Sonny Corleone

Santino Corleone

James Caan as Sonny Corleone in The Godfather
First appearance The Godfather
Last appearance The Godfather: The Game
Created by Mario Puzo
Portrayed by James Caan
Roman Coppola (child)
Information
Nickname(s) Sonny (commonly used)
Gender Male
Occupation Mafia boss
Title Underboss, Acting boss
Family Corleone family
Spouse(s) Sandra Corleone
Children Francesca Corleone
Kathryn Corleone
Frank Corleone
Santino Corleone Jr.
Vincent Corleone
Relatives Carlo Rizzi (brother-in-law)
Apollonia Vitelli-Corleone (sister-in-law)
Kay Adams-Corleone (sister-in-law)
Deanna Dunn (sister-in-law)
Victor Rizzi (nephew)
Michael Rizzi (nephew)
Anthony Corleone (nephew)
Mary Corleone (niece)
Father Vito Corleone
Mother Carmela Corleone
Brothers Fredo Corleone
Michael Corleone
Tom Hagen (adopted brother)
Sisters Connie Corleone

Santino "Sonny" Corleone is a fictional character in Mario Puzo's 1969 novel The Godfather and its 1972 film adaptation.

He is the oldest son of the mafia don Vito Corleone and Carmela Corleone.[1] He has two brothers, Fredo and Michael, and a sister, Connie. In the film, Sonny was portrayed by James Caan, who reprised his role for a flashback scene in The Godfather Part II.

Director Francis Ford Coppola's son Roman Coppola played Sonny as a boy in the 1920s scene of that film.

Novel and film biography

In both the novel and the movie, Sonny is the eldest of Vito Corleone's four children (born in 1916). Unlike his soft-spoken, quietly calculating father, Sonny is brash, hot-tempered and quick to violence.

At age 16, Sonny committed a robbery. When Peter Clemenza, Vito's right-hand man and Sonny's godfather, informed Vito about it, Vito demanded his son explain himself. Sonny said he had witnessed Vito murder the feared "Black Hand" gangster Don Fanucci, years before, and he now wants to join the "family business". Vito sent him to Clemenza for training.

Sonny "made his bones" when he was 19. By his mid-20s, he was promoted to a caporegime in the Corleone family. By the end of World War II, he is his father's underboss and heir apparent, respected and feared as a merciless killer with a fiery temper. Sonny is not without a gentler side, however; at age 11, he brought home a homeless boy, Tom Hagen, demanding he be allowed to live with the family. Vito informally adopts Hagen, who eventually rises through the ranks to become Vito's consigliere. As the eldest child, Sonny acts as protector to his younger siblings and has a close relationship with his youngest brother, Michael, and only sister, Connie. He is unable to harm women, children, or anyone unable to defend themselves.

Sonny is married to Sandra with whom he has four children, but he has several mistresses, including Lucy Mancini, who was Connie's bridesmaid. In the novel, Sandra allows - and is grateful for - his infidelities because she is unable to tolerate his enormous penis.

Sonny’s life is upturned in 1945, when drug lord Virgil "The Turk" Sollozzo, backed by the Tattaglia family, approaches Vito with an offer to enter the narcotics trade. During the meeting, Sonny speaks out-of-turn, expressing an interest in the deal that Vito had declined. Vito later reprimands Sonny for revealing his thoughts to an outsider. Sollozzo later attempts to have Vito assassinated, believing Sonny, as his father's successor, will bring the Corleone family into the drug trade.

The failed assassination attempt leaves Vito near death, making Sonny acting boss of the Corleone family. Sonny orders Clemenza to execute Vito's traitorous bodyguard Paulie Gatto. Sollozzo mounts a second assassination attempt on Vito at the hospital, which Michael thwarts. Sonny then orders Bruno Tattaglia, son and underboss of Sollozzo's ally Philip Tattaglia, to be murdered. Sollozzo proposes that Michael to be sent to broker a truce. Sonny, believing it is a trick, refuses and demands that the other Mafia families hand over Sollozzo to the Corleone family or else face war. Hagen successfully convinces Sonny to wait because Captain Mark McCluskey, a corrupt NYPD captain on Sollozzo's payroll, has agreed to be Sollozzo's bodyguard. Hagen warns Sonny that killing McCluskey would violate a long-standing Mafia rule not to kill members of law enforcement and the backlash from rival Mafia families and law enforcement would be severe.

