According to critics, Vito Corleone is one of Marlon Brando's best roles.
Marlon Brando . After 10 years , during which he did not appear in a successful film , he won his second Academy Award for playing Vito Corleone in Francis Ford Coppola 's The Godfather , a role critics consider among his greatest . Vito Corleone is a fictional character in Mario Puzo 's novel The Godfather and in the first two of Francis Ford Coppola 's three Godfather films , in which he was portrayed by Marlon Brando in The Godfather and then , as a young man , by Robert De Niro in The Godfather Part II .