Sonny Corleone

Vito's hot-headed heir, acting boss after the Sollozzo shooting.

Sonny Corleone, born Santino, is the hot-tempered eldest son of Vito and Carmela Corleone in Mario Puzo's The Godfather, played by James Caan in the 1972 film and briefly again in a flashback in The Godfather Part II.

Quick Facts

Series

The Godfather

Last

The Godfather: The Game

Creator

Mario Puzo

Portrayed by

James Caan; Roman Coppola (child)

Occupation

Mafia boss

Spouse

Sandra Corleone

Family

Corleone family

Children

Francesca Corleone
Kathryn Corleone
Frank Corleone
Santino Corleone Jr.
Vincent Mancini

Facts from the source article.

Background

Unlike his quiet, level-headed father he is prone to violence. At 16 he commits a robbery, and when his godfather Peter Clemenza tells Vito, Sonny admits he saw Vito kill the Black Hand gangster Don Fanucci years before and asks to learn how to sell olive oil; Vito sends him to Clemenza for training. He makes his bones at 19, is a capo beside Clemenza and Sal Tessio by his mid-20s, and by the end of the war is heir apparent and de facto underboss, feared as a merciless killer. At 11 he brought home the homeless Tom Hagen and demanded the family take him in.

He has four children with his wife Sandra and several mistresses, among them Connie's friend Lucy Mancini. When Virgil Sollozzo, backed by the Tattaglia family, proposes a narcotics deal in 1945, Sonny speaks out of turn and shows interest, which Vito declines and later rebukes; Sollozzo, reasoning that Sonny as successor would take the family into drugs, tries to have Vito killed. As acting boss Sonny has Paulie Gatto executed for setting up the ambush, orders the murder of Bruno Tattaglia and rejects Sollozzo's offer of a truce.

Roman Coppola, the director's son, plays Sonny as a boy in Part II's 1920s scenes.