71 Goodfellas Trivia Questions & Answers

Answer: Henry Hill

At the beginning of "Goodfellas", Tommy, Henry, and Jimmy are all seen riding in a car. A thud comes from the trunk. They end up opening the trunk, and Tommy ends up stabbing a man who we later know to be Billy Bats. Then, in a narrative voice-over, Henry Hill is seen closing the trunk and says the line, "As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster."

Besides being a character in this movie played by Ray Liotta, Henry Hill was a real person who was associated with the Lucchese family. The reason he says the line "As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster." is because, as he explains in a flashback, he was involved with the family since he was a boy, and he knew from then that he wanted to devote his life to that.

Answer: Kessler

Superbly played by Chuck Low.

Answer: milk

Henry is asked to get milk on his way home from school. However, Henry dropped out of school to hang out with Paulie.

Answer: Al Jolson

Jolson, not in blackface this time, is singing "Toot, Toot, Tootsie, Goodbye" in what seems to be a clip from "The Jazz Singer," which is said to be the first sound movie, but only the songs are recorded on the soundtrack. The rest is titles like the typical silent movie. The first all-sound movie was "The Lights of New York." There were two other "Jazz Singers," one with Danny Thomas, one with Neil Diamond. Just a little added question: Which one of the three actors who starred in the title role in "The Jazz Singer" wasn't Jewish? Answer in info for next q.

Answer: cover the cross he's wearing

Karen and Henry tell Karen's mom he's half Jewish. Henry: "Only the good half." He's actually half Irish, half Italian.

Answer: passing traffic

The credits fittingly segue into a scene from Henry's later life where he, Tommy, and Jimmy are driving to a lonely place where they murder a man.

Answer: Steal

The movie says it straight out.

Answer: Rags to Riches

One of Tony Bennett's first songs, "Rags to Riches", plays at the beginning of the movie. You can clearly hear the song playing in the background, right after the words "As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster.".

Since Henry Hill came from a low-income, below-middle-class family and eventually made a lot of money and got whatever he wanted, the song "Rags to Riches" describes his life pretty well, since he went from "rags to riches".

Answer: Billy Batts

Referring to Tommy's skill as a shoe shine boy when Tommy was a kid. Perhaps it was in jest, but it was enough for Batts to get whacked.

Answer: Henry's mailman

"Eventually, my mother had to go down to the post office to complain."

Answer: The Copacabana

The Copa was quite a place in its day, featuring all the big-name entertainers. I recall seeing Sammy Davis and Pearl Bailey (on different occasions). Scorsese uses a hand-held camera to follow Henry and Karen all the way from the sidewalk, down the steps, through the busy kitchen and out to the nightclub floor. Astounding filmmaking!

Answer: the 50s

The year is actually 1955, the place Brooklyn, NY.

Answer: Wiseguy

In 1986, Nicholas Pileggi wrote a book called "Wiseguy", which was the story of Henry Hill's involvement in the Lucchese family from 1955-1980. The movie "Goodfellas" was based off the book, and the main actors involved (Liotta, Pesci, and De Niro) all talked to Pileggi for inspiration for their characters.

Answer: Harvey Keitel

She is Stella Keitel. While she played her real life mother's daughter in "Goodfellas" ... she also has played her real father's daughter in "The Bad Lieutenant."

Answer: selling cigarettes

Jimmy- "Never rat on your friends and always keep your mouth shut."

Answer: Henny Youngman

Youngman was "The King of the One-liners," like "I take my wife everywhere, but she finds her way home."

Answer: Cadillac

Cadillac was the car of choice for monied drivers in the 50s.

Answer: Henry for 10 years, Paulie for 1

Henry for ten, doesn't serve all ten, and Paulie does a year for contempt.

Answer: Money

Henry Hill states that the first time he saw Jimmy, who couldn't have been more than 28-29 at the time, Jimmy was already pretty successful. He meets Jimmy, and Jimmy slips some money into Henry's pocket. A narrating Henry says that Jimmy did this to almost anybody.

Answer: Gimme Shelter

Also credited to the Stones on the soundtrack are: Monkey Man" and "Memo From Turner".

Answer: 1970

Billy Bats is killed for embarrassing Tommy in front of a crowd of people at Henry's bar. It was Billy's return-home party after being released from jail.

Answer: Scorsese

Marty's mom Catherine appeared in several of her son's films, and she seemed to be the world's nicest lady. He was lucky to have a mom like her. Too bad she's gone.

Answer: Air France

They're helped by their friend Frenchy, the alleged security chief.

Answer: parking cars for the mobsters

Too young to have a license and just about able to see over the hood, Henry became a Mafia parking valet.

Answer: A revolver

Karen calls Henry and tells him that her neighbor started harassing her, so Henry decides to go over to this guy's house. He beats him with the gun, and tells him he's dead if he touches her again. Then, he goes back home, hands Karen the revolver, and tells Karen to hide it. In a voice-over, Karen says she knows women who would've gotten out of that kind of relationship the second their boyfriend handed them a gun, but she says she kinda liked it and wanted to stay.