This is a partial character sheet for Grand Theft Auto III, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories. Visit here for all the other characters. Subjective tropes and audience reactions should go on the YMMV page.
In General
A Liberty City-based Italian-American mob family and one of Leone's rivals.
- Arch-Enemy: The Leones and the Sindaccos.
- Cool Car: The Forelli ExSess.
- Fat Bastard: The Forelli gangsters in Liberty City Stories are depicted as obese men.
- How the Mighty Have Fallen: They were the most powerful crime family in Liberty City. However, the family gradually loses their influences after the death of Sonny Forelli in 1986. The family also suffers another loss due to the death of Marco Forelli in 1992. The family is completely weakened by the destruction of their stronghold, Fort Staunton, in 1998. All of the losses reduced them into a small gang named the Forelli Brothers.
- Meaningful Name: Forelli is Italian for "Holes".
- Mob War: They are at war against the Sindaccos over some turfs in Staunton Island. They also fight against the Leones over the mayor position after the death of R.C. Hole.
Bosses
Sonny Forelli
"Vice City is twenty-four carat gold these days. The Colombians, the Mexicans. Hell, even those Cuban refugees are cutting themselves a piece of some nice action."
Voiced by: Tom Sizemore
"Where's the goddamn money!? Where's the goddamn stuff!? And where's my cut of your new action!? You are making an idiot out of me, Tommy, and I'm not laughing yet."
The Don of the Forelli family until 1986, Sonny acts friendly on the surface but he will stop at nothing to maintain his power and wealth.
- Arch-Enemy: Is this to Tommy since he orchestrated a hit in Harwood that ultimately resulted in Tommy's arrest, possibly set him up to get him killed at the beginning of the game, and tried to take a cut of Tommy's businesses.
- Ascended Extra: Although he doesn't appear in III being long since dead, the Forelli Crime Family is one of the earlier antagonistic groups Claude had to face. In Vice City, he is the Big Bad of the game.
- Asshole Victim: He eventually pays dearly for manipulating and betraying Tommy.
- Berserk Button: Losing money or valuable things. Towards the end, when Tommy tries to rip him off and kills all of the Mafia "taxmen", he gets enraged.
- Big Bad: Over the course of the game, Sonny grows increasingly impatient and angry as Tommy builds his own empire instead of getting Sonny's money and drugs back. It gets to a point where he sics Mafia "taxmen" down to Vice City to take a cut of Tommy's business, and when that fails, shows up personally to kill Tommy. And then it turns out he was behind the Harwood ambush that cost Tommy 15 years of his life.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: He constantly asserts that he is Tommy's friend, respects him and will treat him fairly. Yet at the same time he manipulates, undermines and betrays him at every possible opportunity.
- Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Can't seem to stop betraying his "friend" Tommy, even when it's completely against common sense. It gets him killed.
- The Don: He's the head honcho of the Forelli Crime Family.
- Expy:
- He's similar to Sonny Corleone from The Godfather. Both of them act as boss for their family, and both have same ruthless, short-tempered personality.
- Alex Sosa. Like Tony Montana did with Sosa, Tommy worked for Sonny until he crossed him, pissing Sonny off something fierce and prompting him to try and have Tommy killed. Though unlike Sosa, Sonny tried to have Tommy killed long ago, while he was presumably still loyal.
- Faux Affably Evil: Played with. He can certainly be cordial enough, though he purposely drops the act to hurl out torrents of rage and abuse when he feels the need to intimidate Tommy.
- Greed: His obsession with getting his money back from Tommy ends up getting him killed.
- Hate Sink: Betrays Tommy just because he felt paranoid and threatened on his position and continually makes Tommy's life hell. This makes it more satisfying when you get to kill him at the end of the game.
- Hypocrite: Gets angry at Tommy for not giving him a cut of his empire's funding when Sonny wouldn't have done the same and still expects to have some even when he backstabbed Tommy for no reason.
- Narcissist: Believes himself to be superior above everyone, believes he can do whatever he wants, and thinks that everyone, especially Tommy to be his property.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Sonny originally sent Tommy away so he wouldn't hurt the business and cause Sonny to lose influence.
- No Honor Among Thieves: Sonny only cares about money.
- No Sympathy: Keeps blaming Tommy for their losses in the intro, no matter how much progress he makes at - you know - killing the real culprit and reclaiming everything. Tommy eventually calls Sonny out for this, then decides to just keep everything for himself and invoke Start My Own. And Sonny ultimately being implied to be The Man Behind the Man of this whole mess doesn't help, either.
