🔴Which Real-Life Gangster Marlon Brando's The Godfather Character Is Based On🔴
0Which Real-Life Gangster Marlon Brando's The Godfather Character Is Based On
Considered one of the greatest movies of all time, The Godfather has had a significant impact on movies and popular culture, and among The Godfather's cast of characters, no one has been more influential than the patriarch of the Corleone family, Don Vito Corleone, a fictional mafioso who is based on a variety of real life mob bosses. As The Godfather became an iconic trilogy spanning from 1972 to 1990, Corleone appeared in the first two films, portrayed by Marlon Brando, Robert De Niro, and Oreste Baldini. Notably, Brando won an Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance.
Although Brando and De Niro truly embody Vito Corleone on-screen, and the character has a significant and undeniable presence about him, this is not all due to movie magic or incredible acting. Corleone was first devised by Italian American author Mario Puzo, who wrote the source material for The Godfather, a 1969 novel of the same name. But even aside from that, Don Vito Corleone was not created out of thin air. In order for his character to feel genuine and accurate to his circumstances, Corleone was inspired by and based on several real life criminals and mob bosses.
In The Godfather, Vito Corleone and his family are part of the Five Families, which are the five biggest and most powerful crime families in New York City. Although the Corleones are fictionalized, the idea of the Five Families is not. And though they certainly have lessened their criminal activity over the years, during the era of The Godfather, they held immense power over the city of New York. In real life, the Five Families originally included the Maranzano, Profaci, Mangano, Luciano, and Gagliano families. However, now they are known as the Bonanno, Colombo, Gambino, Genovese, and Lucchese families.
As depicted in The Godfather, the Five Families have held their own territory and followed their own hierarchies since 1931. Each family has its own boss, like Don Vito Corleone, and each boss is part of The Commission, which is a group meant to lead and manage the crime families. The Commission also includes the crime families of Chicago and Buffalo. In 1963, the existence of the Five Families was revealed at the Valachi hearings, and since then their power has arguably diminished.