We took care of that thing for ya.
On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of "Goodfellas" this year, the Daily News has compiled a list of 25 things every movie nut should know about the classic gangster flick, which is being honored on the closing night of The Tribeca Film Festival Saturday.
To celebrate, the cast of the Martin Scorsese movie will reunite and participate in a sit-down conversation hosted by Jon Stewart.
The violent, profane and often funny film, based on Nicholas Pileggi's book "Wiseguy: Life in a Mafia Family," featured several cameos by the story's real-life characters, and is revered by movie fans for its colorful dialogue and memorable lines.
Now go home and get your shinebox . . .
1. Several Hollywood A-listers were mentioned for the role of Henry Hill, including Tom Cruise, Sean Penn, Alec Baldwin and Cruise's "Top Gun" co-star Val Kilmer, who sent in a tape of himself playing the character, "Goodfellas" producer Irwin Winkler revealed to Playboy recently.
Nicholas Pileggi in Los Angeles in January. "Goodfellas" was based on his book, "Wiseguy: Life in a Mafia Family."
2. Author Nicholas Pileggi didn't return director Martin Scorsese's initial call about making his 1986 book "Wiseguy" into a movie because he thought someone was pulling his leg.
"I didn't believe it when Marty left a message. I thought it was my friend David Denby, the film critic, winding me up. So I just ignored him," Pileggi told The Guardian in 2013. Scorsese eventually got Pileggi's attention by reaching out to his wife, Nora Ephron.
3. Ray Liotta didn't meet Henry Hill until after the movie wrapped. According to Hill, Scorsese insisted on keeping the two apart. "He didn't want me to influence him whatsoever," he once told an interviewer.
Robert De Niro, however, met with Hill and endlessly quizzed him for insights into his character, Jimmy Conway, who was based on mobster James (Jimmy the Gent) Burke.
Former mobster Henry Hill at the Essex County Jail in Newark, N.J., in 1997.
4. Instead, to get into character, Liotta listened to hours upon hours of interviews Pileggi taped with Hill while writing "Wiseguy." "Henry Hill was eating potato chips the whole time . . . it (was) just a horrible noise," Liotta recalled to a radio interviewer in 2014.
5. Both of Scorsese's parents are in the film. His mom, Catherine, plays Joe Pesci's character's mother, while his father, Charles, plays Vinnie, the old mobster whom Paulie warns about putting too many onions in the tomato sauce in the prison dinner scene. Charles died in 1993, while Catherine died in 1997.
Martin Scorsese's father, Charles Scorsese (l.), played Vinnie, an aging mobster who gets a little heavy-handed with the onions in his tomato sauce in the prison dinner scene. His mother, Catherine Scorsese (r.), played Tommy DeVito's mother.
6. In the scene where Henry and Karen Hill are discussing the witness protection program, the prosecutor they are speaking to is Ed McDonald, the actual federal prosecutor who put Hill in the witness protection program.
McDonald, now in private practice, told the Wall Street Journal in 2008 that all of his lines were improvised, including the famous, "Don't give me the 'babe in the woods' routine, Karen."
"We did six takes of the scene, and I often wondered how many times I used (that line) . . . I probably only used it once," McDonald said.
7. "Goodfellas" was nominated for six Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director. It won only one, a Best Supporting Actor trophy for Joe Pesci.
for being alive."
8. Pesci's acceptance speech was just five words: "It's my privilege, thank you."
9. Lorraine Bracco turned down the chance to play mob wife Carmella on the HBO series "The Sopranos" because of her role as Karen Hill in "Goodfellas."
"I said, 'Look, I don't think I should play Carmela because I did it, I did it in a Scorsese movie, I got an Oscar nomination. I really don't think I'm going to bring so much to this for you that I haven't done already," she recently toldHuffPost Live.
10. Joe Pesci's character Tommy DeVito is based on Lucchese family hit man Thomas DeSimone, aka "Two-Gun Tommy" or "Tommy D." While Pesci is only about 5-foot-4, DeSimone was actually a hulking 6-foot-2 in real life.
Describing Tommy's death in the film, Henry Hill says: "They even shot Tommy in the face so his mother couldn't give him an open coffin at the funeral." In reality, DeSimone vanished in 1979 and his body was never found. He was 28.
11. According to "Wiseguy," DeSimone did in fact pistol whip William (Billy Batts) Bentvena to death after Batts ribbed him about being a shoeshine boy, but the insult and the murder occurred a few weeks apart.
