the family use their contacts in the newspaper to play up McCluskey's connection to Sollozzo and being "involved in the rackets" of organized crime, thereby relieving some of the flack that the Corleones would receive afterward. After committing the murders, Michael was sent to Sicily to lie low until the heat died down.

Sicily

Michael and his bodyguards in Sicily.

Under the protection of his father's old friend Don Tommasino, Michael remained in hiding for two years, living in Dr. Taza's old villa and receiving warm hospitality from the mayor of Bagheria, Bendino.

Michael's time in Sicily has a profound effect on him. While there, he learned of the Mafia's roots and there he also fell in love with, and soon married, a beautiful young woman named Apollonia, but she was killed by a car bomb intended for Michael after he was betrayed by his bodyguard Fabrizio.

The Sicilian

After Apollonia's death, Michael was visited by caporegime Peter Clemenza, who told him that his father wanted him to escort Salvatore Giuliano safely back to America with him. As he learns more about Guiliano's reputation and exploits, Michael becomes extremely interested in meeting him, but Giuliano is betrayed and killed by his best friend, cousin, and second in command Gaspare Pisciotta. Upon returning from Sicily, Michael speaks with his father, who proceeds to explain what happened with the plan to escort Giuliano from Sicily and how it all went wrong, that ultimately Michael was used as a pawn to ensure his own safe return to America in a deal Vito made with Don Croce Malo to obtain evidence collected by Giuliano to use against Don Croce and the Christian Democratic Party; without the evidence in his possession, Giuliano's days were numbered and his fate was sealed after he made a final but failed attempt on Don Croce.

Michael is disappointed and disillusioned by this, but Vito tells him, "That is Sicily."

The New Don

"Today, I will settle all family business."

―Michael Corleone

Michael and his men.

While in Sicily, he learns that his older brother Sonny was murdered and returns to New York. There, he becomes involved in his family's criminal enterprises, taking over for his deceased brother as underboss of the family under Vito's supervision and subtly attacking the other families' businesses through the use of his secret caporegime, Rocco Lampone. At the same time, he persuades his father that it is time to begin to remove the family from organized crime. He reunites with Kay and marries her a year later, promising to make the Corleone family legitimate within five years. They have two children, Anthony and Mary. They are born within two years of each other, leading Michael to joke that Kay is "more Italian than Yankee".

Vito goes into semiretirement in 1954, and Michael becomes operating head of the family. At first, longtime capos Peter Clemenza and Salvatore Tessio, as well as consigliere Tom Hagen, aren't sure that Michael is strong enough to keep the family going, especially as the Barzini and Tattaglia families move in on the Corleones' territory. Clemenza and Tessio are even more convinced of this when Michael refuses to allow them to retaliate. In truth, Michael and his father began planning to wipe out Barzini and Tattaglia soon after Michael returned to America. Soon after taking over day-to-day control of the family, Michael tries to buy out casino owner Moe Greene's stake in his Las Vegas casino, intending to move his family to Nevada. Greene angrily refuses Michael's offer.

Vito dies in 1955, and Michael officially becomes Don. Shortly before his death, Vito warned Michael that after he was gone, the Barzini family would make an attempt on his life under the pretense of organizing a meeting to make peace between the two families, using a traitor within the Family, who would offer to arrange the meeting and guarantee Michael's safety. At the funeral, Tessio inadvertently reveals himself to be the traitor by making that offer. Shortly after the funeral, Michael puts his plan into action. He orders the simultaneous murders of the leaders of the New York Mafia's other Dons during the baptism of Connie's newest child. Barzini, Philip Tattaglia, Carmine Cuneo, and Victor Stracci, as well as Tessio and (in the film) Moe Greene (who had been murdered in a separate incident earlier in the novel) are all killed in different locations at the same time.

