Henry Hill, the man who inspired Martin Scorsese'sGoodfellas, died yesterday following complications from a recent heart attack at the age of 69, according to Entertainment Weekly. Hill was a gangster turned FBI informant, and his life was the subject of the 1986 book, Wiseguy, written by Nicholas Pileggi.
This book became the basis of Goodfellas, which starred Robert DeNiro, Joe Pesci, and Ray Liotta as Hill himself. Hill's real-life testimony against his organized crime partners landed him in the Witness Protection Program for years until he was later expelled for drug-related arrests.
He “went out pretty peacefully, for a goodfella,” his partner and manager Lisa Caserta told CBS News. We're sure he would have gladly accepted that fate over the way some of the characters in the movie went out.
[via Entertainment Weekly, CBS News]
