Trivia for
Donnie Brasco (1997) More at IMDb Pro »

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• In Joseph Pistone's report, he lists Lefty, Lefty Guns, Lefty Two Guns, Half Cocked, and Horse Cock as false names for Benjamin Ruggiero (Pacino)
  
  
• The word 'fuck' is used 185 times.
  
  
• The film's version of "Lefty" Ruggiero is an amalgam of the real "Lefty" and the real "Sonny Black" Napolitano.
  
  

• When the project was in its first stages, Joe Pesci was the first and main choice for Nicky. But after the release of Goodfellas (1990), the idea gradually faded.
  
  
• Joe Pesci was 'Mike Newell (I)''s first choice for Nicky.
  
  
• When Donnie and Nicky are looking at the headline in the Newspaper about the boss getting killed, they are looking at the picture of mob boss Carmine Galente who was killed in back of a Brooklyn, N.Y. restaurant in 1979.
  
  
• Lefty's real name is Benjamin which, in Hebrew, means "son of the right hand".
  
  
• Johnny Depp met with the actual Joseph D. Pistone a number of times to gain knowledge and expertise for the role. He also took gun firing lessons from the FBI.
  
  
• The gangsters' term for a counterfeit jewel, "fugesi," was adopted by the filmmakers from the name of a local taxi service.
  
  
• The scene of Joe Pistone practicing on the FBI's firing range was inserted at the insistence of the studio, who wanted a shot of Johnny Depp firing a gun for the movie's trailer.
  
  
• This is the second film where Joe Pesci was considered for a role that eventually went to Bruno Kirby. The first was The Godfather: Part II (1974), the role in question being that of the young Clemenza.
  
  
• During a two day break in filming, Michael Madsen impulsively proposed to and married De Anna Morgan. According to Madsen, when he told Al Pacino, Pacino was disgusted with Madsen's impulsiveness.
  
  

• SPOILER: The movie ends with the implication that Lefty was killed after being "sent for". In real life, the FBI intercepted Lefty on the way to being killed and arrested him; Sonny Black, however, was "sent for" and subsequently murdered and the man who ordered Sonny's killing, Joe Massino, head of the Bonnano crime family, wasn't found guilty until 23 June 2005 when he got a life sentence for several crimes, including the murder of Sonny. Lefty was sentenced to 20 years in prison; he was paroled after serving 11 years, and then died of cancer two years later.
  
  

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