Nino Valenti is Johnny Fontane’s boyhood friend and eventual musical collaborator. Like Fontane, Valenti is also one of Don Vito Corleone’s godsons. A skilled mandolin player and songwriter, Valenti sings backup for Fontane and works as a truck driver for the Corleone Family, though Don Corleone declines to give him a bigger role in the Family’s criminal rackets. After Johnny makes it big in Hollywood, he promises to get Nino a job in California but reneges on this promise. Nino first appears in the novel as he plays mandolin at Connie Corleone’s wedding. Later, he reconnects with Johnny, who records several new records with Nino, introduces him to lascivious Hollywood starlets, and even gets him some film roles that make him a minor movie star. Despite his success, however, Nino is an alcoholic who ignores Jules Segal’s warnings and eventually drinks himself to death at a young age.
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Nino Valenti Character Timeline in The Godfather
The timeline below shows where the character Nino Valenti appears in The Godfather. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 1
As the wedding band takes a break, a musician named Nino Valenti plays the mandolin while Sonny flirts with Lucy Mancini, the maid of honor with...
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Chapter 12
...they were.” Rejuvenated by this newfound commitment to women, Johnny calls his onetime musical partner, Nino Valenti, and offers him a job in his new film venture. Nino accepts Johnny’s offer.
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Chapter 13
...backward in time to a few weeks before the hit on Don Corleone. Johnny and Nino are recording new music in Los Angeles. Nino fiddles nervously at a piano while drinking...
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Later that evening, Johnny takes Nino to a party that functions as a “Movie Star Lonely Hearts Club,” where he insists...
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Although Nino enjoyed Deanna Dunn’s service, he feels that “his masculinity was insulted” because Dunn had treated...
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Nino and Johnny attend the Academy Awards, where Johnny wins the Oscar for best actor. The...
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Chapter 22
...successfully performs the operation on her. The next morning, Lucy awakens to find Fredo, Jules, Nino Valenti, and Johnny Fontane at her bedside. As she greets the men, Jules notices that...
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...that Fontane’s career—and possibly his life if the growth is malignant—depends on further examination. With Nino’s support, Fontane grudgingly agrees. The examination reveals that Johnny has warts on his vocal cords,...
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...far better than cancer and that he should be grateful for the favor. A drunk Nino thanks Segal for his help. Segal responds by warning Nino that he will die in...
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Chapter 26
Johnny Fontane and Nino Valenti are in a garish Las Vegas hotel suite. Nino is playing blackjack. He is...
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Jules thanks Johnny for the check he sent, then explains that Nino has adult stabile diabetes and seems “firmly determined to drink himself to death.” He recommends...
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...that Jules expected the reaction, and Jules admits as much to show the severity of Nino’s alcoholism. While he considers having Nino committed, Johnny asks Jules why he became an abortionist....
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...Tom, and Fredo tomorrow, and that Michael got his face fixed after consulting with Jules. Nino wakes up again and Johnny tries to console him. Jules orders him a nurse, but...
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...a year earlier. Johnny Fontane is depressed despite producing a successful movie starring himself and Nino. Having undergone surgery to have the warts removed from his vocal cords, Johnny wants to...
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Fontane leave’s Virginia’s house and invites Nino and two girls for a weekend at his Palm Springs house. As Nino and his...
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The next morning, Johnny wakes up to a fully restored voice, but Nino is either dead or asleep as a nurse wheels in his medication. Johnny realizes that...
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Chapter 27
...bodyguard, Albert Neri, and Tom Hagen. That evening, Michael dines with Fredo, Tom, Lucy, Jules, Nino, and Johnny. Everyone notes how Michael resembles his father in both speech and manor. Michael...
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...Moe will not give up his casino, to which Michael shrugs. They visit Fontane and Nino in their suite. They are shocked to see that Nino is clearly at death’s door....
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Chapter 28
...the Corleone Family’s power. In the meantime, Kay gives birth to a baby boy and Nino Valenti dies of a cerebral hemorrhage.
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After Nino’s funeral, authorities find Moe Greene shot to death in his mistress’s Hollywood home. A month...
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