GoodFellas

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Barbara Walters, December 30th, 2022.

CHICAGO – The grim reaper spares no one, despite even having a celebrity status. But photographer Joe Arce, who has taken thousands of Exclusive Portraits of famous folks, gives some notables one more memorial image as we say adios to last year. Through his lens, from Barbara Walters at the end of December back to January, below is the Slideshow of Celebrities who passed away in 2022.

CHICAGO – In one of my trips to New York City, I saw him in the distance on the street (this actually happens often in NYC. Pay attention!). Actor Paul Sorvino, Paulie Cicero of ‘Goodfellas’ legend, as well as many other films/stage/TV/opera work, was unmistakably walking right towards me. “Hey Paulie,” I instinctively said. “Hey,” he said back. Fast forward several years later, Mr. Sorvino was honored by the Chicago Film Critics Awards in 2013, I was a newly minted Chicago Film Critic, and I met him again (see below). Paul Sorvino died on July 25th, 2022, in Jacksonville, Florida. He was 83.

CHICAGO – The acting career of Illeana Douglas began with director Martin Scorsese and flourished in her first lead role for “Grace of My Heart” (1996). She is best known today for hosting the “Trailblazing Women” series on Turner Classic Movies, and in Part Three of a three part interview with HollywoodChicago.com, she talks about feminism, the essence of directors she has worked for, plus her grandmother Helen Gahagan, the third female Congress representative in U.S. history.

CHICAGO – The acting career of Illeana Douglas began with director Martin Scorsese and flourished in her first lead role for “Grace of My Heart” (1996). She is best known today for hosting the “Trailblazing Women” series on Turner Classic Movies, and in Part Two of a three part interview with HollywoodChicago.com, she talks about her approach as an actor and how early influences defined that style.

CHICAGO – Long before 2017, the year of notable recognition for women filmmakers, the actress, producer and author Illeana Douglas launched the film series “Trailblazing Women” on Turner Classic Movies (TCM) in 2015. Her goal was to achieve recognition for the pioneering efforts of women in early film history and beyond.

CHICAGO – Frank Vincent always looked good, no matter what role he was playing, but he mostly portrayed mafia types, and was styling as those guys as well… he even wrote a book on dress, “A Guy’s Guide to Being a Better Man.” He was best known as Phil Leotardo on the legendary HBO series, “The Sopranos,” and he passed away at age 80 in New Jersey on September 13th, 2017.

CHICAGO – “The Godfather” saga, “Goodfellas,” “Donnie Brasco,” “The Departed” – the list of America’s obsessive adoration of organized crime and mafia movies goes on and on. Finally, one film comes along to virtually kill the genre, the almost-unwatchable “The Family.”

CHICAGO – Warner Brothers expanded their DVD box set offerings for their anniversary year to five (following Pictures, Musicals, Romance, and Comedies) with the release of “Best of Warner Bros. 20 Film Collection: Thrillers,” a collection of twenty good-to-great films, including some of the company’s most beloved. If you don’t own a large number of these, it’s a great way to go, especially since most outlets price them to a degree where it works out to less than $5 a film.

CHICAGO – What would you say is the “Ultimate” gangster film? The chances are it’s included in one of two box sets recently released from Warner Bros., separated into “Ultimate Gangsters Collection: Classics” and “Ultimate Gangster Collection: Contemporary.”

CHICAGO – Big news in the TV world, and it is definitely not funny like a clown. Martin Scorsese’s classic 1990 film “Goodfellas” is officially being turned into a television series. Rumored for the better part of two years, the possibility for the series gained serious momentum about a year ago when Scorsese came on as a producer, joining the film’s original producer, Irwin Winkler, and the original writer, Nicholas Pileggi.