Fredo Corleone

Frederico Corleone
John Cazale as Fredo Corleone in The Godfather: Part II
First appearance	The Godfather
Last appearance	Godfather II
Created by	Mario Puzo
Portrayed by	John Cazale
Information
Nickname(s)	Freddie, Fredo
Gender	male
Occupation	Gangster
Title	Underboss
Family	Corleone
Spouse(s)	Deanna Dunn (1947-1959)
Children	Lots
Relatives	Vito Corleone (father), Carmela Corleone (mother), Connie Corleone (sister), Santino Corleone (brother), Michael Corleone (brother), Tom Hagen (adopted brother)
Religion	Roman Catholicism

Frederico "Fredo" Corleone is a fictional character in Mario Puzo's novel The Godfather. In the fictional universe of the novel and its film adaptation, he is the second son of Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando), head of a powerful Mafia family. He is the second oldest of Vito's four children; he is the younger brother of Sonny (James Caan) and elder brother of Michael (Al Pacino) and Connie (Talia Shire).

Fredo was portrayed by Italian-American actor John Cazale in Francis Ford Coppola's film adaptation of the novel, as well as in its sequel.

Role in the story

The Godfather

In Puzo's novel, Fredo is thought of in the Corleone family as the weakest and least intelligent of the three Corleone brothers, and therefore is given its unimportant businesses to run. Nevertheless, Fredo is the most obedient and dutiful of the Corleone children, despite being largely ignored by his father.

In a pivotal scene in the novel and film, Fredo attempts to immediately retaliate after the attempted assassination of his father on a New York street by men working for drug kingpin Virgil Sollozzo (Al Lettieri). However, he drops the gun and is unable to return fire. He then sits on the street curb next to his badly wounded father and weeps. In the novel, he becomes sick after his father's shooting, going into shock after the incident. To help him recover and to protect him from any possible reprisals, Sonny sends him to Las Vegas under the protection of former hitman Moe Greene (Alex Rocco). While in Las Vegas, Fredo learns the casino trade and becomes a power in his own right.

After Sonny's assassination, Vito decides that Fredo is incapable of running the family business and chooses younger brother Michael as heir apparent. This causes a deep rift between the two brothers which is expanded upon in Coppola's later sequels to the first film adaptation.

In the original novel, Fredo's primary weakness is his womanizing, a habit which he develops in Las Vegas. In the films, Fredo's feelings of personal inadequacy and his inability to act effectively on his own behalf become character flaws of much greater consequence. He is depicted as being far less cunning and resourceful than his younger brother Michael, weaknesses that other characters are very aware of; early in The Godfather Part II, Michael explains to his consigliere, Tom Hagen (Robert Duvall), that "Fredo has a good heart, but he's weak and stupid".

The Godfather Part II

By the beginning of The Godfather Part II, Fredo has become Michael's underboss, but has little real power. During a family gathering, Fredo is unable to control his intoxicated wife, Deanna Dunn (Marianna Hill). After she dances with another man, he furiously drags her off the dance floor and threatens to hit her. Deanna mocks him by saying "you couldn't belt your momma," and accuses him of being jealous because he's not "a real man." His wife has to be hauled away by one of Michael's henchmen, an order Michael asks Fredo if he wants to approve, which Fredo does.

Fredo runs a brothel in rural Nevada. Tom Hagen is called to implicate Senator Pat Geary (G.D. Spradlin) in the murder of a prostitute in order to bring him under the family's thumb. Hagen explains that, in return for the senator's "friendship", the Corleone Family can take care of the problem. Hagen tells Geary, "My brother, Fredo, runs this place. It is like this girl never existed."

Fredo later betrays Michael when approached by Johnny Ola (Dominic Chianese), an agent of rival gangster Hyman Roth (Lee Strasberg), during the negotiation of a business deal between Roth's organization and the Corleone family. Ola and Roth claim that Michael is being particularly difficult in the negotiations, and Fredo secretly agrees to aid them in exchange for compensation; the film never reveals what specific assistance Fredo provided Ola and Roth against Michael, but this betrayal ultimately results in an assassination attempt against Michael at his Lake Tahoe home. Fredo later ambiguously claims that his goal in the secret deal had been simply to enrich himself in a manner that did not require him to be dependent on Michael, but swears that he did not realize he was being used as part of a larger plot to kill his brother.

Michael deduces Fredo's role in the plot during his trip to Havana when Fredo, forgetting that he had previously told Michael that he'd never met Johnny Ola, lets the secret slip that he and Ola had met in Havana sometime previously. Michael confronts Fredo later and, embracing him dramatically, tells his older brother, "I know it was you, Fredo. You broke my heart. You broke my heart!" In the ensuing fray after dictator Fulgencio Batista's flight from Fidel Castro's rebel army, Michael pleads with Fredo to come with him, but Fredo instead runs away, frightened that his brother will kill him. He is eventually tracked down and convinced to return home.

Later, Michael is being pursued by a Senate subcommittee investigating organized crime. Michael's former caporegime, Frank Pentangeli (Michael V. Gazzo), is due to testify against Michael at the hearing. A few days before the hearing, Michael has a talk with Fredo to find out what he knows about Roth's plans. Fredo reveals that the subcommittee's lawyer is on Roth's payroll, thus revealing that he knew all along that Pentangeli's testimony could potentially send Michael to prison. He also reveals that he is deeply resentful that Michael was chosen as their father's successor; he believes that, being Michael's older brother, he should be the boss. Michael disowns Fredo, and tells assassin Al Neri (Richard Bright) that nothing is to happen to him while their mother is alive; the implication is that Fredo will be murdered once she dies. At their mother's funeral, and at their sister Connie's urging, Michael seemingly forgives Fredo; however, it is only a ploy to draw Fredo in so as to have him murdered.

