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| “ | Don't make a jerk out of me, just don't do it... just don't do it. | „ |
| ~ Paul Cicero warning Henry Hill not to go against him. |
| “ | You looked at my eyes, you lied to me! You treated me like a f-cking jerk, like I was never nothing to you! | „ |
| ~ Paul Cicero berating Henry for going into drug trafficking against his consent. |
| “ | Now I gotta turn my back on you! | „ |
| ~ Paul Cicero ending his association with Henry. |
Paul "Paulie" Cicero is the overarching antagonist of the 1990 crime film Goodfellas. He is based on the late real-life mob boss Paul Vario and is a capo of the Lucchese Crime Family, serving as the boss of Jimmy Conway's crew.
He was portrayed by the late Paul Sorvino, who also portrayed Alphonse Perrier du von Scheck in Hey Arnold! The Movie, Lips Manlis in Dick Tracy, the Serial Assgrabber in The Cleveland Show, Dominico Scarpa in Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders, Rotti Largo in Repo! The Genetic Opera, and Lord Capulet in William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet.
Biography[]
Paulie Cicero first appeared as the local crime boss of the neighborhood where a young resident named Henry Hill lives in. Henry is enamored by the criminal lifestyle and mafia presence of Paulie and his fellow mobsters of the Lucchese crime family.
As the years go on, Henry begins working for Paulie and his enforcer Jimmy Conway for multiple criminal jobs; Henry would later proceed to do so personal "errands" with Jimmy and their associate Tommy DeVito. When Henry gets married to Karen Friedman, a Jewish woman, Paulie and his mob become members of Henry's growing family; Paulie also introduces Karen to many of his relatives who are each named Paul, and Peter and Marie. On several occasions, Pauline is mostly seen visiting Henry to discuss his criminal and marriage life in order to ensure that no trouble would affect their mafia activities. One such matter involves the disappearance of rival mobster Billy Batts, who had in fact been killed by Tommy and Jimmy against the made-man mafia authorization. In another visit, Paulie had just learned from Karen that Henry is drifting apart from their marriage and insists that they reconcile once Henry returns from doing a job with Jimmy. However, Henry and Jimmy get arrested and each receive prison sentences up to 10 years; Paulie would visit Henry for a meal with their crew.
When Paulie next visits Henry following the latter's release, he warns Henry to stay away from drugs - which Henry had been getting involved with during his prison sentence. Pauline also warns Henry that Jimmy has been growing overambitious and that Tommy is getting out of control with the extent of their criminal activities. But in the end Henry doesn't listen to Paulie's consent to avoid drug trafficking, as that could mean Paulie and his associates would face more criminal charges if they were to get caught; Henry even recruits Jimmy and Tommy in his drug business without Paulie's knowledge. Sometime later after Henry partakes the Lufthansa vault at the JFK Airport with his associates and their crew, he learns that Paulie is allegedly going to promote Tommy to a "made man" in the Lucchese crime family; this turns out to be false, however, when Tommy is instead killed in retribution for Batts' murder - with Paulie being alleged to have ordered the hit.
At some point, Paulie learns that Henry went against his consent to not do drug dealing. Henry later meets up with Paulie for his help in sorting out his dire financial straits due to the collapse of his drug trafficking. Paulie angrily berates Henry for going against his back with drugs, but relents in giving him $3,200 for his family's sake. Paulie then disowns Henry by telling him "Now I gotta turn my back on you", to which Henry shamefully accepts. Despite giving Henry $2,000 for his monetary troubles, Paulie would later be betrayed by Henry as the latter would become an informant and enroll himself and his family into the Witness Protection Program to prevent Jimmy from killing them; Henry gives sufficient evidence to have Jimmy and Paulie arrested, before later testifying against them which results in Paulie being convicted alongside Jimmy.
As the film credits roll, it is confirmed that Paulie had died one year after his conviction; which states that Paulie passed away from respiratory illness at the age of 73 in Fort Worth Federal Prison.
Trivia[]
- As the character is fictionized by real-life mob boss Paul Vario, it is likely that Paulie Cicero had died on May 3rd 1988.
External links[]
- Paul Cicero on the Martin Scorsese Wiki.
 Villains
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Luchesse Crime Family and associates Gambino Crime Family | ||