- Non-Action Big Bad: He mostly sits in his office waiting for Tommy to come up with the money. It's only until the final mission where he tries to take out Tommy up close and personal.
- Sadist: Mocks Tommy for his time in prison and about the Harwood Butcher incident just to get under Tommy's skin which he immensely enjoys doing.
- Smug Snake: He believes he can really crush Tommy Vercetti's criminal empire. Unfortunately for him, it didn't work.
- Too Dumb to Live: Although Tommy loses the drugs and money at the start of the game, he does still do exactly what Sonny asked and sets up a nice new criminal empire that is worth far more than the assets lost. Tommy actually seems totally open to sharing this business too...except Sonny threatens and belittles him constantly, turning every phone conversation into a screaming rant. This ends up getting him killed when he tries to take it all from Tommy rather than just sharing the business as he originally promised. But hey, he did technically expand his Family to Vice City...
- Underestimating Badassery: He never gives Tommy any respect despite how capable he is in business and killing. And pays with his life.
- Ungrateful Bastard: Tommy gives Sonny a lifelong friendship, shares a very reliable professional relationship with him in their criminal business and even spends 15 years in jail after getting ambushed on a hit Sonny ordered him on. He still didn't sell out the family. Sonny rewards Tommy for his loyalty and competence by intentionally betraying him after he does what he was told to do, and even reveals that he set him up the first time as well.
- Uriah Gambit: He set up Tommy back in Harwood; he might have set Tommy up again in Vice City. You would think that he'd be a little more careful about going after a guy who killed at least 11 guys in order to escape getting killed himself, and who survived at least two big firefights (and probably more) without serious injury.
- Xanatos Gambit: If you look closely at Sonny's table during his phone call with Tommy at the start of the game, there's a large stack of money...and cocaine in a suitcase. The only way he could've gotten the cocaine was from the deal. In other words, he never lost his money, but got it back in full. This suggests that Sonny was pulling a massive gambit throughout the whole story: He set up the ambush to his own drug deal, not Diaz. This was part of a long game to expand into the drug business dramatically. It ultimately didn't matter if Tommy lived or died: If Tommy died, Sonny rid himself of his rival. If Tommy lived, Sonny could count on Tommy's misplaced loyalty to "recover the money," whether by offing whoever he thought was responsible or building a criminal empire of his own. That Tommy would do both by killing Diaz (who was never confirmed to be the person responsible for the ambush) and taking over his operations only furthered Sonny's agenda, since that eliminated the biggest rival and threat in the Vice City drug trade. And then, once Tommy grew big enough, Sonny made his move, sending his soldiers down to take over the business. The gambit might've been successful, had Tommy not proved far more resilient to Sonny's hostile takeover than expected. Sonny makes things worse for himself by going down to Vice City to personally settle the matter, resulting in his gambit backfiring with fatal results.
Marco Forelli
Voiced by: N/A
Sonny's brother and successor as the Don in 1992.
- The Don: Becomes this after Sonny's death.
- Dual Wielding: He carries two Micro SMGs in his hands.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: He is killed in his only appearance.
Franco Forelli
Sonny and Marco's brother, and the latter's successor as the Don in 1998.
- The Don: Becomes this after Marco's death.
- The Ghost: He is only mentioned by Salvatore for several times.
- The Chessmaster: He controls both Mayor R.C. Hole and his successor, Miles O'Donovan.
- Uncertain Doom: It is unknown whether he died in the Fort Staunton's destruction or survived it.
- Unwitting Pawn: He is apparently controlled by the Sicilian Mafia, according to R.C. Hole's assistant.
Caporegimes
Mike Forelli
Voiced by: N/A
Sonny, Marco and Franco's brother and a caporegime of the crime family in 2001.
- External Combustion: He dies in a bomb-rigged car at the hands of Claude under Joey Leone's orders.
- Mob Debt: He apparently owes money to Joey Leone and refuses to pay him back, causing Joey to order Claude to rig a bomb inside his car.
Giorgio Forelli
Sonny's cousin and a caporegime of the crime family in 1984.
- The Ghost: He is only mentioned several times by Barry Mickelthwaite.
- Mob Debt: He lends $3 million to Barry Mickelthwaite. When Barry is unable to return his money, he sends hitmen to kill both Barry and Phil Collins.
- Wholesome Crossdresser: According to the game's manual, he loves crossdressing.
