<P> The film was the highest - grossing film of 1972 and was for a time the highest - grossing film ever made . It won the Oscars for Best Picture, Best Actor (Brando) and Best Adapted Screenplay (for Puzo and Coppola). Its seven other Oscar nominations included Pacino, James Caan, Robert Duvall (Best Supporting Actor), and Coppola for Best Director . </P> <P> The Godfather is widely regarded as one of the greatest films in world cinema and one of the most influential, especially in the gangster genre . It was selected for preservation in the U.S. National Film Registry of the Library of Congress in 1990, being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" and is ranked the second - greatest film in American cinema (behind Citizen Kane) by the American Film Institute . It was followed by sequels The Godfather Part II (1974) and The Godfather Part III (1990). </P> <P> In 1945, at his daughter Connie's wedding, Vito Corleone hears requests in his role as the Godfather, the Don of a New York crime family . Vito's youngest son, Michael, who was a Marine during World War II, introduces his girlfriend, Kay Adams, to his family at the reception . Johnny Fontane, a famous singer and Vito's godson, seeks Vito's help in securing a movie role; Vito dispatches his consigliere, Tom Hagen, to Los Angeles to persuade studio head Jack Woltz to give Johnny the part . Woltz refuses until he wakes up in bed with the severed head of his prized stallion . </P> <P> Shortly before Christmas, drug baron Virgil "The Turk" Sollozzo, backed by the Tattaglia crime family, asks Vito for investment in his narcotics business and protection through his political connections . Wary of involvement in a dangerous new trade that risks alienating political insiders, Vito declines . Suspicious, Vito sends his enforcer, Luca Brasi, to spy on them . Brasi is garroted during his first meeting with Bruno Tattaglia and Sollozzo . Later Sollozzo has Vito gunned down in the street, then kidnaps Hagen . With Corleone first - born Sonny in command, Sollozzo pressures Hagen to persuade Sonny to accept Sollozzo's deal, then releases him . The family receives fish wrapped in Brasi's bullet - proof vest, indicating that Luca "sleeps with the fishes ." Vito survives, and at the hospital Michael thwarts another attempt on his father; Michael's jaw is broken by NYPD Captain Marc McCluskey, Sollozzo's unauthorized bodyguard . Sonny retaliates with a hit on Bruno Tattaglia . Michael plots to murder Sollozzo and McCluskey: on the deception of settling the dispute, Michael arranges to meet them in a Bronx restaurant . There, retrieving a planted handgun, he kills both men . </P>

What was the full name of the godfather