During the gruesome attack, DeSimone smashed the butt of his .38 revolver into Batts' face and screamed, "Shine these f--- shoes!"
12. The famous "Funny how?" scene was inspired by an experience Joe Pesci had working at a restaurant and mob hangout as a young man. As Liotta and other castmates tell it, Pesci got put on the spot after he quipped that one mobster was "a funny guy."
Chuck Low, who played Morrie Kessler, was De Niro's real estate agent.
13. Chuck Low, who plays the pestering wig salesman Morrie Kessler, was Robert De Niro's real estate consultant before appearing in the film.
14. De Niro's character, Jimmy Conway, was based on James Burke, a top associate of the Lucchese crime family nicknamed "Jimmy the Gent" because of his dapper appearance. As depicted in the movie, Burke masterminded the 1978 Lufthansa robbery, which ripped off nearly $6 million from a JFK cargo hold and was the largest robbery in the U.S. at the time. He and Hill were also players in the 1979 Boston College point-shaving scandal.
In "Wiseguy," Hill describes Burke's love of stealing: "If you ever offered Jimmy a billion dollars, he'd turn you down and then try to figure out how to steal it from you." He died of lung cancer in a Buffalo hospital in 1996 while serving a 20-to-life sentence for murder.
James Burke, aka Jimmy the Gent, is taken to federal court in an undated photo. Burke served as the basis for De Niro's character, Jimmy Conway.
15. In the famous introduction scene, Fat Andy, aka "Moe Black's brother," is played by Louis Eppolito, one of the notorious NYPD "Mafia Cops."
As a detective in the 1980s and early '90s, Eppolito — whose father, uncle and cousins were made guys in the Gambino family — secretly worked for the mob, filtering tips and information that eventually led to several murders. Along with Stephen Caracappa, he was convicted of racketeering, murder and conspiracy in 2006 and sentenced to life in prison.
16. Sonny Bunz, the beleaguered Bamboo Lounge owner who gets a bottle cracked over his head, was played by Anthony Borgese, a Brooklyn-bred actor who uses the stage name Tony Darrow. As a young man, Borgese worked in the real Bamboo Lounge in Canarsie, where Hill, Burke and DeSimone hung out.
On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of "Goodfellas" this year, the Daily News has compiled a list of 25 things every movie nut should know about the classic gangster flick, which is being honored on the closing night of The Tribeca Film Festival Saturday.
To celebrate, the cast of the Martin Scorsese movie will reunite and participate in a sit-down conversation hosted by Jon Stewart.
The violent, profane and often funny film, based on Nicholas Pileggi's book "Wiseguy: Life in a Mafia Family," featured several cameos by the story's real-life characters, and is revered by movie fans for its colorful dialogue and memorable lines.
Now go home and get your shinebox . . .
1. Several Hollywood A-listers were mentioned for the role of Henry Hill, including Tom Cruise, Sean Penn, Alec Baldwin and Cruise's "Top Gun" co-star Val Kilmer, who sent in a tape of himself playing the character, "Goodfellas" producer Irwin Winkler revealed to Playboy recently.
Nicholas Pileggi in Los Angeles in January. "Goodfellas" was based on his book, "Wiseguy: Life in a Mafia Family."
2. Author Nicholas Pileggi didn't return director Martin Scorsese's initial call about making his 1986 book "Wiseguy" into a movie because he thought someone was pulling his leg.
"I didn't believe it when Marty left a message. I thought it was my friend David Denby, the film critic, winding me up. So I just ignored him," Pileggi told The Guardian in 2013. Scorsese eventually got Pileggi's attention by reaching out to his wife, Nora Ephron.
3. Ray Liotta didn't meet Henry Hill until after the movie wrapped. According to Hill, Scorsese insisted on keeping the two apart. "He didn't want me to influence him whatsoever," he once told an interviewer.
Robert De Niro, however, met with Hill and endlessly quizzed him for insights into his character, Jimmy Conway, who was based on mobster James (Jimmy the Gent) Burke.
Former mobster Henry Hill at the Essex County Jail in Newark, N.J., in 1997.
4. Instead, to get into character, Liotta listened to hours upon hours of interviews Pileggi taped with Hill while writing "Wiseguy." "Henry Hill was eating potato chips the whole time . . . it (was) just a horrible noise," Liotta recalled to a radio interviewer in 2014.
