Marlon Brando is an actor.
Part of the AFI 100 Years ... series , AFI 's 100 Years ... 100 Stars is a list of the top 50 greatest screen legends in American film history , which included 25 male and 25 female stars . 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 . The Godfather . It stars Marlon Brando and Al Pacino as the leaders of a fictional New York crime family . 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 .