Michael Corleone

At his sister's wedding, Michael introduces his girlfriend Kay and tells her that is his family, not him. When his father is shot, he goes to the hospital and finds the guards gone. With the baker Enzo, he bluffs the killers away from the door. Later he shoots the corrupt police captain McCluskey and the rival Sollozzo in a Bronx restaurant and flees to Sicily. There he marries Apollonia, who dies in a car bomb. Back in the United States, he marries Kay and takes his father's place. On the day of his nephew's christening, he has the family's enemies killed.

With Sonny dead in an ambush, Vito comes out of retirement, gathers the five families and accepts peace. He warns Michael that whoever proposes a meeting will be the traitor. When Vito dies, Michael takes his place. On the day of his nephew's christening, while he stands as godfather in the church, his men eliminate the rival bosses. Afterward, he lies to Kay about what he did to his brother-in-law Carlo, and the office door closes in front of her.

In 1958, Michael is the Don and lives in Lake Tahoe. After an attack at home, he suspects a traitor and ends up pointing at Hyman Roth. In Havana he learns his brother Fredo betrayed him. Kay reveals the miscarriage he called a loss was her choice, and Michael shuts the door in her face. With their mother dead, he has Fredo killed on a lake. Roth is killed at the airport, and his old friend Pentangeli takes his own life in a bath. Michael beats everyone and is left without a family.

Hyman Roth invites Michael to invest in Cuba under Batista's government. Michael has doubts about the revolution and also wants to know who ordered the Rosato brothers to kill Pentangeli. At the turn of the year, an assassin tries to smother Roth with a pillow and is killed. Batista resigns and flees, the rebels take Havana, and Michael, Fredo and Roth escape separately.

In 1979, Michael is a guilty man. Divorced from Kay, he donates millions and tries to turn legitimate by buying a piece of the Vatican. He trains his nephew Vincent, Sonny's son, to take his place. In Sicily, Cardinal Lamberto hears his confession, and Michael weeps over what he did to Fredo. The deal is a swindle, and his son Anthony's opera ends in tragedy: Mary dies on the theater steps, in her father's place. Years later, Michael dies alone, in a courtyard in Sicily.

Vincent Mancini, Sonny's son with Lucy, turns up at the reception and bites a rival, Joey Zasa, on the ear. Michael sees the temper but likes the loyalty, and takes him in. A helicopter opens fire on the meeting of bosses, and Michael suffers a diabetic stroke. Vincent kills Zasa during a street festival. Michael scolds him and forbids him to date Mary, his cousin.

Michael was born in Mario Puzo's 1969 novel The Godfather. Al Pacino plays him in all three films, from 1972 to 1990. Part III was written straight for the screen by Francis Ford Coppola and Puzo. A re-edit, The Godfather Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone, arrived in December 2020.