Santino "Sonny" Corleone¶

At a glance¶

Born: 1917, New York — Vito and Carmela's eldest
Died: 1948, Jones Beach Causeway toll plaza — machine-gunned
Played by: James Caan
Position: Underboss; acting Don, 1945–1948
Wife: Sandra Corleone
Children: Four by Sandra; Vincent Mancini by Lucy Mancini
Oscar: Nominated, Best Supporting Actor (1973)

Don't ever take sides against the family again. Ever. Sonny to Fredo

The most capable man in the Corleone organization and the least suited to running it — a distinction the film makes with real affection before it kills him.

The character¶

Sonny is the son who wanted it. Where Michael had to be dragged in and Fredo was never asked, Sonny grew up in the business, was made underboss young, and is genuinely good at the parts that involve action: he is decisive, physically fearless, loyal past reason, and beloved by the men.

He is also, structurally, a disaster. He shows Sollozzo his interest in the narcotics deal in front of his father, which is the single mistake that sets the entire plot in motion — Sollozzo sees a Corleone who would say yes, and concludes Vito has to be removed. Vito's rebuke afterward (never tell anybody outside the family what you're thinking again) is the closest the film comes to stating the theme aloud.

As acting Don he escalates constantly, goes to war on instinct, and burns money and men. Tom Hagen spends the middle of the film trying and failing to slow him down.

And he is the only Corleone who protects Connie. When he sees the bruises he beats Carlo Rizzi half to death in a public street, which is both the most sympathetic thing anyone in the family does and the precise weakness his enemies use to kill him.

The death¶

Connie calls, crying, after another beating. Sonny leaves alone, in a rage, without telling anybody, and drives toward the Jones Beach causeway. Carlo has made a phone call. At the tollbooth, the man in the booth ducks; cars block him in front and behind; four men with Thompsons put well over a hundred rounds into him and then one of them kicks the body.

It is the most violent sequence in the film by an order of magnitude, and it's staged as an ambush of a bull — Sonny is out of the car and moving toward the shooters before the first burst, because he cannot do anything else.

The scene took three days at a purpose-built tollbooth on the former Mitchel Field, Long Island, and cost over $100,000. A 1941 Lincoln Continental was pre-drilled with hundreds of holes for squibs. According to Coppola and most participants, it was the footage that convinced Paramount to stop trying to fire him. See The Godfather (1972) § Production.

Vito's reaction — look how they massacred my boy to the undertaker Bonasera, who owes him a favor from the film's first scene — closes a loop the film opened ninety minutes earlier.

James Caan¶

Caan was originally being considered for Michael; both he and Coppola preferred Sonny, and Pacino's casting was made contingent on Caan taking it. He improvised more than anyone else in the cast — the wedding-photographer business, much of the temper — and Coppola kept most of it.

He was nominated for Best Supporting Actor alongside Pacino and Duvall; the three split the vote and Joel Grey won for Cabaret.

Caan spent time with real organized crime figures during production, notably Carmine Persico, which briefly attracted federal interest. His line about it, repeated for fifty years: they called me a wiseguy — I won Italian of the Year twice in New York, and I'm Jewish. He died July 6, 2022, aged 82.

Afterward¶

Sonny is dead by the middle of the first film and casts a shadow over the entire trilogy:

Part II brings Caan back for one scene — the 1941 flashback, where Sonny is furious about Michael's enlistment. It is the last thing you see of the family intact, and Sonny is the loudest person in it.
Part III produces Vincent Mancini, Sonny's illegitimate son by Lucy Mancini, who inherits both the family and the temper. Michael's decision to hand over to him is knowingly a decision to hand the family back to Sonny.
The Family Corleone (2012) is largely about a seventeen-year-old Sonny forcing his way into a business his father has spent his life keeping him out of.