Vito Carleone created by Mario Puzo (1920 –1999) oversees a business founded on gambling, bootlegging, and union corruption, but he is known as a generous man who lives by a strict moral code of loyalty to friends and, above all, family. He is also known as a traditionalist who demands respect commensurate with his status; even his closest friends refer to him as "Godfather" or "Don Corleone" rather than "Vito".

Vito prides himself on being careful and reasonable, but does not completely forsake violence. When his godson, singer Johnny Fontane, wants to be released from his contract with a bandleader, Vito offers to buy it out, but the bandleader refuses. Vito then threatens to kill the bandleader unless he releases Fontane for a much smaller sum. Later, when movie mogul Jack Woltz refuses to cast Fontane in a film role that could revitalize his waning career, Vito has Woltz's champion race horse killed and the horse's severed head placed in Woltz's bed as a warning. In the novel, it is understood that when Vito offers to reason with someone, it should be taken as a warning - and if that warning goes unheeded, the person is likely to pay with his life.

See more facts here