By Molly Gray
(CNN) — The man immortalized by Martin Scorsese’s film “Goodfellas” has died.
Henry Hill, a former member of the Lucchese family of mobsters, died Tuesday in a Los Angeles hospital, according to a statement on his website.
Hill passed away one day after his 69th birthday. The cause of Hill’s death has not yet been released.
The self-proclaimed mobster first came onto the media scene in the nonfiction book “Wiseguy,” by journalist Nicholas Pileggi, detailing the “never-before-revealed day-to-day life of a working mobster — his violence, his wild spending sprees, his wife, his mistresses, his code of honor,” according to the book’s back cover.
The 1990 film, “Goodfellas,” depicted the rock-n-roll lifestyle of New York City mobsters — everything from wealth and women to drugs and death.
“You never rat on your friends and you always keep your mouth shut,” Hill’s character, played by Ray Liotta, proclaimed in one scene.
However, when Hill became worried his mob associates were out to kill him he became a police informant and “ratted out” scores of other gangsters.
As the New York Times reported, the largest crime in which Hill participated was a theft at New York’s Kennedy International Airport, when the clan stole $5 million in cash and another $1 million in jewels from a Lufthansa cargo terminal.
Hill testified against his compatriots and was not persecuted for the crime.
He lived in relative obscurity until the film’s success drew him out of hiding.
Later in life, Hill became somewhat of a media magnet, appearing frequently in mafia documentaries and as a guest on “The Howard Stern Show.”
The mobster was quite prolific on his website, goodfellahenry.com, dedicating an entire section entitled the “How to Be a Mobster Guide” to dispensing tricks of the trade.
In the guide, which he wrote was meant to be purely humor, Hill described how to “pistol whip”, how to look good while on the run and the best ways to hide a corpse.
Hill’s longtime companion, Lisa Caserta told CBS News that he died surrounded by family members and that years of smoking a recent heart attack were cause for his poor health.
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