Every Goodfellas Character Ranked From Worst to Best
Goodfellas has been sitting at the top of "greatest films ever made" lists since 1990, and it has earned every single spot. Martin Scorsese's adaptation of Nicholas Pileggi's Wiseguy is not just a mob movie — it is a masterclass in character work. Almost every person who walks across that screen, even for 90 seconds, is vivid and fully realized in a way that most leading roles in lesser films never achieve.
That's what makes ranking the characters so interesting. There is no filler in this movie. So here is every significant Goodfellas character ranked, from memorable to absolutely unforgettable.
11. Morrie Kessler
Morrie runs a wig shop and, more importantly, won't stop calling Jimmy about his money. He's infuriating — which is exactly the point. Chuck Low plays him with the perfect mix of obliviousness and aggression that makes you understand completely why Jimmy eventually snaps. Morrie is comic relief right up until he isn't, and that tonal shift is one of the film's best tricks.
10. Sandy
Henry's girlfriend, played by Debi Mazar, exists mostly on the periphery — but she's in the film because she represents everything Karen isn't. Sandy is uncomplicated, present, and has no illusions about what Henry is. She doesn't narrate. She doesn't interrogate. She just is. Mazar brings enough dimension to a small role that Sandy never feels like a plot device.
9. Spider
You know why Spider is on this list. The young kid who waits tables at the card game, gets shot in the foot by Tommy for not fetching drinks fast enough, and then — in what is probably the single most startling scene in the film — gets shot dead for finally talking back. Michael Imperioli (pre-Sopranos) plays him with exactly the right amount of quiet dignity. Spider's death is the moment the film forces you to stop romanticizing anything you might have been romanticizing up to that point.
8. Jimmy the Gent — Jimmy Conway
Robert De Niro's Jimmy Conway is the smartest and most dangerous person in most rooms he enters, and he knows it. What makes Jimmy so compelling is that he is genuinely likeable for the first two acts — generous, loyal, funny, warm. The Lufthansa heist sequence reveals who he really is underneath all of that. Jimmy loves money more than he loves people, and once you see it, you cannot unsee it. De Niro plays the turn with almost no fanfare, which makes it more chilling than any amount of menace could.
"Never rat on your friends and always keep your mouth shut."
7. Billy Batts
Frank Vincent appears in Goodfellas for maybe ten minutes total and creates one of the most memorable characters in the film. Billy Batts is a made man fresh out of prison, and the first thing he does with his freedom is decide to humiliate Tommy DeVito in front of a room full of people. His mistake is a fatal one — but the bravado, the condescension, and the sheer wrongness of "go home and get your shinebox" is delivered with such relish that you almost understand why Tommy couldn't let it go.
"Ya feel strong? You feel good? That's nice."
If you know the scene, you know the shirt.
→ Billy Batts "Ya Feel Strong" Goodfellas T-Shirt
6. Karen Hill
Lorraine Bracco earned her Oscar nomination by making Karen Hill someone the audience both understands and judges simultaneously. Her voiceover narration is one of the film's structural masterstrokes — it gives us access to the interiority of a woman who knows exactly what she married into and chose it anyway, repeatedly, because the alternative was ordinary. The gun-in-the-face scene, where she holds a pistol over a sleeping Henry and cannot pull the trigger, is one of the most psychologically honest moments in the movie.
"It turned me on."
That line, delivered over footage of Henry surrounded by dangerous men, says everything about Karen that Scorsese couldn't have conveyed in ten minutes of traditional scene work.
→ Karen from Goodfellas "It Turned Me On" T-Shirt
5. Henry Hill
Henry Hill is the entry point, the narrator, the fulcrum around which everything else rotates. Ray Liotta plays him with a seductive energy in the early acts — you believe completely that this is a man who was made for this world, who found belonging in it, who genuinely loved it. The back half of the film is about watching that love curdle. By the time Henry is surveilling his own brother from a helicopter and convinced he's being followed by a traffic helicopter while also forgetting to pick up the babysitter, the seams are showing everywhere.
Henry ranks fifth only because the film is structured to give the supporting cast room to be more interesting than the protagonist. That's a deliberate choice by Scorsese, and it works. But make no mistake — without Liotta's specific charisma in this role, none of the rest of it functions.
