DeNiro miscast as Jimmy Conway?

hear me out!!!


I don't think any breathing actor could have given a more nuanced and powerful interpretation of the role.

However....Bobby D playing a "full blooded" Irishman doesn't ring true.

In GF...Robert Duvall played the irishman( dutch german...but to them(italian mobsters)...that means Irish)and he visually stood out because of his non southern italian features. He literally looked like an outsider..and there's running theme in the novel about his main shortcoming being that he wasn't Sicilian.


I was reading some comments recently about Jimmy's character being fully accepted by the mob but not eligible for being made because he wasn't Italian. It took the second time watching the film to actually catch that Conway was full Irish. I was puzzled in the first scene where Jimmy is introduced..."Irishman here to take money"..I thought that was slang saying or something.


I know that Bobby actually Italian and Irish ancestry...but phenotype is southern Italian....made more obvious in a film filled with people of similar phenotype.He fits in.

The entire idea came to me after I read an article naming who the first choice was for Jimmy..........John Malkovich.

I don't know JM's background...last name indicates that it's eastern european..but again....in a cast filled with southern italian actors...his features would mark him as "different".

Eh, I don't think that it was that huge of a reach though. Conway could be "Black Irish".

Here's a pic of Jimmy Burke.

i think the looks can be left to interpretation of the viewer even if there was some descriptions in his looks the performance was uncanny.

I always thought it was a perfect casting. not because he looks that way or another - I could buy him as either irish or italian - but because Robert De Niro is to Ray Liotta and Joe Pesci what Jimmy Conway is to Henry Hill and Tommy DeSimone.

Perfect casting, period. Forget about being Irish or Itilian, its how your portray your character.

Deniro was perfect.

Jimmy Burke was a homicidal maniac in real life. However, he was also a nice guy to some earning the nickname jimmy "the Gent" Burke. Deniro portrayed this perfectly. Many times throughout the film you say the characters soft side and the homicidal maniac side.

Someone is only "miscast" as you say if they did not do a good job in their role. I dont believe in someone being "miscast". They are either good in their portrayal of a character or they are not.

If you look at all the real players, EVERYONE was miscast. Henry Hill was more of a geeky little weasel, Tommy DiSimone was a tall, muscular disco type, and the real Paulie looked a lot meaner than Paul Sorvino. But that's just the way Scorsese is. Deniro looks nothing like Lefty Rosenthal either. Although Joe Pesci is a dead ringer for Tony Spilotro.

They weren't cast for how similar they looked to the real life counterparts. I always thought Ray Liotta was the weakest element of the main characters; he just doesn't have the acting chops of De Niro and Pesci nor the charisma. I think someone like Sean Penn or even ( don't laugh) Matt Dillon or even Johnny Depp would've been better as Henry Hill.

Anyway, DeNiro is actually more Irish than Italian. He's only 25% Italian from his father, whose half Italian and half Irish. He actually is very fair skinned, so much so in fact that his nickname growing up was Bobby Milk.

PS: Marlon Brando was mostly Irish also and actually has no Italian ancestry.