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Henry Hill, portrayed by Ray Liotta in the classic Martin Scorsese mob movie “Goodfellas,” died June 12 in Los Angeles of heart failure. In July 2010, Hill attended the celebration of the film’s 20th anniversary at the Museum of the American Gangster, on St. Mark’s Place, arriving in a brown 1979 Cadillac Coupe deVille Phaeton, above. Liotta drives this car in the movie while being tailed by police helicopters. At the museum, Hill made a “cement shoes” mold and signed it. His career in organized crime began as a teenager in Brooklyn in the 1950s. In 1980 he turned informant for the F.B.I. and he and his family entered the witness protection program. They were kicked out of the program in 1990 because Hill continued to commit crimes. After Hill’s visit, museum co-founder Lorcan Otway said the screening was very well received, and that Hill and former federal prosecutor Ed McDonald spoke eloquently. “He said it was a wonderful portrayal of those times,” Otway said of Hill’s reception of the film, “but that he’s in no way nostalgic for that life.”