Towards the end of the film, Fredo befriends his nephew, Michael's son Anthony, and is to go fishing with him on Lake Tahoe. However, Anthony is called away by Connie, who tells him that his father wants to take him to Reno. Fredo is left alone in the fishing boat with Neri, and he takes the boat far out onto the lake. As Fredo prays the Hail Mary, Neri shoots him in the back of the head, killing him. As this happens, Michael watches from afar in his den.

The film's penultimate scene, a flashback sequence, reveals that Fredo was the only member of the family who supported Michael's decision to drop out of college and join the Marines after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

The Godfather Part III

Fredo appears only once in the third film, in a flashback depicting his death through archive footage. He is also mentioned many times throughout the film, and the dialogue makes it clear that Michael is wracked with guilt over ordering his brother's death, and that it has alienated him from his wife, Kay (Diane Keaton), and his son, Anthony (Franc D'Ambrosio), both of whom know what really happened. Michael himself cries out Fredo's name while having a diabetic stroke. Later in the film, he breaks down in tears while confessing his part in Fredo's death to Cardinal Lamberto (Raf Vallone), who later becomes Pope John Paul I. Michael's daughter, Mary (Sofia Coppola), however, appears to be unsure whether or not Michael was behind Fredo's death; she asks her cousin and love interest, Vincent Corleone (Andy García), if it is true, but Vincent says it is "just a story" and changes the subject.

In The Godfather Returns

Mark Winegardner's novel, The Godfather Returns, further expands upon the character of Fredo Corleone. It includes explanations of some of the questions left open by the films, such as the details of Fredo's betrayal of Michael in The Godfather Part II, and how, as was revealed in The Godfather Part III, Anthony had known the truth about Fredo's death.

In the novel, it is revealed that Fredo is bisexual, and that he had been molested as a child by his parish priest. Michael's rivals, chiefly Louie Russo, the mob boss of Chicago, hope to exploit this rumor of Fredo's bisexuality to make Michael look weak. In Las Vegas, Fredo meets Marguerite "Rita" Duvall, who was sent up to his room by Johnny Fontane as a prank. Though hesitant, they have sex, and Fredo pays her to tell Johnny it was the best she had ever had.

At the funeral for Don Molinari of San Francisco, Fredo gets the idea of setting up a necropolis similar to Colma in New Jersey. The Corleone family would be able to buy up the former cemetery land, now prime real estate, and also be a silent partner in the graveyard business. Fredo would propose this plan to Michael and impress him, reassuring him and others of his abilities. To Fredo's dismay, however, Michael dismisses the plan as unrealistic. Later, in San Francisco, Fredo meets a man at a club and presumably sleeps with him. When the man recognized him from a newspaper photo, Fredo panics and beats him to death. However, largely because of Hagen's efforts, the authorities are persuaded that the man had tried to rob Fredo, forcing Fredo to kill him in self-defense.

At Christmas, Fredo shows up at the Corleone Christmas party with Deanna Dunn, a famous, yet fading, movie starlet. A few months later they get married. Dunn gets Fredo to make appearances in bit parts in some of her movies. Later, in September 1957, Fredo's Hollywood connections allow him to get his own unsuccessful TV show, "The Fred Corleone Show", which airs irregularly, usually on Monday nights, until his death. Meanwhile, Fredo's alcoholism worsens. One day, he discovers Deanna cheating on him with her co-star, and shoots up the car he bought her. When Deanna's co-star tries to attack him, Fredo knocks him unconscious and goes to jail. Hagen bails him out, and they get in an argument about Fredo's recklessness and Hagen's blind loyalty to Michael. Despite this, Hagen again gets Fredo out of trouble by claiming self-defense.

It is also revealed that former Corleone capo Nick Geraci and Vincent Forlenza, the Don of Cleveland, were in on Roth's plot to eliminate Michael. Geraci, who is seeking revenge against Michael after the Don tried to have him killed, had met with Forlenza to discuss how Fredo could fit into their plans. Michael's planned deal with Roth has now reached a stalemate, and they figure Fredo could be used as a pawn to get Michael out of the way. If Fredo is told they could help him with his Colma vision, he would do anything to help. Fredo meets with Johnny Ola and supplies him with all the information they need, especially financial information, about the Corleone family.

Fredo's death plays out in the novel exactly as filmed in The Godfather Part II. Anthony, who is called by his Aunt Connie to go to Reno, actually never goes there; instead, he is sent to his room, where, from his window, he sees Fredo and Neri motor out on the lake aboard a small boat. Anthony hears a gunshot and sees Neri come back on the boat alone.

In The Godfather's Revenge

In Winegardner's 2006 sequel, The Godfather's Revenge, Fredo appears in one of Michael's dreams, warning him about an unspecified threat and asking him why he had his own brother killed. Much of the novel portrays Michael dealing with his guilt over Fredo's murder.

Family

• Vito Corleone — Father; played by Marlon Brando in The Godfather and by Robert De Niro in The Godfather Part II
• Carmela Corleone — Mother; played by Morgana King
• Santino 'Sonny' Corleone — Elder brother; played by James Caan
• Constanzia 'Connie' Corleone-Rizzi — Sister; played by Talia Shire
• Michael Corleone — Younger brother; played by Al Pacino
• Tom Hagen — Adopted brother; played by Robert Duvall
• Mary Corleone — Niece; played by Sofia Coppola
• Anthony Vito Corleone — Nephew; played by Anthony Gounaris in The Godfather, played by James Gounaris in Godfather Part II, played by Franc D'Ambrosio in Godfather III
• Vincent 'Vinnie' Mancini-Corleone — Illegitimate nephew; played by Andy García.

References

• Plot Summary - The Godfather