I'm guessing that Don Altobello was Boss of the one of the Five Families. But if so, which Family--the Barzini Family, Tattaglia, Cuneo, Strachhi? And why did he seem to be on equal footing with Michael?

If he was a post-Massacre Boss of one of the Five Families, presumably he would've either been a puppet of, or gained power, with Michael's blessing, through Michael. As in, he probably sold out his Boss (one of the original Five Families Bosses) to Michael. Which in an unofficial way would've put Michael above Altobello.

And secondly, how the hell is he Connie's godfather? Connie was born around 1925 or so. If Altobello wasn't a Boss until after 1955, how did Vito even know him, especially so close to have been his only daughter's Godfather? If he wasn't a Boss until 1955, he probably was only a soldier or at most a Capo in the 1920s...While Vito was already a Don of his own family.

Don Altobello was the consigliere of Rico Tattaglia from 1955 until 1961,at which time he became Boss of that family.He and Vito could have become acquainted at any time on the streets of New York.
I don't think that their respective ranks would make much difference. For all we know,they could have met when Vito was working for Abbandando's Groceria.Two guys in different Families who happened to become friends.
Mike refers to the long term friendship with his Family,so who knows?

Yeah, and he wasn't even a the meeting when Vito made the peace.

Perhaps he had an opertion in Sicily but moved to New York. He did say he was going to "retire" there, so maybe thats where he derived his power.

Altobello was one more rabbit out of Coppola's hat.

Great pun,Danito.

Here's a thread about Altobello that I had started two years ago.

http://www.gangsterbb.net/threads/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=604759

Pithy and probably true.

If you had to choose what family Altobello was part of, what would it be?

I'd say the Barzini family.

Don Altobello was the consigliere of Rico Tattaglia from 1955 until 1961,at which time he became Boss of that family.

Lou, How did you know that Altobello was with the Tattaglia's?

If you do a google search on any character in the Trilogy,(or even the Winegardner stuff),you can get to a Wiki page that will give you the fictional character biography and backstory. It's a pretty neat resource to check out.

I was asking wat YOU think what family he would have belonged to, not what Winegardner thinks.

It just does not make sense to me that a Tattaglia (who were regarded as low-life pimps by Don Vito) would have become godfather to Corleone's only daughter.

I, personally, would have guessed the Tattaglia Family LAST.

He wasn't a rabbit out of FFC's hat, he was the head of the secret sixth family. He and Vito were lose friends, and Vito was the only Don who knew about this family. It will all come out in the upcoming release: "The Real Godfather Story," directed by Oliver Stone.

I always thought that Don Altobello was with the Stracci Family as both Vito Corleone and Anthony Stracci were known to have great power and influence with politicians and police.

It seems like the character was someone made in Sicily since he was an "old friend" of Vito's and was Connie's godfather. Maybe the idea was that he was whomever took over Don Ciccio's operations after Vito killed him (perhaps one of Cicico's men who sold the old don out?), that could explain his closeness with the family and being a friend of Vito's (he would have been in charge of the exporting of the olive oil to the Genco Pura Company then). Speaking, of course, from a hypothetical situation here since the character has no backstory.

HE was clearly from Sicily, and maybe he was some kind of free agent working in Staten Island and also in Sicily. He was close enough to Vito to be COnnie's Godfather, so that had to mean something. My best guess (the Oliver Stone posting aside) is that somehow he managed to do business in New York outside the direction of the five families, and possibly under the protection of Sicilians...perhaps Don Tomassino??? Vito would have given him the position of Connie's Godfather to assuage any hostility between him and his sponsors in Sicily and the Corleone families, and also to signal to the other families that he was aligned with the then powerful Corleones.

Altobello was an exercise in creationism just like Vinnie and Zasa were. One can imagine any back story one wants, but why complicate it? Why not stay with a story that is more likely? Why bring Sicily into it? If he was Connie's Godfather, then he must have been close to Vito from the early days. Maybe he became a Don of one of the five families. What's a more intriguing question is why he turned on Michael.

Never explained...like so much else in GFIII.

In the 1979 script by Coppola and Puzo the antagonist was a New York don. This may have been the predecessor of the Don Altobello character. I think he was a little too prominent within Mafia circles in New York to just be a don from Sicily as he was the one who set up the meeting of the Commission. Remember the line "as your family's oldest friend I'm always chosen to bring you messages". I doubt the other New York dons would use a Sicilian don to bring messages to Michael. He could have been the Don of the Tattaglias, but then he must've already been close to Vito before Philip Tattaglia became don.

It is kind of, sort of explained, that is as well as anything in GF III is, For whatever reason he was beholden to one of the Immobiliare guys who opposed Michael. As Michael rightly said he had a lot of fingers in a lot of pies. I think Altobello knew that he either turned on Michael or he would be dead.