Claim: Vito Corleone exists exclusively in reality.
Evidence: 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.