Johnny Fontane

Johnny Fontane
Al Martino portraying Johnny Fontane, with Al Pacino on the left, as Michael Corleone.
First appearance	The Godfather (novel)
Last appearance	The Godfather Part III
Created by	Mario Puzo
Portrayed by	Al Martino
Information
Gender	Male
Occupation	Singer/actor
Family	Corleone family
Relatives	Vito Corleone (Godfather)
Religion	Roman Catholicism

John "Johnny" Fontane is a fictional character in Mario Puzo's novel The Godfather and the series of films based upon it. In Francis Ford Coppola's film adaptation of the novel, he was portrayed by Al Martino, the role having been turned down by Vic Damone.

In the novel and film, Fontane is a famous crooner and occasional film star in the vein of Frank Sinatra. He is also the godson of Vito Corleone, the head of a major Mafia crime family. The Corleone family intervenes four times to aid his career. The first, years before the novel's and film's main time frame, Vito used violent persuasion (an "offer he can't refuse") to buy out Fontane's ironclad contract with a big bandleader; after the bandleader declines Vito's first offer to buy out the contract, he orders his personal assassin Luca Brasi to place a gun to the man's forehead, telling the bandleader that either his signature or his brains would be on the contract.

The second, the infamous "horse-head" scene, is an act of intimidation, carried out at the Godfather's behest to ensure Fontane is cast in a war film that could revitalize the singer's career. The film's producer, Jack Woltz, despises Fontane for "ruining" an actress he was grooming for stardom and had been having an affair with, and thus blacklists the singer from the production. After Corleone family consigliere Tom Hagen fails to persuade Woltz to cast Fontane, Woltz awakens soon after to find his prize racehorse's severed head in his bed as a warning. Terrified, Woltz relents and casts Fontane. Months later, Vito uses his Hollywood connections to ensure that Fontane wins the Academy Award for Best Actor. Finally, the Corleones finance Fontane's film studio.