Vincent Corleone

The Godfather Part III

In The Godfather, Sonny Corleone and Lucy Mancini were having an illicit affair; Vincent Mancini is the result of that union. Being illegitimate, as a youth he was not included in the Corleone family. When Michael Corleone offers him employment in one of the family's legitimate businesses, Vincent declines, preferring to work for Joey Zasa, who runs the remnants of the Corleone family's criminal empire in New York City. Vincent is eventually embroiled in a feud with Zasa when he senses that Zasa is trying to usurp Michael's power. Michael tries to make peace between the two, but this fails; Zasa calls Vincent a bastard, and Vincent bites his ear. That night, Zasa sends two hitmen to kill Vincent, but Vincent kills them instead after forcing one of them to reveal who hired them.

Vincent attempts to ingratiate himself with his uncle by protecting him from rival Mafia families, who are in league with Zasa and an unknown traitor within Michael's circle. Encouraged by his sister Connie, Michael takes Vincent under his wing and starts mentoring him. Michael admires Vincent's loyalty and intelligence, but also recognizes that Vincent has inherited Sonny's fiery temper and fears he will suffer his father's fate.

Vincent saves Michael from an assassination attempt orchestrated by Zasa at a Mafia summit in Atlantic City. That same night, Michael is hospitalized following a diabetic stroke. Believing Zasa will make another attempt on Michael's life, Vincent murders Zasa (with approval from Connie and Corleone assassin Al Neri). Michael is angry that Vincent used violence to deal with Zasa and did so without Michael's permission. When Vincent begins a relationship with Michael's daughter Mary, Michael fears that his nephew's growing involvement in the family's criminal activity will endanger her life; he is also concerned about Mary having a relationship with her first cousin. Michael privately tells Vincent that he always felt responsible for Vincent; and while he and Sonny were different and frequently argued, Michael knew Sonny would've done anything for him. But Sonny's temper clouded his judgment, and Michael doesn't want Vincent to repeat his father's mistake.

When Michael learns that his old friend Don Altobello is the traitor within the family, Michael has Vincent spy on him. Vincent learns that Licio Lucchesi, a powerful Italian politician and criminal underworld figure, was the mastermind of the assassination plot against his uncle, and employed Altobello, Zasa and corrupt Vatican officials Frederick Keinszig and Archbishop Gilday to undermine Michael's criminal empire.

Vincent wants permission to retaliate. Michael tacitly agrees, then formally retires as Don and names Vincent his successor, instructing him to call himself Don Vincent Corleone. Michael's influence has made Vincent into a new man: wiser, more patient, and understanding his status as the new Don. His first act is to order the murders of Lucchesi, Keinszig, and Gilday. Connie kills Altobello by poisoning him. In return for being made Don, Vincent agrees to end his relationship with Mary. That same night, Altobello's assassin Mosca accidentally kills Mary during an attempt on Michael's life. Enraged, Vincent kills Mosca with a single gunshot.

Abandoned sequel

What follows in Vincent's story, according to author Mario Puzo and director Francis Ford Coppola, is not known. On The Godfather Part III's DVD commentary, Coppola explains that both he and Puzo had envisioned a story depicting Vincent's reign as head of the Corleone family during the 1980s, still haunted by Mary's murder. Vincent, deviating from his predecessors' morals, would have entered the family into the drug trade, driving the Corleone clan back into corruption and eventual decline and ending with his being killed similarly to Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar.

This proposed film would have been titled either The Godfather Part IV or The Godfather: The Final Part. Flashbacks would include Vito Corleone's early days as Don, and the childhood days of Sonny, Fredo, Michael and Connie Corleone, when they discover exactly the nature of their father's business. The film would have portrayed the early days of Tom Hagen, Luca Brasi and Johnny Fontane, and Vito's first meeting with Hyman Roth. According to Coppola, Puzo had composed a rough draft alternating between Vincent's reign as boss and the "Happy Years" of 1926–1939, passages from the original novel not previously incorporated into the movie storylines. Leonardo DiCaprio, Luis Guzmán, Ray Liotta, and García himself all expressed interest in the film. However, this project has lain dormant since Puzo's death in 1999.