ALSO SEE: Whack jobs: AMC’s “The Making of the Mob: New York”
Martin Scorsese’s classic Goodfellas gets a special 25th anniversary airing June 15 at 7pm ET/PT to kick off AMC’s Mob Mondays. Wise up on one of the greatest flicks of all time:
- Goodfellas was nominated for six Oscars, but won only Best Supporting Actor for Joe Pesci.
- Al Pacino turned down the role of Jimmy Conway over typecasting concerns. Pacino starred as a gangster in the forgettable Dick Tracy the same year.
- Goodfellas is based on the book Wiseguy by Nicholas Pileggi, recounting the activities of the real-life Vario crew operating in the Lucchese crime family.
- More than 25 actors from Goodfellas went on to appear in HBO’s The Sopranos, most notably Michael Imperioli, Lorraine Bracco, Frank Vincent and Tony Sirico.
- The real-life crew portrayed in Goodfellas hit their peak with the “Lufthansa heist” robbery of over $5 million in cash and $875,000 in jewelry from JFK International Airport in 1978.
- Samuel L. Jackson has been a major star for over 20 years, but he had a bit part in Goodfellas as Stacks Edwards, who failed to destroy the Lufthansa heist getaway van.
- In 2014, Vincent Asaro, age 78, and four others were charged in connection with the Lufthansa heist. Before that, only one other person, a Lufthansa employee, was charged with a crime connected to the robbery. None of the stolen money was ever recovered.
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