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In terms of the actors in the film, in many ways the movie is an ensemble piece with no outright top billing although the narrative of Goodfellas clearly centered around Ray Liotta who portrayed Henry Hill in what was his breakthrough performance.

Goodfellas starred many other heavyweight and perfectly cast actors including Robert De Niro as Jimmy Conway, Joe Pesci as Tommy DeVito (who won an Oscar for his performance) and Lorraine Bracco as Karen Hill. Numerous other 'journeymen' actors including Paul Sorvino, Frank Vincent and Sonny Low also played key supporting roles with Sorvino in particular rightly lauded for his faultless portrayal of Paul Cicero.

Many of the stars of Goodellas went on to star in The Sopranos, including:

Lorraine Bracco (Dr. Jennifer Melfi)

Michael Imperioli (Christopher Moltisanti)

Joseph R. Gannascoli (Vito Spatafore)

Tony Darrow (Lawrence "Larry Boy" Barese)

Tony Lip (Carmine Lupertazzi)

Tony Sirico (Paulie "Walnuts" Gualtieri)

Vincent Pastore ("Big Pussy" Bonpensiero)

Frank Vincent (Phil Leotardo)

Anthony Caso

Tobin Bell

Gene Canfield

Nicole Burdette

Gaetano LoGiudice

Vito Antuofermo

Chuck Low

Frank Adonis

Suzanne Shepherd

Nancy Cassaro

Frank Pellegrino

Marianne Leone

Paul Herman

Frank Albanese

Anthony Alessandro

Victor Colicchio

John "Cha Cha" Ciarcia.

The Sopranos was thus clearly heavily influenced by Goodfellas.

As in many of his films, Scorsese cast several members of his family in roles including his mother and his father. Tenuous link perhaps but in another case of mafia film nepotism; Francis Ford Coppola cast his daughter Sofia (who is also the cousin of Nicolas Cage) in one of the lead roles in Godfather III. She was universally panned for her performance.

It's also worth noting that several stars of Goodfella's went on to then star in one of Scorsese's other big films - Casino. Many people found it slightly hard to accept that Joe Pesci played an almost replica character in Casino as he did in Goodfellas (although both were to be fair stunning performances).

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12y ago

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