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Jun 19, 2022 · Goodfellas is based on a true story, and as such, it mentions some real-life gangsters (though the names of the majority were changed), especially in the “meet the crew” scene at the Bamboo Lounge – and here’s every gangster Henry Hill quickly introduces in Goodfellas ’ Bamboo Lounge scene.
- Goodfellas: How The Cast Compares To The Real Gangsters
Audiences follow one of the Goodfellas' real-life...
- Goodfellas: How The Cast Compares To The Real Gangsters
Sep 19, 2019 · Goodfellas, directed by Martin Scorsese, is of course a gangster classic. The Beatles of crime, in case you were wondering, is the Gallo Profaci wars, which launched the stories of The...
- Henry Hill
- Jimmy Conway
- Tommy Devito
- Paul Cicero
- Morris Kessler
- Billy Batts
- Why Goodfellas Changed Its Gangsters from Real Life
Played By Ray Liotta
Audiences follow one of the Goodfellas' real-life characters, Henry Hill, from an eager teen who "always wanted to be a gangster" to his career as a Lucchese family associate, and much of the film lines up with Hill’s actual life.Hill started his career carrying cash from debtors to Paul Vario, a Lucchese capo (a mafia captain). By the time he was arrested for drug charges in 1980, Hill helped plan multiple heists and was involved in murder cover-ups. Hill’s addiction to cocaine makes him a m...
Played By Robert De Niro
Jimmy Conway, played by Robert De Niro, is based on Jimmy Burke, another associate of the Lucchese family. Like Hill, Burke had Irish heritage and could never be a “made man” in the Italian mafia. However, he was the mastermind behind many of the family’s biggest heists. Burke was raised in a variety of abusive foster homes before finding the Lucchese family. He began mafia work as a hijacker; his proclivity for tipping the drivers whose trucks he stole gave him his nickname, Jimmy “The Gent....
Played By Joe Pesci
Joe Pesci’s performance as Tommy DeVito earned him an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, but there are some differences between Pesci and Thomas DeSimone, on whom DeVito is based. There’s no doubt DeSimone was every bit as volatile as Pesci’s DeVito. His grandfather and uncle were both bosses of the Los Angeles mafia, but DeSimone chose a path outside the family. He was younger than Burke and Hill, under whom he worked as he rose through the Lucchese family ranks. Known for carrying a g...
Played By Paul Sorvino
Paul Sorvino’s character, Paul Cicero,is based on Lucchese capo Paul Vario. Vario oversaw a piece of Lucchese territory in Brooklyn. A typical mafia captain, Vario stayed away from the crimes in which his soldiers and associates were involved. Instead, he oversaw much of the illegal gambling and extortion aspects of the business. He also signed off on bigger heists, such as the Lufthansa heist, and on hits such as that of DeSimone. Sorvino plays Cicero as a more classical mobster. He always s...
Played by Chuck Low
Morris Kessler is based on Martin Krugman. Krugman was first generation Russian-Jewish, and he got his start in illegal bookkeeping. Rather than work directly for the mob, Krugman ran his operation. Through this work, Krugman became familiar with several employees of JFK Airport. Because of this connection, he was able to tell Hill about Lufthansa’s JFK vault. After the heist, Krugman became adamant he received a large piece of the money. The fact that Burke didn’t like him, marked Krugman fo...
Played By Frank Vincent
The brutal murder of Billy Batts in Goodfellas is shocking, and so is the crime on which it is based. "Billy Batts" Benventa found himself on the wrong side of Burke and DeSimone. As in the film, Benventa insulted DeSimone for having once been a shoe shiner, but Benventa was a made man in the Gambino crime familyand wasn’t killed for his words. When Benventa returned from a prison sentence, he wanted control of his loansharking business back from Burke. Burke, unwilling to turn it over, beat...
The changes to Goodfellas' real-life characters from their movie counterparts are a creative license movies often take. The reasons behind the alterations are twofold. The first is to better fit the story into one cohesive narrative. Rather than have a full ensemble narrative, Scorcese focuses on Henry Hill, revealing the mafia underground through ...
- Martin Scorsese
- Robert De Niro
The names of several real-life gangsters were altered for the film: Tommy "Two Gun" DeSimone became the character Tommy DeVito; Paul Vario became Paulie Cicero, and Jimmy "The Gent" Burke was portrayed as Jimmy Conway.
Mar 9, 2024 · This realism largely stems from the fact that, unlike films such as The Godfather and Once Upon A Time In America, Goodfellas is based on a true story of one gangster, his associates, and one of the most daring heists in American history.
Sep 20, 2010 · Twenty years after the release of GoodFellas, the good people behind it--Scorsese, Liotta, De Niro!--re-create the making of the truest, bloodiest, greatest gangster film of all time.
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Sep 21, 1990 · Goodfellas: Directed by Martin Scorsese. With Robert De Niro, Ray Liotta, Joe Pesci, Lorraine Bracco. The story of Henry Hill and his life in the mafia, covering his relationship with his wife Karen and his mob partners Jimmy Conway and Tommy DeVito.
