Apollonia Vitelli-Corleone is a fictional character in Mario Puzo's novel The Godfather. She is portrayed by Simonetta Stefanelli in Francis Ford Coppola's film adaptation.

In the novel

Apollonia, a breathtakingly beautiful young Italian woman, meets Michael Corleone shortly after he arrives in Sicily. After a brief courtship, they are married, but Apollonia is killed by a car bomb intended for Michael. The attack was set up by Michael's trusted bodyguard, Fabrizio. In the book, she is pregnant at the time of her death. The explosion is powerful enough to throw Michael off his feet; in the novel, he is knocked unconscious for about a week.

After Apollonia's death, Michael returns to the United States and marries Kay Adams; she is unaware that he had been married, then made a widower, while he was living in Sicily.

Michael's revenge

In the novel, Michael avenges Apollonia's death. Fabrizio is found running a pizza parlor in Buffalo, New York. He is shot in the chest by an assassin who walks into the pizza parlor. The assassin then tells him "Michael Corleone sends his regards", before shooting him again in the head. In a deleted scene from the film, Michael kills Fabrizio with a shotgun. (This scene has never been released, though publicity photos were distributed of Al Pacino, who portrayed Michael, firing a shotgun.^[1])

In a deleted scene from The Godfather Part II, Fabrizio is killed in front of his parlor with a bomb wired to the ignition of his car. This scene can be seen in the film's DVD release and in The Godfather Saga.

References

cs:Apollonia Vitteliová it:Apollonia Vitelli-Corleone hu:Apollonia Vitelli-Corleone pl:Apollonia Vitelli fi:Apollonia Vitelli-Corleone tr:Apollonia Vitelli-Corleone

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