He also orders the murder of Carlo Rizzi, his brother-in-law, who beat his sister Connie and set Sonny up to be killed. Carlo was led to believe that he would be Michael's second-in-command when they moved to Nevada. However, this was merely a ploy to make Carlo vulnerable, per Vito's advice to "Keep your friends close and your enemies closer." At Michael's house, Michael confronts his brother-in-law, telling him that he knew about Carol's betrayal in setting up Sonny for his assassination. Michael asks Carlo who he conspired with; Carlo tells him it was Barzini. Michael tells Carlo that he's out of the family and that he'll be taken to Las Vegas. When Carlo gets into the car, he's garotted to death by Clemenza as they drive away.

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 to placate her. Just moments later, however, he meets with his capos. Clemenza greets him as "Don Corleone" and kisses Michael's hand. Unbeknownst to Michael, Kay is watching this meeting, and realizes that Connie was telling the truth after all — and that her husband has become a powerful Don, even more ruthless than his father.

The Move to Nevada

"It made me think of what you once told me - 'In five years the Corleone family will be completely legitimate.' That was seven years ago."
"I know... I'm trying, darling."

―Kay Adams and Michael Corleone

Michael in his office in Lake Tahoe, Nevada.

Don Michael Corleone receives visitors.

A few years after the move to Nevada, Michael, now in his mid-thirties, named Clemenza as consigliere and head of the family's New York operations. Clemenza died of a supposed heart attack, and was replaced by longtime family friend and soldier Frank Pentangeli.

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 were largely unsuccessful, as his many enemies kept him involved in the underworld.

He begins working out a deal with Hyman Roth, a longtime business partner of the family as well as a rival, over control of casino operations. Unknown to Michael, Roth was actually maneuvering to have Michael killed in revenge for the death of Moe Greene, his longtime friend. Roth manipulated Michael's brother Fredo into unwittingly providing him with information used to arrange an attempt on Michael's life, which nearly succeeds. Roth also attempted to murder Pentangeli, while making him think that Michael was to blame.

Michael concludes on his own that Roth was behind the assassination attempt, but suspects that he had help from a mole in the Corleone family. He decides to make Roth think they still have a good business relationship, but only as a ploy to find out who Roth paid to set up the hit.

Michael and Roth travelled to Cuba to forge a partnership with Fulgencio Batista's government, allowing them to be free to conduct their operations in Cuba without interference from the authorities, in return for generous payments to Batista. While in Cuba, Michael sent his loyal bodyguard Bussetta to kill both Roth and his right-hand man, Johnny Ola, on New Year's Eve. That night, he discovered Fredo was the one who'd sold him out to Roth, leading Fredo to flee during Castro's takeover that night. Bussetta managed to kill Ola, but when he tried to smother Roth to death, he was shot to death by soldiers. Roth recovered and tried to flee to Israel.

The Culling

"Mike, we've won. Why do you have to wipe everybody out?"
"I don't feel I have to wipe everyone out, Tom. Just my enemies."

―Tom Hagen and Michael Corleone

Michael at the Senate hearings.

Meanwhile, Kay grows increasingly repulsed by Michael's growing immersion in criminal life. Fearing her unborn son will tie them to the Mafia forever, she secretly has an abortion, while Michael is away in Cuba, and passes it off as a miscarriage, planning to escape Michael forever.

Shortly afterward, Pentangeli and Willie Cicci are persuaded to testify against Michael in the Senate's investigation of the Mafia. It turns out that the hearing was part of Roth's scheme to eliminate Michael. Fredo has returned to Lake Tahoe at this point, and claimed he only dealt with Roth and Ola in hopes of getting rich on his own. He also reveals that he has long resented being passed over to head the family, feeling that as the second-oldest son, he should be the boss. Michael appears to believe that Fredo didn't know about Roth's attempt on his life. However, he severs all ties with his brother anyway, when Fredo admits he withheld vital information from him about the hearings, namely that the Senate lawyer, Questadt, belonged to Roth. He tells his bodyguard, Al Neri, that Fredo is to die–but doesn't want anything to happen to him while their mother is still alive.

