Henry Hill, the former New York mobster portrayed by Ray Liotta in "Goodfellas," died at the age of 69 earlier this week. Hill had worked for the Lucchese crime family before becoming an informant and going into hiding with his wife in the early 1980s.
He first came to public attention with the publishing of the 1986 book "Wiseguy: Life in a Mafia Family," by Nicholas Pileggi. In the book Pileggi detailed the extravagant and dangerous life Hill led while in the mob.
"Henry Hill was a hood. He was a hustler. He had schemed and plotted and broken heads," Pileggi wrote in the book. "He knew how to bribe and he knew how to con. He was a full-time working racketeer, an articulate hoodlum from organized crime."
He became a cult celebrity in 1990 following the adaptation of Pileggi's book into the film "Goodfellas." Hill died of complications from a heart condition in Los Angeles.
by RTT Staff Writer
For comments and feedback: editorial@rttnews.com
Entertainment News