Henry Hill Artwork

GOODFELLAS GODFATHER In the film, Henry Hill, played by Ray Liotta, becomes involved in the mafia at a young age: as he says in the beginning of the film; "As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster." As a boy, Henry idolized the Lucchese crime family gangsters in his blue-collar, predominantly Italian New York City neighborhood in East New York, Brooklyn, and in 1955 quit school and went to work for them at a local cab stand. The local Lucchese mob capo, Paul Cicero (Paul Sorvino) (based on the actual Lucchese mobster Paul Vario) and Cicero's close associate Jimmy Conway (De Niro) (based on actual associate, Jimmy Burke) help cultivate the boy's developing criminal career.