Michael is initially unconcerned when Cicci, a low level soldier, testifies against him. However, he is alarmed when Pentangeli is called as a surprise witness, since there is no insulation between them. Knowing Pentangeli's testimony could easily send him to jail, Michael has his brother, Vincenzo, fly in from Sicily. Vincenzo's icy stare is enough for Frank to recant his testimony. After Michael returns from the hearing, Kay tells him that she plans to leave him and take their two children with her. Michael tries to get her to reconsider, but Kay, unmoved, tells him that her "miscarriage" was actually an abortion. Enraged, Michael slaps Kay across the face and disowns her; the two divorce later that year.

Following the death of their mother and at Connie's behest, Michael appeared to reconcile with his brother, but secretly ordered Fredo's murder, an act he would regret for the rest of his life and which he eventually confesses to the future pope. He also sent Rocco Lampone to kill Roth while he was returning to Miami, though Lampone was killed by the FBI agents guarding Roth, while he sent Tom Hagen to convince Pentangeli to commit suicide.

An Old Foe Returns

Michael's troubles were only momentarily halted, for his treacherous capo, Nick Geraci reemerged in the early 1960s, having lived in a cave near Lake Erie following his departure from the family. Michael sent out a manhunt against him, led by Thomas Neri and the DiMiceli brothers, but this failed due to the unreliability of Michael's CIA contact, Joe Lucadello. At this time, Carlo Tramonti, the Don of New Orleans caused a stir in the Commission by announcing his plans to assassinate President James Shea.

Eventually, Geraci was brought out into the open with the help of Don Stracci and Don Frank Greco. Michael had his former associate executed by Eddie Paradise during an ambush on Staten Island. Don Tramonti and the treacherous Lucadello were also killed.

Seeking Legitimacy

"Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in."

―Michael Corleone

Michael with his protégé Vincent.

By 1979, Michael, now 59 years old, has moved back to New York and taken great steps to making the family legitimate. He has sold most of his casinos and reorganized his now-vast business holdings as the "Corleone Group". Some years earlier, he turned over what remains of his criminal interests in New York to Joey Zasa, a longtime member of the old Clemenza regime. However, he largely keeps Zasa at arm's length, as he views him as too hungry for public attention.

Michael initially kept custody of Anthony and Mary as a result of his divorce from Kay. However, sometime in the 1960s, he turned over custody of the children to their mother. They have had a somewhat frosty relationship over the years, made even chillier by the fact that Kay and Anthony know that Michael had Fredo killed.

Still guilty over his bloody rise to power, he is now using his wealth and power to restore his reputation. He has set up charitable foundation, and is named a Commander of the Order of St. Sebastian by the Catholic Church for his good works.

Michael's new connection to the Church gave him the opportunity to pursue his biggest deal ever–taking over the real estate company, Immobiliare. Michael is already the company's largest shareholder, and reaches an agreement in principle to acquire controlling interest by buying the Vatican's 25 percent stake. He also began to rekindle his relationship with Kay, as well as taking Sonny's illegitimate son, Vincent Mancini, under his wing, after the headstrong youth attacked Michael's subversive New York boss, Joey Zasa, at a party. Zasa later wiped out most the Commission, yet Michael and his old friend Don Altobello escaped. Michael had a diabetic stroke, and whilst incapacitated, Connie gave Vincent and Al Neri the go-ahead to kill Zasa.

The Immobiliare Plot

"All my life I kept trying to go up in society. Where everything higher up was legal. But the higher I go, the crookeder it becomes."

―Michael Corleone

Michael loses his daughter Mary.

Michael soon discovered that the Immobiliare deal is actually an elaborate swindle concocted by company chairman Licio Lucchesi and corrupt Vatican officials Archbishop Gilday and Frederick Keinszig to cover up their looting of the Vatican Bank. Hoping to salvage the deal, he sought the assistance of Don Tommasino. Tommasino directed him to the honest Cardinal Lamberto, who persuades him to make his first confession in 30 years. Michael tearfully confesses his many crimes, including the murder of Fredo.

