You're gonna like this guy. He's all right. He's a good fella. He's one of us.
June 12, 2012 10:47 PM   Subscribe

Informant, former wiseguy and goodfella Henry Hill (website, Wikipedia) has been made dead by illness. He was not a schnook.
posted by Artw (33 comments total) 5 users marked this as a favorite
 
I was just wondering when this would happen.
posted by Trochanter at 11:13 PM on June 12, 2012


Death to former wiseguy: "You're not feeling well? Fuck you, pay me."
posted by Chuffy at 11:16 PM on June 12, 2012 [12 favorites]




"Whaddya like, Henry...a wing or a leg?"
posted by motown missile at 11:31 PM on June 12, 2012 [1 favorite]


"You're kid needs new braces? Fuck you, pay me."
posted by Skygazer at 11:59 PM on June 12, 2012 [1 favorite]


In recent years Henry Hill painted scenes from Goodfellas and sold them on eBay. The paintings were spectacularly bad, but they were legit.

After my last exam of 3L year in law school, I was sitting in a bar in Cambridge celebrating with a group of friends. We talked, we ate, and some drank. Somewhere around midnight, somehow the conversation turned to Henry Hill and the fact that he was selling these paintings on eBay. Somebody knew this. We looked it up on somebody's smartphone and discovered that it was true, and that these paintings typically sold for only five or ten dollars.

We decided to pool our money, and we placed a bid. We debated how we would share custody, and I think at one point a Traveling Pants-type arrangement was discussed. I don't remember what scene we bid on; I think maybe it was the nightclub torching, with oversized and weirdly shaped arson balloons sloppily painted in. Anyway, we got outbid. By the time we discovered that we'd been outbid the auction was still live but the sun had come up and our senses had returned, and bidding on a Henry Hill painting no longer seemed quite so funny. (Also, student loans.)

But I came that close to owning a piece of a Henry Hill painting.
posted by cribcage at 12:09 AM on June 13, 2012 [4 favorites]


You're car needs a tune-up? Fuck you, pay me."
posted by Skygazer at 12:17 AM on June 13, 2012 [1 favorite]


Look, uh, Skygazer. That what they call you? Listen. You keep fuckin' up your grammar that way... well, you make the Don unhappy.
posted by Trochanter at 12:19 AM on June 13, 2012 [4 favorites]


Like me, I don't care. "You're" "Your" what's the difference right? But, the Don. He's old fashioned.
posted by Trochanter at 12:22 AM on June 13, 2012 [6 favorites]


"You maybe think I'm funny? I make you laugh??? You think my grammar ain't so good"??
posted by Skygazer at 12:26 AM on June 13, 2012 [2 favorites]


"You're" "Your" what's the difference right?

""Your" or "you're" makes no difference to me pal. Fuck you, pay me."
posted by Skygazer at 12:27 AM on June 13, 2012 [2 favorites]


If for nothing else, Goodfellas introduced me to the idea of slicing garlic paper thin. Without Henry Hill, no Goodfellas. In essence, without Henry Hill, my pasta sauce wouldn't taste so good.

I can only hope his funeral procession is filmed in one complete take.
posted by Ghidorah at 12:31 AM on June 13, 2012 [14 favorites]


I'm sure he would have preferred you bought his Goodfellas Brand Sauce rather than learn from him.

Cribcage, there are still paintings available in his confounding ebay store. They are going for a little more right now, of course. Oh, and signed ice picks. It may be one of the grandest 'cash in' efforts I've ever seen.
posted by Trivia Newton John at 12:40 AM on June 13, 2012


That's it. He's gone. And there ain't nothin' we can do.
posted by Meatbomb at 12:47 AM on June 13, 2012 [2 favorites]


Obligatory
posted by ShutterBun at 1:08 AM on June 13, 2012 [3 favorites]


Finally, F. Murray Abraham can be at peace.
posted by Optamystic at 1:47 AM on June 13, 2012


As far back as I can remember, I've always loved movies about gangsters. Goodfellas was one of the best (and the book is good, too).

.
posted by Gelatin at 3:17 AM on June 13, 2012 [4 favorites]


Just goes to show, live a life of depraved immorality, and still live to the ripe old age of 69.
posted by crunchland at 3:34 AM on June 13, 2012


Finally, F. Murray Abraham can be at peace.

I doubt it. He'll be angry for a while, and then he'll be haunted by Hill's ghost, and then he'll have to come to terms with the fact that Hill was just naturally a better gangster, and then he'll finish off the Lacrimosa movement of his Requiem for him.

...or perhaps I'm mixing my movie metaphors.
posted by thanotopsis at 5:01 AM on June 13, 2012 [1 favorite]


In his own way, he excelled at his work, didn't he?
posted by thelonius at 5:14 AM on June 13, 2012


Man, in that last link, his hair is green, and he's grinning. Brings to mind an entirely different kind of criminal altogether.

You don't like me mixing up genres? Fuck you, pay me.
posted by Halloween Jack at 5:29 AM on June 13, 2012 [2 favorites]


Without him, also no My Blue Heaven.
posted by kirkaracha at 6:48 AM on June 13, 2012 [3 favorites]


Metafilter: Fuck you, pay me.
posted by kmz at 6:48 AM on June 13, 2012 [1 favorite]


I'm sure he would have preferred you bought his Goodfellas Brand Sauce rather than learn from him.

I wonder if they paid him royalties on Goodfellas Pizza?
posted by mippy at 7:22 AM on June 13, 2012


While goodfellas remains one of my favorite films of all time, I grew up around the area these guys operated. They were known as some of the most idiotic and depraved goons around

Ambivalance herafter perfectly defined by an complete inability to turn off the movie when it's on, despite the knowledge that these murderous morons ruined dozens of lives without a second thought.

At the very least, he made a contribution to film history whether he meant to or not.
posted by Hickeystudio at 7:23 AM on June 13, 2012 [3 favorites]


Hill was never involved in any murders, was he?
posted by KokuRyu at 7:25 AM on June 13, 2012


So he says, but if he told me my mother loved me, I'd call her to double check. He made for interesting reading and a great movie, but was a thief and a thug and the only real he told anybody anything is because the police had him by the balls.
posted by jonmc at 7:58 AM on June 13, 2012 [1 favorite]


But I came that close to owning a piece of a Henry Hill painting.

Fuck you, bid me.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 10:27 AM on June 13, 2012 [2 favorites]


All of this wiseguysery reminds me of my trip to the Post Office the other day:

"You want insurance for that? It's a buck-fifty. That's a nice package you got there. Be a shame if something were to happen to it"
posted by mmrtnt at 11:55 AM on June 13, 2012 [1 favorite]


So, are they going to use a shine box as an urn for his ashes?
posted by Relay at 12:23 PM on June 13, 2012


I wonder if he intended to take that picture with a bong on the table right behind him.
posted by crunchland at 1:43 PM on June 13, 2012


Henry Hill Meatballs, Esquire
posted by the man of twists and turns at 2:06 PM on June 13, 2012


See you in Attica, Dick.
posted by 4ster at 5:25 PM on June 13, 2012


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