Fredo is portrayed by American actor John Cazale in the Francis Ford Coppola 1972 film adaptation and in the 1974 sequel, The Godfather Part II.

[1] The character of Fredo is more indecisive and lacks the determination of his brothers, and as a result has little power or status within the Corleone crime family.

In the novel, Fredo's primary weakness is his womanizing, a habit he develops after moving to Las Vegas and which earns his father's disfavor.

In the films, Fredo's feelings of personal inadequacy and his inability to act effectively on his own behalf are character flaws leading to his demise.

In a pivotal scene in the novel and film, Fredo is with his father when assassins working for drug kingpin Virgil Sollozzo (Al Lettieri) gun down Don Corleone in the street.

During a large family gathering, Fredo is unable to control his intoxicated wife, Deanna Dunn (Marianna Hill).

Consigliere Tom Hagen is ordered to bring Senator Pat Geary (G. D. Spradlin) under the Corleone Family's control to gain his assistance in obtaining gambling licenses.

Fredo later betrays Michael after being approached by Johnny Ola (Dominic Chianese), an associate of rival crime boss Hyman Roth (Lee Strasberg).

Amid the chaos of American-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista fleeing Fidel Castro's rebel army, Michael pleads with Fredo to leave the country with him.

He angrily tells Michael that he resents being passed over to succeed their father; he believes that, as the older brother, he should have taken over the family business after Vito's death.

Fredo makes a final appearance in the movie's penultimate scene, a flashback to Vito’s birthday party in December 1941.

It emerges that Fredo was the only family member to support Michael's decision to drop out of college and join the Marines after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Later in the film, he breaks down in tears while confessing having ordered Fredo's death to Cardinal Lamberto (Raf Vallone), who later becomes Pope John Paul I. Michael's daughter, Mary (Sofia Coppola), asks her cousin and love interest, Vincent Corleone (Andy García), if Michael had Fredo killed, but Vincent says it is "just a story" and changes the subject.

The novel reveals that Fredo is bisexual and has several secret trysts with men, and it also implies that he was molested as a child by his parish priest.

The Corleone family would buy the former cemetery land, now prime real estate, and also be a silent partner in the graveyard business.

Roth, Ola, and traitorous Corleone family caporegime Nick Geraci use Fredo as a pawn to eliminate Michael.

Geraci and Ola meet with Fredo, who is blind drunk after having a fight with his wife, and promise to make his necropolis idea a reality in return for information about Michael.