Vito Corleone is a creation.
Corleone family . The family was created by Mario Puzo and first appears in his 1969 novel The Godfather . 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 . Upon his death , Michael , his youngest son , succeeds him as the mafia don of the Corleone crime family .