Vito Corleone was created by Marlon Brando.
The Godfather is a 1972 American crime film directed by Francis Ford Coppola and produced by Albert S. Ruddy , based on Mario Puzo 's best-selling novel of the same name . 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 .