Burke strangled Jimmy Breslin almost to death after he wrote a piece on Paul Vario. That should have made it to the movie. On December 11, 1978 Burke pulled off the Lufthansa heist. Thomas DeSimone AKA Tommy DeVito

Vario died on May 3, 1988 of an inflamed colon while he was jailed at Fort Worth Federal Prison in Texas. Vario was serving a ten to twelve year sentence for helping Henry Hill get a no-show job when he got out of prison. Also, on Hill’s testimony, for extortion at JFK Airport. He was 73. Martin Krugman AKA Morrie Kessler In 1979, Tommy is deceived into believing he is to become a made man and is murdered after walking into the room of the ceremony—partly as retribution for murdering Batts. In January 2012, it was announced that the AMC Network had put a television series version of the movie in development. Pileggi was on board to co-write the adaptation with television writer-producer Jorge Zamacona. The two were set to executive produce with the film's producer Irwin Winkler and his son, David. [74]Goodfellas inspired director David Chase to make the HBO television series The Sopranos. He told Peter Bogdanovich, " Goodfellas is a very important movie to me and Goodfellas really plowed that ... I found that movie very funny and brutal and it felt very real. And yet that was the first mob movie that Scorsese ever dealt with a mob crew. ... as opposed to say The Godfather ... which there's something operatic about it, classical, even the clothing and the cars. You know I mean I always think about Goodfellas when they go to their mother's house that night when they're eating, you know when she brings out her painting, that stuff is great. I mean The Sopranos learned a lot from that." [70] Indeed, the film shares a total of 27 actors with The Sopranos, [71] including Bracco, Sirico, Imperioli, Pellegrino, Lip, and Vincent, who all had major roles in Chase's HBO series. [72] Goodfellas". Box Office Mojo. Archived from the original on December 18, 2014 . Retrieved December 7, 2014. Scorsese initially titled the film Wise Guy and postponed making it; he and Pileggi later changed the title to Goodfellas. To prepare for their roles in the film, De Niro, Pesci and Liotta often spoke with Pileggi, who shared research material left over from writing the book. According to Pesci, improvisation and ad-libbing came out of rehearsals wherein Scorsese gave the actors freedom to do whatever they wanted. The director made transcripts of these sessions, took the lines he liked most and put them into a revised script, which the cast worked from during principal photography. The Godfather star went on to note that The Family earned praise from Scorsese, teasing, "Marty told me he liked the movie, he told me he liked it a lot. I don't know if he saw it with an audience or not but I know him well enough to know he was telling me the truth." Pileggi was married to fellow author, journalist, and filmmaker Nora Ephron from 1987 until her death in 2012. [2] Partial filmography [ edit ] Year

Well before dawn on December 11, 1978, six henchmen working for Burke pulled up outside a Lufthansa Airlines cargo building at JFK Airport. They didn’t know it, but they were about to make history. a b Papamichael, Stella (October 22, 2004). "GoodFellas: Special Edition DVD (1990)". BBC. Archived from the original on July 17, 2007 . Retrieved June 24, 2007. Goodfellas premiered at the 47th Venice International Film Festival, where Scorsese received the Silver Lion award for best director. [33] It was given a wide release in North America on September 21, 1990.Vario (Paul Cicero in the film) was far from the relatively coolheaded powerbroker Paul Sorvino portrayed. A federal prosecutor called Vario, who served jail time for rape and had a notoriously unhinged temper, "one of the most violent and dangerous career criminals in the city of New York.” And while Robert De Niro’s Jimmy Conway comes across as cunning and conniving with a brutal streak, the real Jimmy “The Gent” Burke was, according to Hill, a “homicidal maniac,” brutally violent and responsible for at least 50 to 60 murders. 11. Paul Sorvino almost dropped out of Goodfellas because he was having trouble connecting to his character's cruelty. A decade prior, Liotta told GQ, "For 20 years now, there's not a day that goes by that I don't hear somebody mention Goodfellas. Unless I stay home all night. It's defined who I am, in a sense." However, the only actor confirmed to have appeared in the holy trinity of Mafia pop culture—the original The Godfather, Goodfellas, and The Sopranos— is Tony Lip, best known for his portrayal of New York crime boss Carmine Lupertazzi on The Sopranos. 28. U.S. Attorney Edward McDonald plays himself. Two other Scorsese films outrank Goodfellas when it comes to this specific profanity: the word is dropped 422 times in Casino and a whopping 506 times in The Wolf of Wall Street. 18. Debi Mazar's Goodfellas trip was real.

Hill says Vario never talked on the phone, because you never knew who could be listening. Hill also says Vario had a nasty temper. Vario had his boys beat all the waiters from Don Pepe’s with baseball bats for keeping Vario and his wife Phyllis waiting in line.Paul and Phylis Vario had three sons, Peter, Paul Jr., and Leonard. Vario and his crew treated Kennedy Airport like Citibank. Vario controlled and protected gambling in East New York, Brooklyn. He owned a flower shop, restaurant, and the cab stand that served as his office. His brother, Vito “Tuddy” Vario, ran the Euclid Avenue Cab Co. and Presto Pizzeria.Tuddy is based on Paul Vario’s younger brother Vito, and Vinnie (Charles Scorsese) is based on Thomas Agro. Hill went into dope. Selling and using. He got fingered by a mule who also squealed about Lufthansa. Hill was busted on April 27, 1980 and ratted out everyone who he thought was out to clip him. Burke allegedly tried to contract a job on Hill to Greg Bucceroni, but he passed and Burke went to jail. Hill’s testimony convicted 50 guys. Jimmy Burke got 20 years for the 1978–79 Boston College point shaving scandal.a b "Goodfellas (1990) - Financial Information". The Numbers. Archived from the original on January 28, 2021 . Retrieved January 22, 2021. The book retells his life mirrored in the movie to include his early life, coming up as a gangster associate to the Lucchese crime family, the drugs and guns, and the famous Lufthansa heist. More than the movie, Henry Hill goes into the other crimes, mob personalities, fixing games, robberies, union extortion, and other underworld activities the film let out. The memoir goes further into his life (and his family's life) after entering into the Witness Protection Program (WPP). He consistently admits throughout the book his substance/alcohol abuse problem. This was also a continued problem even after getting into the WPP with substance abuse problems. Corliss, Richard (September 24, 1990). "Married to the Mob". Time. Archived from the original on February 20, 2009 . Retrieved January 29, 2009.