Jimmy Conway

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Evil-doer
Full Name	James Conway
Alias	Jimmy The Gent
Origin	Goodfellas
Occupation	Gangster Associate of the Lucchese crime family
Powers / Skills	High intelligence Salesmanship Charisma Thievery
Hobby	Fencing.
Goals	Kill everyone involved in the Lufthansa Heist (succeeded). Kill Henry Hill (failed).
Crimes	Mass murder Kidnapping Mutilation Torture Robbery Conspiracy Organized crime Arms trafficking Assault and battery Bribery Extortion Drug dealing Illegal gambling Hijacking
Type of Villain	Paranoid Gangster

“	You learn two great things in your life. Look at me. Never rat on your friends and always keep your mouth shut.	„
	~ Jimmy about the mob's code of silence and his most famous quote

“	Jimmy was the kind of guy who rooted for the Bad Guys in the movies	„
	~ Henry describing Jimmy

James "Jimmy" Conway, also known as The Gent, is the main antagonist of the 1990 crime drama film Goodfellas, directed by Martin Scorsese. He was based on the late real life mobster Jimmy Burke.

He was portrayed by Robert De Niro, who also played Johnny Civello in Mean Streets, Vito Corleone in The Godfather Part II, Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver, Jake LaMotta in Raging Bull, Rupert Pupkin in The King of Comedy, Louis Cyphre in Angel Heart, Al Capone in The Untouchables, Max Cady in Cape Fear, Frankenstein's Monster in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Neil McCauley in Heat, Dwight Hansen in This Boy's Life, Ace Rothstein in Casino, Louis Gara in Jackie Brown, Gil Renard in The Fan, Fearless Leader in The Adventures of Rocky and Buillwinkle, Don Lino in Shark Tale, David Callaway in Hide and Seek, Senator John McLaughlin in Machete, Frank Sheeran in The Irishman and William Hale in Killers of the Flower Moon.

Biography

Jimmy Conway is an Irish-American associate of the mafia. Since he has no Italian blood, he is forever prevented from becoming an official member of the mafia (referred to as a “made man”). Despite this, he performs jobs for caporegime Paul Cicero, such as robberies and hits. Jimmy's close friends are the psychotic Tommy DeVito and the quiet Henry Hill. Early on in the film, a younger Jimmy talks to the teenage Henry after he has been arrested and charged for smuggling illegal cigarettes. However, instead of being angry at Henry for the heat, Jimmy was proud of the fact he was loyal. According to Jimmy, the two most important things in life are "you never rat on your friends and you always keep your mouth shut.".

One of the most brutal murders that Jimmy took part in was the murder of Billy Batts in 1970. After Billy had insulted Tommy, Jimmy helped Tommy to beat Billy to a bloody pulp and (while only partially succeeding) even had to restrain Tommy from killing him. Later on, after Billy woke up in the trunk of Henry's car, Jimmy ultimately delivered the killing shots by emptying his revolver into him. Shortly after Batts’ murder, Jimmy ordered Henry and Tommy to exhume Batts' corpse as the land where they buried him was to be used to build houses on. Being a hardened criminal, the horrid stench from Batts’ half-decomposed corpse did not bother Jimmy, but it made Henry vomit.

One night, Jimmy was playing cards with his friends when Tommy got into an argument with the teenage bartender Spider. Tommy shot Spider in the foot, which horrified Jimmy. Shortly afterwards, Spider insulted Tommy by telling the latter to "go fuck himself". Jimmy, like Tommy, was amazed at Spider’s courage, but was furious when Tommy ultimately shot Spider and killed him.

Jimmy accompanied Henry to Miami to beat up a man who owed Paulie money. Jimmy was going to feed the man to the lions when he promised to pay them. Unfortunately, the man turned out to have a sister working as a typist for the FBI. Jimmy and Henry were arrested and were each sentenced to ten years in prison. It is not known what prison life was like for Jimmy as he served his time in a different prison from Henry. He was released prior to 1978.

After being released from prison, Jimmy organized a major heist at Lufthansa airport. They stole $5.8 million dollars. Although Jimmy gave each person a share of the money, he got very angry when they started to buy expensive stuff. This was because Jimmy feared that lavish spending would draw attention to them. It is also evident that Jimmy wanted to keep most of the money for himself, so he had each person involved in the heist brutally murdered. However, he spared Henry's life as Henry was smart enough to not demand his share and he was too useful for Jimmy to make big bucks in drug dealing. Jimmy was really happy to hear that Tommy was to become a made man. This would mean that they had one of their own crew as an official member of the mafia, which could minimize the chance the crew getting touched by the authority. Unfortunately, the ceremony was a set-up where Tommy was murdered to compensate for the unauthorized murder of Billy Batts several years previously. This made Jimmy cry and destroy a telephone booth in frustration. Henry lamented that in order to kill a made man, you're required to have permission from his boss.

A year after Tommy's murder, Jimmy started to lose patience with Henry as he was involved in the drugs business in the worst way possible. Dealing in drugs was strongly discouraged within the mafia as it was long considered to be a dangerous business, even more than assassination, robbery, protection or armed dealing. Henry was also taking cocaine which was making him act stupid and was bringing police attention on him. Jimmy tried to sever ties with Henry, but when it looked that Henry was going to prison, he entered the witness protection scheme if he agreed to testify against Jimmy. One of the scariest things was what he possibly wanted to do to Karen in an ally somewhere in Gowanus, Brooklyn. Karen, suspicious of what Jimmy might do ran. In fact, it seems Jimmy was going to do this - because that scene was based on a real assassination attempt. This is because Jimmy would have Henry killed if he was in prison or outside. Jimmy was sentenced to life in prison for murder. He was given a minimum sentence of 20 years, which would have made him eligible for parole in 2004. However, in real life, Jimmy died in prison in 1996.

Personality

In contrast to fellow mobster Tommy DeVito, Jimmy is shown to be calm. He doesn't lose his temper as easily as Tommy, and doesn't kill for pleasure or out of anger like Tommy either. He will even call out Tommy if he calls too far. However, he is equally as violent and dangerous as Tommy and has no qualms about killing. Jimmy shows his most dangerous side when he starts getting paranoid at his friends for overspending money as he does not want any heat. Deep down, Jimmy is vain and selfish as he only wants the big money for himself. Even his relationship with Henry is something he considered worthless once it started causing him problems.

Despite his greedy and cold-hearted nature, Jimmy does have his limits. This is primarily seen when Spider insults Tommy. Jimmy congratulates Spider for not taking any crap from Tommy, and actually gives him some money as praise, and when Tommy shoots Spider, Jimmy is clearly disgusted by this and goes so far as to call Tommy "a sick maniac", believing Spider didn't deserve to die. Additionally, he is capable of feeling empathy and love for his friends and family, as shown when he cries after learning his best friend Tommy was murdered. Although he did call out Tommy for shooting Spider despite their friendship, he still punished him by angrily ordering him to “dig the hole” bury him on his own. However, given that Jimmy was the one provoking Tommy about Spider’s response, it’s likely he was mostly angry at Tommy for shooting him simply because he thought it was unnecessary rather than actual concern.

External links

• Jimmy Conway on the Martin Scorsese Wiki.