"Goodfellas," the book and the movie

[Jesse Sheidlower]

On Tue, Aug 29, 2006 at 11:19:56AM -0500, Mullins, Bill AMRDEC wrote:
>
> "Goodfellas" (movie) was based on a book called "Wiseguy" by
> Nicholas Pileggi.  I'm pretty sure I remember reading that
> the movie wasn't also called "Wiseguy" because there was TV
> series of that name on the air at that time.  So they
> changed the word to "goodfellas".  It was made up for the
> movie.

I had meant to point this out in my original post, but
actually, as the OED entry shows, J. D. Pistone's _Donnie
Brasco_ does contain a clear example of _good fellow_ (thus
spelled) in this sense.

1987 J. D. PISTONE Donnie Brasco xvii. 310 Was Anthony Mirra a
wiseguy then?.. If Mirra wasn't a good fellow at the time you
was there, his argument is no good.

It does seem, from Amazon searching, that no form of "goodfella"
appears in Pileggi's 1985 _Wiseguys_, though.

Jesse Sheidlower
OED

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