History Characters / TheGodfatherCorleoneFamily

* IronyAsSheIsCast: A retroactive example, but Gianni Russo would later be involved in an incident where he shot a man in self-defense trying to stop him from harassing a woman. Contrast this with his wife-beating character and it's quite a contrast

* FromNobodyToNightmare: At the start of ''Coda/Part III'', Vincent Mancini is a relative small fry, whose claim to notability being that he runs what's left of Genco's Imports, and that he's Sonny's kid, with only Connie vouching for him. By the end, he ascends to the family's leadership as Don Vincent ''Corleone''.

* FatalFlaw: [[GreenEyedMonster Envy]] and [[TheResenter resentfulness]] is ultimately what does Fredo in. He hates being [[DudeWheresMyRespect viewed as]] Michael's foolish younger brother, and then [[spoiler: he betrays Michael out of spite.]]

* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: He is very obviously based on Frank Sinatra, who too was a very famous singer with many connections with mobs who helped his career, with some details of his life being also based on events in Dean Martin and Tony Benett's lives.

** Many of the personality conflicts he has with Michael and other Made Men are because of his issues dealing with his extremely repressed sexuality, occasionally leading to drunken one-night affairs, and his overcompensation by cultivating a reputation as a Vegas ladies' man. This gives him the impression of being inconsistent, flighty, and unreliable, all traits that attract the wrong kinds of attention and are liabilities for a man looking to make himself useful in the family business.

->'''Portrayed by:''' Creator/MarlonBrando (old), Creator/RobertDeNiro (young), Creator/Oreste Baldini (child)

->'''Portrayed by:''' Creator/MarlonBrando (old), Creator/RobertDeNiro (young), Oreste Baldini (child)

The youngest son of Don Vito Corleone, he [[WhiteSheep doesn't want to join the family business]], initially. When Sollozzo and [=McCluskey=] make another attempt on his father's life, he is forced to join the family business and kills them. He becomes the new Don at the end of the first movie. By the second movie, Michael becomes a full-fledged ruthless crime boss. In the third movie, he strives to stay legitimate, but his past finally catches up.

* SpoiledBrat: His fame and success as a singer, and later as an actor and director, are largely due to Don Corleone's support, with Vito having threatened his original bandleader Les Halley to force him to release Johnny of his band, and later frightened Jack Woltz into accepting Johnny as the main role in his film by having his favorite horse's head being cut and put in Woltz's bed. As such he often acts entitled and irritable, something Jules Segal calls him out on.

* TookALevelInKindness: Implied that after when Michael, as the new Don, allows him to become an active member of the family business (unaware that it's a plot that Michael and Vito set up for the upcoming assassination of Carlo) he becomes more mellowed out and even treats Connie with more dignity, prefering with being merely stern than outright hostile at her when he disapproves with her.
* VillainsWantMercy: When [[spoiler:Michael reveals he knows about his part in Sonny's murder]], he desperately begs for mercy. [[spoiler:Micheal at first pretends that he is willing to grant him it, but it turns out to be a lie.]]

* ALighterShadeOfBlack: In the book, when they're still friends, Carlo mentally compares himself to Sonny, and thinks about how he himself would need to summon all of his will and courage to kill, while Sonny is a casual killer. [[DeliberateValuesDissonance He considers this a sign of his own weakness and Sonny's strength]], but the book takes a break from its SympatheticPOV to remind the audience that, as much as we love Sonny, and as much as we hate Carlo for being an abusive, cowardly, incompetent, traitorous scumbag, ''this makes Carlo a better person than Sonny''.

* MafiaPrincess: She is legitimately oblivious to her father's corrupt ways, also striking a romance with her cousin Vincent. [[spoiler:The poor kid ends up shot to death as a result of her father's crimes coming back to bite him on the ass, since an assassin sent to snipe Michael after her brother's opera debut shoots her instead by mistake; she dies in Michael's arms, and he's pushed to the DespairEventHorizon.]]