Michael later returned to Sicily to watch Anthony perform at the Teatro Massimo. However, he soon became aware of two assassins, Mosca and Spara, whom Don Altobello, in league with the plotters, had hired to kill him. Mosca killed Tommasino, and Michael vowed before his dead friend's coffin to sin no more.

Retirement

"What betrayed me? My mind? My heart? Why do I condemn myself so? I swear, on the lives of my children: Give me a chance to redeem myself, and I will sin, no more."

―Michael Corleone

Michael, shortly before his death.

Following this vow, Vincent, who had been spying on Altobello, revealed that Lucchesi was behind the plot against Michael's life. He asked for permission to strike back. Weary of the bloody, lonely life of a Don, Michael retired and made his nephew the new head of the family, on condition that he end his relationship with Mary. That night, Michael, reconciled with Kay and Anthony, watched his son perform in the opera Cavalleria rusticana. That same night, Vincent, with Michael's tacit blessing, wipes out Lucchesi, Gilday and Keinszig in a bloody wave of murders. However, Mary was inadvertently killed in an assassination attempt on her father, being shot to death in front of her family. Devastated by this loss, Michael retired to Sicily and bought Don Tommasino's old villa, where he lived with his first wife Apollonia. He died there in 1997, distraught and alone, of a stroke while sitting in a chair in front of the villa.

Family Members

• Vito Corleone — Father
• Carmela Corleone — Mother
• Santino Corleone — Eldest brother, Underboss to Vito
• Connie Corleone — Sister
• Fredo Corleone — Elder brother, Underboss to Vito and Michael
• Tom Hagen — Adopted brother & Consigliere
• Andrew Hagen — Adopted nephew & Godson
• Apollonia Vitelli — First wife (widowed)
• Kay Adams — Second wife (divorced)
• Anthony Corleone — Son
• Mary Corleone — Daughter
• Vincent Mancini — Nephew, succeeding Don
• Paolo Andolini - Paternal uncle
• Antonio Andolini — Paternal grandfather
• Signora Andolini — Paternal grandmother

Personality and Traits

Michael was the strongest of the Corleone family, though originally he wanted nothing to do with the family business, but he was quickly pulled in after the assassination attempt on his father. When Michael volunteered to assassinate Sollozzo, everyone, especially Sonny, was surprised. While he was experienced in handling guns from his time in the Marines, Clemenza taught him how to use a handgun and dispose of it.

Once ensconced in the family business, Michael quickly established a reputation for ruthlessness to a far greater degree than his father. This behaviour was caused by the traumatic experience of having to watch his first wife Apollonia die in an assassination attempt, in which he was the intended target. He preferred to wipe out all of his enemies in one fell swoop, as it happened with his slaughter of the other Dons and his killing of Hyman Roth and his associates.

However, where Michael truly shone was in business. He spent most of his tenure as Don trying to legitimize the family and remove his ties to the Mafia. He moved to Nevada and quickly turned the family into a successful business venture. He would only deal with people that had reasonable business connections and more or less knew his father. He despised hotshot businessmen like Moe Greene for not showing him or at least his family some respect.

Michael loved his family but his thirst for revenge and ambition was stronger, which led him to kill Carlo, the husband of Connie and later his brother Fredo. This thirst for revenge also led him to even use his own family for these murders. He also had a selfish reason for having Anthony, as he wanted him to follow in his footsteps. When he showed no interest in the business, Michael chose to have another son. This dream was cut short, however, as the boy Kay was to have was aborted. This was seen as one of the few times Michael ever showed anger at her. His behavior led him to betray his own family in the end, which led to their rejection of him.

In Michael's final days as the Don of the Corleone family, he largely succeeded in his quarter-century drive to make the family legitimate. He finally swore off the mob life forever and turned over leadership of the family to his nephew Vincent. Just as he had finally shaken off his ties to the Mafia, he was stricken by grief when his only daughter, Mary, was killed in an assassination attempt on his life. Afterward, Michael was a completely broken man, who died alone and fully damned.

In the video games

Michael in The Godfather: The Game.

