Apollonia Vitelli-Corleone

Apollonia 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.
Summary
Apollonia, a young Sicilian woman, meets Michael Corleone shortly after he arrives in Sicily. Michael and his bodyguards inquire of Signore Vitelli, a local tavern keeper, if he can identify the beautiful woman Michael is in love with. When they describe her as a woman of Greek features and wearing a purple dress and pink bow, Vitelli angrily says he does not know her, then leaves their table. When Michael's bodyguards realize that the girl is Signore Vitelli's own daughter, both beg Michael to flee, but Michael, speaking through his bodyguard and interpreter Fabrizio, soon gains Signore Vitelli's respect by introducing himself and apologizing for any offence he may have delivered. Michael asks and receives Signore Vitelli's permission to court Apollonia under the chaperonage of her family. After a brief courtship, they are married.
Soon afterward, however, Apollonia is killed by a car bomb intended for Michael. The attack was set up by Fabrizio, who had betrayed Michael to Corleone family enemies back in Michael's native New York City. In an unfortunate twist of fate, she unknowingly puts herself in danger when she tries to impress Michael by showing him that she taught herself how to drive, which was uncommon for Sicilian women. In the book, she is pregnant at the time of her death, but this detail is not specified in the film. The explosion is powerful enough to throw Michael off his feet and knock him unconscious. The local Mafia chieftain, Don Tommasino, an old friend of Michael's father Vito, moves Michael to a hospital. Michael regains consciousness a few days later, whereupon Don Tommasino informs Michael of his wife's death.
Only when Corleone family consigliere Tom Hagen is sure that it is safe for Michael to return to the United States, is he summoned. More than a year later, Michael contacts his previous girlfriend, Kay Adams, but does not tell her that he had been married while he was living in Sicily. They marry and have two children.
30 years later, Kay mentions Michael's first marriagein The Godfather IIIwhen she and Michael visit Sicily together. Michael also tells his daughter Mary that she bears a resemblance to Apollonia.
Michael's revenge
In the novel, Michael avenges Apollonia's death. Fabrizio is found running a pizza parlor in Buffalo, New York under the alias of Fred Vincent. 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's script, Michael himself kills Fabrizio with a shotgun. This scene was never released, although publicity photos were distributed of Al Pacino, who portrayed Michael, firing a shotgun.
A scene was filmed for Part II in which Michael is informed that Fabrizio has been found. The former bodyguard is killed in his car with a powerful bomb wired to the ignition, matching the car bomb that he used to kill Apollonia. The scene was removed from the final cut of the film, but it can be seen in The Godfather Saga.

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