Michael, who had before wanted nothing to do with the family business, volunteers to kill Sollozzo and McCluskey, arguing that McCluskey is fair game because he is a corrupt cop mixed up in the drug trade. Sonny is impressed with Michael's loyalty and bravery, but doubts that his "nice college boy" brother is capable of murder. Ultimately he approves the hit. Michael meets with Sollozzo and McCluskey at an Italian restaurant in the Bronx, and kills both men. This ignites the New York underworld's first Mafia war in a decade. Sonny had arranged for Michael to flee to Sicily under the protection of Vito's friend and longtime ally Don Tommasino.

The war between the Five Families drags on, and Sonny, unable to break the stalemate, orders bloody raids that earn him a legendary reputation but also begins planning a plot to take out the rival Mafia bosses. Emilio Barzini, Vito's rival and the power behind Sollozzo, enlists Connie's husband, Carlo Rizzi, to help set a trap. Earlier, Sonny had severely beaten up Carlo upon learning that he had been physically abusing Connie. To draw Sonny out into the open, Carlo provokes Connie into an argument before savagely beating her. Weeping and injured, she telephones the Corleone compound asking Sonny for help. Furious, Sonny speeds towards Connie's apartment in Hell's Kitchen ahead of his bodyguards. At the Long Beach Causeway toll plaza, Barzini's men ambush Sonny and gun him down.

During a meeting with the Dons of the other crime families to establish peace, Vito realizes that Barzini masterminded Sonny's murder. After Michael returns from Sicily, he takes Sonny's place as Vito's heir apparent. Vito and Michael secretly continue Sonny's plot to wipe out the other New York Dons to avenge Sonny's death. The plan is successfully executed in 1955, after Vito's death from natural causes. Michael informs Carlo that the rival Dons have been killed and coerces Carlo's confession for his part in arranging Sonny's murder. Carlo admits Barzini was the mastermind. On Michael's orders, Clemenza strangles Carlo with a wire. In a single strike, the Corleones become the most powerful crime family in the country.

Role in Godfather sequels

As well as appearing in the original film, The Godfather, Sonny features in the sequel, The Godfather Part II. In this film, he briefly appears in some flashback scenes as an infant and as a young child. He makes a final appearance at the end of the story, in a scene that portrays Vito's birthday celebration in 1941. Michael announces that he has dropped out of college and enlisted to fight in World War II. Sonny is furious at the decision, and he berates his brother for risking his life "for a bunch of strangers." This flashback also reveals that Sonny introduced Carlo to Connie, and the rest of the family, which led to their marriage.

In The Godfather Part III, Vincent Corleone is introduced as Sonny's illegitimate son with Lucy Mancini. Vincent succeeds Michael as head of the Corleone family at the end of the film. Vincent's existence in the film contradicts the literary universe because Puzo's original novel stated that Lucy never bore a child with Sonny.

Family

Behind the scenes

Cultural references

Preceded by
Vito Corleone		 Acting head of the Corleone crime family
The Godfather
ca. 1945–1946 		Succeeded by
Vito Corleone

References

  1. ↑ "Fact and Fiction in The Godfather". crimelibrary.com. Retrieved 2014-06-24.
  2. ↑ Phillips, Gene D. (May 18, 2014). Godfather: The Intimate Francis Ford Coppola. University of Kentucky Press. p. 104. ISBN 9780813146713.
  3. ↑ Seal, Mark (2009-10-20). "The Godfather Wars | Culture". Vanity Fair. Retrieved 2011-03-07.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.