Joe Pesci Thomas DeSimone) in "Goodfellas"; he had been previously nominated for the same award for his role as Joey LaMotta in "Raging Bull". Also a comedian, Pesci has starred in a number of other high-profile films, including "Easy Money" (1983), "Once Upon a Time in America" (1984), "Moonwalker" (1988), "JFK" (1991), and "A Bronx Tale" (1993). He announced his retirement from acting in 1999, and since then he has appeared only occasionally in films, including a cameo appearance in the 2006 spy thriller "The Good Shepherd", directed by De Niro, and in the biographical crime film "The Irishman". He is also
Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro every drug you've got". Made after "Taxi Driver", the film was a box-office failure. Its budget was $14 million, a large figure at the time, but it grossed only $13 million at the box-office and its disappointing reception and his breakup with Minnelli drove Scorsese into depression and further into drug abuse. In 1980, Scorsese made "Raging Bull", a film starring De Niro as an emotionally self-destructive boxer, the film following his journey through life, as the violence and temper that leads him to the top in the ring destroys his life outside it. De Niro won an Oscar for