Michael appears in The Godfather: The Game, although he doesn't have Al Pacino's likeness or voice. The reason for this is because Al Pacino signed a likeness agreement to another company for the video game Scarface: The World Is Yours. But the character was still used as Paramount and EA had the rights to The Godfather.

The Godfather: The Game

"My father as suggested and I agreed, from today you will stand at my right hand, as my Caporegime."

―Michael to Aldo Trapani

In the first video game, main protagonist Aldo Trapani helped Michael through many jobs. Michael went to the hospital, after his father Don Vito Corleone was shot five times, where Aldo helped him escape and later had Aldo put a gun in the toilet. Aldo also drives Michael away from the scene, while in the book it was Tessio.

He is cold and calculating here, even before returning from Sicily, and is voiced by Joseph May.

The Godfather II

Michael in The Godfather II.

"I am trusting you to run New York Dominic, can you do this for me?"

―Michael Corleone

Michael also appears in The Godfather II, where Aldo is killed and the role of Don of New York is given to Dominic. He also encourages Dominic to ally himself with Samuele Mangano and is furious when Mangano betrays him. He eventually allows Dominic to prove himself by eliminating all threats to the Corleones. Here, he is voiced by Carlos Ferro and is a cruel, distant character.

Behind the Scenes

• Michael Corleone is loosely based on Joseph Bonanno and Vito Genovese. Bonanno became a boss of his own family at a very young age and he relocated some of his businesses to Arizona in the 1960s. Genovese had fled to Sicily in the 1930s due to murder charges and ordered the deaths of rival bosses in the 1950s. Genovese was also infamous for being duplicitous, as well as for his kiss of death, given to Joseph Valachi, just as Michael did with his brother Fredo.
• It is also believed that Joe Bonanno's son Salvatore served as a model for Michael Corleone.
• Michael's papal recognition and charity funds may well be inspired by Joe Profaci's quest for papal approval. Like Michael, Profaci donated to Catholic charities, and a group of leading Italian-Americans (including priests) petitioned the Pope to confer a knighthood on him, which was eventually denied.
• Michael Corleone is the main character and protagonist in The Godfather film series, in which he is portrayed by Al Pacino. Don Corleone, as portrayed by Pacino, is ranked as the eighth greatest movie character of all time by Total Film Magazine, and is recognized as the 11th most iconic villain in film history by the American Film Institute.
• According to an early draft of the script of the first film, Vito expressly forbade the family from getting Michael involved in the family's shadier dealings.
• Michael is the only character to appear in every novel, every film and every video game.
• Michael smokes Camel without a filter.
• In Back to the Future: The Game one of the names that Marty McFly uses is Michael Corleone.
• Michael is a diabetic, as hinted in the first two films when Michael is seen drinking water, according to Francis Ford Coppola.
• On his U.S. Marine Corps uniform, Michael wears the Silver Star, Navy & Marine Corps Medal, Purple Heart, Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal with one bronze oak leaf cluster, European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal with one bronze oak leaf cluster, and the World War II Victory Medal.

Gallery

Michael and Kay at Connie's wedding, 1945.

Michael and Sonny at Connie's wedding, 1945.

Michael kills Sollozzo and McCluskey.

Michael in Corleone, Sicily.

Michael at his first wedding with his new bride, Apollonia.

Michael and his father, c.1955.

Michael, c.1958

Michael, c.1958

Michael, 1958

Michael and Al Neri in Lake Tahoe, Nevada, 1958.

Michael assassinates Fabrizio in a Godfather Part II deleted scene.

Michael gives acting Don status to Tom, 1958.

Michael and Frank Pentangeli, 1958.

Michael and Fredo in Cuba, 1958.

Michael, Tom and Kay at the Senate hearings, 1959.

Michael and Tom, 1959.

Michael at his party for receiving papal honors, 1979.

Michael and Kay in Sicily, c.1979.

Kay and Michael at Anthony's first performance, 1980.

External Links

• Fact and Fiction in The Godfather

Don of the Corleone crime family
Preceded by: Vito Corleone	1955-1980	Succeeded by: Vincent Mancini