Henry Hill

**Henry Hill** is the titular main protagonist of Martin Scorsese's 1990 epic crime film, *Goodfellas*. He is an associate of the Lucchese Crime Family, who was close friends with fellow associates, Jimmy Conway and Tommy DeVito, until he becomes an FBI informant. He was inspired by real life mobster, Henry Hill.

He was portrayed by the late Ray Liotta.

## Biography

### Early life

Henry Hill Jr. was born on June 11, 1943 in Manhattan, New York City to Henry and Carmela Hill, who were apart of a large family. He was the older brother of Michael an unnamed sister and the younger brother of an unnamed brother and sister.

### 1955

In 1955, Henry does various jobs for Tuddy Cicero, the brother of Paul Cicero, a caporegime for the Lucchese Crime Family. At this time, Henry meets Lucchese associate, Jimmy "The Gent" Conway and fellow youngster, Tommy DeVito, both of which he forms a close bond with.

### 1960's

During the 1960's, Henry becomes more involved with the Lucchese Family, ultimately becoming an associate. Around this time, Henry also started working alongside Jimmy instead of doing jobs for him with Tommy. Soon after, Henry meets Jewish girl, Karen Friedman, who he later marries in 1964.

### 1970

On June 11, 1970, at one of Henry's bars, the trio encounters Billy Batts, a made man for the Gambino Crime Family. After Billy starts provoking and patronizing Tommy, due to Tommy's past of being a shoe shiner for mobsters as a child. After Tommy has had enough, the trio murder Billy and bury him in upstate New York. Six month later, Henry has to dig up Billy's decomposed body, however, after he learns that the burial site is slated for development. The hit was incredibly dangerous for the trio due to them murdering a made man.

Later, Henry is present at a card game when Tommy gets into a heated argument with the young bartender, nicknamed Spider, who Tommy shoots in the foot. Some time later, Henry is also present when Tommy is told by Spider to "go fuck himself". This causes the other men to cheer on Spider for being brave enough to say that to Tommy, which causes Tommy to murder Spider. Meanwhile, Henry has an affair with Janice Rossi, which causes Karen to almost kill Henry.

Some time later, Henry and Jimmy are sent to Miami to beat up a man who owed Paul money. After they beat the man up, they are arrested as the man's sister was a typist for the FBI. Jimmy and Henry are given 10-year sentences, but are both put on parole in 1978.

### 1978

After Jimmy and Henry are released, Jimmy sets up a heist of the Lufthansa vault at the John F. Kennedy International Airport, where they stole $5.8 million dollars. Pretty soon, Jimmy gets upset over everyone getting expensive stuff, when Jimmy told them not to, this causes Jimmy to have every member of the heist crew to be murdered, excluding Henry and Tommy.

### 1979

By 1979, Henry is given the news that Tommy is going to become a made man. This is great news for the trio as Tommy is the only member of Jimmy's crew to be 100% Italian. However, on January 14, 1979, Tommy was murdered by Gambino goons for revenge for Billy Batts' murder.

### 1980

By May 11, 1980, Henry has developed a serious drug addiction, after doing a drug deal with his Pittsburgh associates, he is arrested on narcotics charges. While the house is being raided, Karen flushes $60,000 worth of cocaine down the toilet, which enrages Henry after he is bailed out. Later, Paulie ends his association with Henry after giving him $3,200. Later, Henry meets up with Jimmy at a diner, who attempts to have Henry travel to Florida to have him whacked. With nothing else to turn to, Henry becomes an FBI informant and enrolls into the witness protection program. Soon after, Henry rats out Jimmy and Paulie and moves to a nondescript neighborhood to live the rest of his life as a "schnook".

### Epilogue

In the epilogue, it states that Henry was arrested in 1987 in Seattle, Washington for narcotics conspiracy and received 5 years probation, and that in 1989, Henry and Karen divorced after being married for 25 years.

## Personality

Unlike other gangsters he works with, Henry is the only one who doesn't act cold or psychotic. Despite, always wanting to be a gangster, Henry never kills anybody and didn't want anybody to be hurt during their operations. Not to mention, Henry is the only one in the operation who cares for his associates, unlike Tommy, who was psychotic and only cared for himself and Jimmy, who betrayed Henry for an unjustified reasoning. Despite this, Henry loved being a gangster, even though, in the process, he lost all of his friends, Henry still loved the idea of being a gangster and hated living his life like a "schnook". All together, Henry is a respectable man, who does some sociopathic actions throughout his life, but is still honorable.

## Gallery

Henry in 1955.Henry during the 1960's.Henry with Jimmy and Tommy.Henry in prison.Henry in 1980."I'm an average nobody. I get to live the rest of my life living like a schnook."
## Trivia

* During filming, Liotta's mother passed away and during certain scenes involving Henry being angry, Liotta brought out his anger over his mother's death to perform the scene.
* Liotta would frequently listen to interviews that Nicholas Pileggi, writer of *Wiseguy*, did with the real Henry Hill, in order to express criminal activities in his narrations the same way Hill did in the interviews.