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
Frank Rosenthal Spilotro, on which the character Nicky Santoro (played by Joe Pesci) is based. Rosenthal is represented by the character Sam "Ace" Rothstein (played by Robert De Niro). The character of Ginger McKenna Rothstein, his wife in the film (played by Sharon Stone), is based on Geri McGee, Rosenthal's wife in real life. In an interview about the movie, Rosenthal stated that his character portrayed by Robert De Niro was quite but not fully similar to him, namely "7 on a scale of 1 to 10", and that he would neither "dispute" nor "confirm" whether Sharon Stone accurately portrayed his wife