5. Both of Scorsese's parents are in the film. His mom, Catherine, plays Joe Pesci's character's mother, while his father, Charles, plays Vinnie, the old mobster whom Paulie warns about putting too many onions in the tomato sauce in the prison dinner scene. Charles died in 1993, while Catherine died in 1997.
Martin Scorsese's father, Charles Scorsese (l.), played Vinnie, an aging mobster who gets a little heavy-handed with the onions in his tomato sauce in the prison dinner scene. His mother, Catherine Scorsese (r.), played Tommy DeVito's mother.
6. In the scene where Henry and Karen Hill are discussing the witness protection program, the prosecutor they are speaking to is Ed McDonald, the actual federal prosecutor who put Hill in the witness protection program.
McDonald, now in private practice, told the Wall Street Journal in 2008 that all of his lines were improvised, including the famous, "Don't give me the 'babe in the woods' routine, Karen."
"We did six takes of the scene, and I often wondered how many times I used (that line) . . . I probably only used it once," McDonald said.
7. "Goodfellas" was nominated for six Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director. It won only one, a Best Supporting Actor trophy for Joe Pesci.
for being alive."
8. Pesci's acceptance speech was just five words: "It's my privilege, thank you."
9. Lorraine Bracco turned down the chance to play mob wife Carmella on the HBO series "The Sopranos" because of her role as Karen Hill in "Goodfellas."
"I said, 'Look, I don't think I should play Carmela because I did it, I did it in a Scorsese movie, I got an Oscar nomination. I really don't think I'm going to bring so much to this for you that I haven't done already," she recently toldHuffPost Live.
10. Joe Pesci's character Tommy DeVito is based on Lucchese family hit man Thomas DeSimone, aka "Two-Gun Tommy" or "Tommy D." While Pesci is only about 5-foot-4, DeSimone was actually a hulking 6-foot-2 in real life.
Describing Tommy's death in the film, Henry Hill says: "They even shot Tommy in the face so his mother couldn't give him an open coffin at the funeral." In reality, DeSimone vanished in 1979 and his body was never found. He was 28.
11. According to "Wiseguy," DeSimone did in fact pistol whip William (Billy Batts) Bentvena to death after Batts ribbed him about being a shoeshine boy, but the insult and the murder occurred a few weeks apart.
During the gruesome attack, DeSimone smashed the butt of his .38 revolver into Batts' face and screamed, "Shine these f--- shoes!"
12. The famous "Funny how?" scene was inspired by an experience Joe Pesci had working at a restaurant and mob hangout as a young man. As Liotta and other castmates tell it, Pesci got put on the spot after he quipped that one mobster was "a funny guy."
Chuck Low, who played Morrie Kessler, was De Niro's real estate agent.
13. Chuck Low, who plays the pestering wig salesman Morrie Kessler, was Robert De Niro's real estate consultant before appearing in the film.
14. De Niro's character, Jimmy Conway, was based on James Burke, a top associate of the Lucchese crime family nicknamed "Jimmy the Gent" because of his dapper appearance. As depicted in the movie, Burke masterminded the 1978 Lufthansa robbery, which ripped off nearly $6 million from a JFK cargo hold and was the largest robbery in the U.S. at the time. He and Hill were also players in the 1979 Boston College point-shaving scandal.
In "Wiseguy," Hill describes Burke's love of stealing: "If you ever offered Jimmy a billion dollars, he'd turn you down and then try to figure out how to steal it from you." He died of lung cancer in a Buffalo hospital in 1996 while serving a 20-to-life sentence for murder.
James Burke, aka Jimmy the Gent, is taken to federal court in an undated photo. Burke served as the basis for De Niro's character, Jimmy Conway.
15. In the famous introduction scene, Fat Andy, aka "Moe Black's brother," is played by Louis Eppolito, one of the notorious NYPD "Mafia Cops."
As a detective in the 1980s and early '90s, Eppolito — whose father, uncle and cousins were made guys in the Gambino family — secretly worked for the mob, filtering tips and information that eventually led to several murders. Along with Stephen Caracappa, he was convicted of racketeering, murder and conspiracy in 2006 and sentenced to life in prison.
16. Sonny Bunz, the beleaguered Bamboo Lounge owner who gets a bottle cracked over his head, was played by Anthony Borgese, a Brooklyn-bred actor who uses the stage name Tony Darrow. As a young man, Borgese worked in the real Bamboo Lounge in Canarsie, where Hill, Burke and DeSimone hung out.
