Gangster film for Joe Pesci's performance. Others, however, strayed into stereotypes and the gratuitous use of Italian ethnicity in minor characters who happened to be criminals. This created a backlash in the Italian American community. The films of the 1990s produced several critically acclaimed mob films, many of which were loosely based on real crimes and their perpetrators. Many of these films featured long-time actors well known for their roles as mobsters such as Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci and Chazz Palminteri. "Goodfellas", directed by Martin Scorsese, starred Ray Liotta as real-life associate of the Lucchese crime family Henry Hill.
Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro wife. In 1977, De Niro starred in Scorsese's "New York, New York", a musical-drama film. It was a musical tribute, featuring new songs by John Kander and Fred Ebb as well as standards, to Scorsese's home town of New York City, and starred De Niro and Liza Minnelli as a pair of musicians and lovers. During filming, the married Scorsese became romantically involved with Minnelli and began heavily using cocaine and other hard narcotics. At the time Andy Warhol wrote in his diary that Minnelli and Scorsese showed up at the door of a famous fashion designer demanding: "Give me