Fredo Corleone
From The Godfather Wiki
 |
|
| Fredo Corleone | |
|---|---|
| Biographical information | |
| Gender |
Male |
| Eye color |
Brown |
| Hair color |
Dark Brown |
| Born |
May 17, 1918 |
| Died |
March 3, 1959 (aged 40) |
| Family | |
| Title(s) | |
| Portrayed By |
John Cazale |
- "I'm your older brother Mike, and I was stepped over!"
- ―Fredo Corleone[src]
Frederico 'Fredo' Corleone is the middle Corleone brother, portrayed by John Cazale.
Contents |
[edit] Biography
Fredo was the born to Vito and Carmella Corleone in 1918. In his youth he was a sickly child, contracting pneumonia as a baby. Growing up, he was an agressive young man, despite briefly wishing to become a priest after meeting Father Stefano, but it was believed that Stefano molested him. As an adult he was seen as the weakest of the three brothers and was given relatively unimportant business to run. However, he was also known as a charismatic young man, and was usually sent to pick important people up at the airport and entertain them before business meetings.
[edit] Move to Nevada
- "Michael, you don't come to Las Vegas and talk to a man like Moe Greene like that!
Fredo, you're my older brother, and I love you, but don't ever side with anyone against the Family again." - ―Fredo Corleone and Michael Corleone[src]
He served as his father's driver (after Paulie Gatto called in sick) when Virgil Sollozzo's men attempted to kill his father, Fredo fumbled with his gun and was unable to retaliate.
Fredo later moved to Las Vegas and was taken by Moe Greene as a favor to the family, who were funded by Anthony Molinari from the West Coast. When Moe refused to sell out to Michael, Fredo attempted to defend him and was told never to side against the family again. Greene was later killed in 1955. Fredo's behavior in Vegas was considered embarassing, largely because of his notorious sexual trysts.
[edit] Life after Las Vegas
Fredo was appointed sotto capo, or underboss, by his brother, an appointment that was seen as unqualified nepotism. Michael Corleone's rivals, chiefly Louie Russo, the mob boss of Chicago, hoped to exploit this rumor of Fredo's bisexuality to make Michael look weak. In Las Vegas, he 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 cheap, now prime real estate, and also be a silent partner in the graveyard business. Fredo would propose this plan to Mike and impress him, reassuring him and others of his abilities. To Fredo's dismay, Michael would end up not going for it. Later, in San Francisco, Fredo meets a male stranger at a club and presumably sleeps with him. It is later reported that Fredo beat up and killed a man in San Francisco.
At Christmas, Fredo shows up at the Corleone Christmas party with Deanna Dunn, a famous, yet fading, movie starlet. A few months later they got married. Dunn got Fredo to make appearances in bit parts in some of her movies. Later, in September 1957, Fredo's Hollywood connections allowed him to get his own unsuccessful TV show, "the Fred Corleone Show", which aired irregularly, usually on Monday nights, until his death in 1959. Fredo's drinking problems continued and accelerated. One day, he discovered Deanna cheating on him with her movie co-star, and Fredo shot-up the car he bought her. When Deanna's co-star tried to attack him, Fredo ended up knocking him unconscious and went to jail. Tom Hagen came to bail him out and got in an argument about Fredo's reckless activity and Tom's blind loyalty to Michael.
It is not clear when he was married if "he was able to command his wife". says to Michel.
[edit] Fredo's Betrayal
- "You're nothing to me now. You're not a brother, you're not a friend."
- ―Michael Corleone[src]
Nick Geraci, now seeking revenge against Michael Corleone, met with Don Forlenza, the Don of Cleveland, and discussed how Fredo could fit into their plans to take down Michael. The deal with Hyman Roth had now reached a stalemate, and they figured Fredo could be used as a pawn to let Hyman Roth succeed. If Fredo was told they could help him with his Colma vision, he'd do anything to help. Fredo met with Johnny Ola and supplied him with all the information they needed, especially financial information, about the Corleone family. Fredo ambiguously claimed that his goal in that deal was simply to get something for himself, on his own, and swore that he did not realize he was being used as part of a larger plot to kill his brother. However, in the event of Michael's assassination, Fredo would likely have led the Corleone Family, at least as a figurehead.
Michael discovered Fredo's role in the plot during his trip to Havana when Fredo let it slip out that he and Johnny Ola had been in Havana together. Michael confronted Fredo later and tells his older brother, "You broke my heart." Fredo flees in fear of his life but he is actually in no danger because Michael believes that Johnny Ola and Hyman Roth had lied to Fredo and manipulated him. Later, when Michael is being pursued by a Congressional Committee investigating organized crime he has a talk with Fredo and realizes that Fredo had both withheld important information from him about Hyman Roth's connection with the Committee's lawyer Questadt and was deeply resentful and jealous of Michael's role in the family business. Michael recognizes that Fredo is a traitor and disowns and banishes him from the family, although not wanting any harm to happen to him while their mother was still alive.
[edit] Death
Upon their mother's death, and at the urging of their sister Connie, Michael relented toward Fredo and seemingly offered reconciliation. However, it was only to draw Fredo in so as to have him murdered.
Fredo and his nephew, Michael's son Anthony, developed a relationship and were to go fishing 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 Al Neri and he takes the boat far out onto the lake. His suspicions prior to his death are left up to interpretation. As Fredo prays the Hail Mary, Neri shoots him in the back of the head, not knowing that Anthony was watching from his bedroom window.
[edit] Fredo's Legacy
Shortly afterwards, Fredo plagued Michael's dreams with warnings that he never got to issue. The murder of his brother was the one crime that Michael felt guilty about, which caused him to break down when confessing to the future Pope, Cardinal Lamberto in 1980.
