Lucy Mancini

Lucy Mancini is a fictional character in Mario Puzo's The Godfather. She was portrayed by Jeannie Linero^[1] in The Godfather and The Godfather Part III.

She is one of the childhood friends of Vito Corleone's children, particularly his daughter, Connie. She is the maid of honor at Connie's wedding. Lucy has sex with Vito's married son Sonny at the wedding and has a brief extramarital affair with him. The novel and the films diverge in their treatments of Lucy's fate after Sonny's death.

In the novel

In the novel, Lucy is a fairly important supporting character, with several chapters dedicated to her story. After Sonny's death, Vito's consigliere, Tom Hagen sends Lucy to Las Vegas. She is given a small interest (five and later ten "points") in one of the family's hotels, primarily so that she can keep an eye on Vito's middle son, Fredo, who is learning the hotel and casino business. She also serves as a shareholder-of-record who has no criminal record: several such owners are necessary for a valid gaming license. On paper she is a millionaire, although she does not vote her shares in the casinos.

Eventually, Lucy establishes a new life in Las Vegas, and becomes largely independent of the Corleone clan. She is lonely, however, and occasionally pines for Sonny: while never having loved him or even truly known him, she misses him as a lover, and cannot achieve sexual satisfaction with anyone else. That changes when she meets, falls in love with, and eventually marries, surgeon Jules Segal. He explains that her difficulty in reaching orgasm is caused by a loose vagina, which commonly results from multiple childbirths. In Lucy's case, this happens due to Sonny's large penis and can be remedied with simple vaginal surgery. After Segal's colleague in Los Angeles performs the surgery, Lucy is able to enjoy sex again, and she and Jules presumably are happily married.

In the film

In Francis Ford Coppola's film adaptations, Lucy's role is minimal. She is seen as a young woman in The Godfather, but her character is not featured after Sonny's death. She makes no appearance in The Godfather Part II. In The Godfather Part III, she is present in a manner inconsistent with her fate as described in The Godfather novel. Lucy is the mother of Sonny's illegitimate son, Vincent, who eventually succeeds Michael Corleone as the head of the Corleone crime family. She appears briefly as a guest in the party scene at the beginning of the film very happy when Michael invites Vincent to join the family for a group photo. In Puzo's novel, Lucy does not have a child with Sonny.

References