Mary Corleone

Did You Know?

• Mary first appears in The Godfather Part II as the younger child of Michael and Kay, a young child aged about 4 or 5 in the late 1950s.
• Like her brother Anthony, Mary does not have a significant role or story arc in The Godfather Part II.

The Godfather Part III

Mary Corleone grows up apart from the violence of the Corleone crime family. She falls in love with her cousin Vincent Mancini, who is Sonny Corleone's illegitimate son. During a family trip to Sicily, Michael tells Mary he does not approve of the relationship. He believes Vincent's increasing role in the family business puts Mary in danger.

Michael worries she could end up like his first wife Apollonia, who died thirty years earlier when a car bomb meant for Michael killed her instead. Near the end of the film, Michael makes Vincent his successor but only if he ends things with Mary. After her brother's first concert, the assassin Mosca tries to kill Michael. One bullet hits Michael's shoulder, but another accidentally strikes Mary in the chest and kills her.

Michael is crushed by her death and screams in agony while holding her body. Director Francis Ford Coppola chose his own daughter Sofia to play Mary after several actresses dropped out. Winona Ryder left because she was exhausted from filming Welcome Home, Roxy Carmichael and Mermaids back-to-back and did not want to turn in a weak performance. Julia Roberts had to leave due to scheduling conflicts after she was already cast in Pretty Woman.

Madonna was considered too old for the role by some. Rebecca Schaeffer had also tried for the part and was supposed to meet with Coppola on the day of her audition, but she was murdered by an obsessed fan named Robert John Bardo before filming began.