"As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster."
4. Tommy DeVito
Joe Pesci won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for this performance, and if you need to ask why, you have never seen the "funny how?" scene. Tommy DeVito is explosive, unpredictable, and funny in the way that a live grenade is funny — you're laughing right up to the moment you realize what you've been holding. Pesci somehow makes Tommy feel both like a caricature and like someone you absolutely could encounter, which is the most unsettling possible combination.
Tommy killing Spider is not a plot point. It is a character revelation — a man who cannot be embarrassed, even by a teenager, even in front of nobody who matters, without escalating to murder. And then immediately asking who's going to get coffee.
"Funny how? Like I'm a clown? I amuse you?"
3. Paulie Cicero
Paul Sorvino's Paulie Cicero is everything that mob movies usually shout about, delivered in a near-whisper. Paulie moves slowly. Paulie never needs to raise his voice. Paulie has survived long enough to understand that the loudest people in the room are almost always the most dangerous to themselves.
The prison cooking scene is the film's greatest piece of character shorthand. Paulie slicing garlic so thin it melts in the pan is a man who, even incarcerated, maintains his standards and rituals. He has onion opinions. He has garlic opinions. He has built a life inside a system designed to destroy people, and he has built it well.
"Paulie may have moved slow, but it was only because Paulie didn't have to move for anybody."
The moment Paulie cuts Henry loose — quietly, without anger, with something that looks almost like disappointment — is the most devastating scene in the movie that doesn't involve anyone dying.
→ Paulie Cuts Garlic in Prison Goodfellas T-Shirt
→ Paulie "Too Many Onions" Goodfellas T-Shirt
→ Paulie Tells Henry to Go Back to Karen T-Shirt
2. The Entire Ensemble in the Last Twenty Minutes
This is a genuine ranking choice: the final act of Goodfellas, where Henry is running out of time in every direction simultaneously — surveilling himself, calling in favors, flying between houses, trying to move cocaine, forgetting the babysitter — is one of the most technically accomplished sequences in cinema history. No single character carries it. It is the whole machine running at full speed with all its parts visibly strained. That collective performance, including Liotta, earns a slot.
1. The Movie Itself
There is no one greatest character in Goodfellas because the film's genius is that it treats its world as the protagonist. The milieu, the lifestyle, the music, the food, the clothes — all of it is rendered with such specificity and love that it functions as a character study of a culture rather than any one person within it. That's what separates Goodfellas from every other mob movie. It doesn't just show you the life. It makes you feel, viscerally, why someone would choose it — and then it shows you what that choice costs.
Which is, of course, the whole point.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is the main character in Goodfellas?
Henry Hill, played by Ray Liotta, is the film's narrator and protagonist. The story follows his life in the mob from childhood through his eventual entry into the witness protection program. The film is based on the real Henry Hill, whose story was documented in Nicholas Pileggi's book Wiseguy.
Who plays Paulie in Goodfellas?
Paul Sorvino plays Paulie Cicero, the character based on real-life mobster Paul Vario. Sorvino's performance is widely considered one of the most understated and effective in the film.
Who plays Billy Batts in Goodfellas?
Frank Vincent plays Billy Batts, the made man whose fateful decision to taunt Tommy DeVito sets the second act of the film in motion. Vincent and Joe Pesci had a long on-screen history — they also appeared together in Raging Bull.
Is Goodfellas based on a true story?
Yes. Goodfellas is based on the real Henry Hill and his life as an associate of the Lucchese crime family in New York. Most of the major events in the film — including the Lufthansa heist at JFK airport in 1978, which remains one of the largest cash robberies in U.S. history — actually happened.
What is the most famous line in Goodfellas?
The most quoted lines include Tommy's "funny how?" monologue, Henry's opening "as far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster," and Jimmy's rule to never rat on your friends. Billy Batts' "ya feel strong?" has also become iconic — particularly his confrontation with Tommy DeVito at the bar.
Where can I find Goodfellas merchandise?
Natural Birdies carries a collection of Goodfellas t-shirts featuring some of the film's most iconic moments and characters — including Billy Batts, Paulie, and Karen. Browse the Classic Movies and TV collection.
