Nicholas 'Nicky' Santoro is the main antagonist in the 1995 Martin Scorsese film Casino. He's based off real life Chicago Outfit enforcer Anthony John 'The Ant' Spilotro. He was portrayed by Joe Pesci, who also playedFrankie MonaldiinOnce Upon a Time in America,Tommy DeVito in Goodfellas, and Harry in Home Alone and Home Alone 2. Nicky Santoro was a childhood friend of Jewish handicapper Sam. The eye-opening violence in 'Casino' may be an integral part of the story. But there are acts of cruelty that will test the most jaded of sensibilities, including a multiple stabbing by ballpoint pen, the smashing of fingers into fleshy bone meal by hammers, and—in the movie's grisly tour de force—the crushing of a man's head in a carpenter's vise. Joe Pesci in action! Continuity mistake: Before the pen-stabbed-in the neck scene Joe Pesci is talking with a guy about placing some bets. A coffee cup and saucer suddenly appear on the table after Pesci leaves the place.

Another innocent pen becomes a weapon in a grisly but memorable scene from the Martin Scorsese movie Casino. Nicky Santoro, a hot-headed and violent mob enforcer played by Joe Pesci, watches over his childhood friend, Ace, who runs the Tangiers hotel.

It’s well known that The Sopranos was heavily influenced by Martin Scorsese’s remarkable run of gangster movies that started with 1973’s Mean Streets and culminated in 2019’s The Irishman. But what you might not remember is that two of Scorsese’s crime pictures served as the launching pad for two future stars of David Chase’s pioneering HBO mob drama. Michael Imperioli aka Christopher Moltisanti had a breakout role in 1990’s Goodfellas, while Steve Schirripa aka Bobby Baccalieri made a fleeting cameo in 1995’s Casino.

In a nice bit of timing, both of those movies are marking milestone anniversaries this fall: Goodfellas turns 30 on Sept. 19, while Casino celebrates 25 years as an underrated entry in Scorsese’s canon on Nov. 22. Speaking with Yahoo Entertainment earlier this year, the actors and off-screen pals — who are currently re-watching The Sopranos for their Talking Sopranos podcast — reflected on their respective Scorsese origin stories. (Watch our video interview above.)

Imperioli was only 23 when he landed a small, but memorable part in Goodfellas as Spider, a wannabe wise guy who is shot on two separate occasions by Joe Pesci’s trigger-happy Tommy DeVito: one time in the foot, and the second (and fatal) time in the chest. “I’d been struggling as an actor for about six years by then,” he recalls. “[Goodfellas] to me was like getting called up from the minors into the World Series with the Yankees. Those were my heroes. As an Italian-American actor in New York, that’s where you wanted to be.”

In Imperioli’s case, his heroes lived up to the hype. During his short time on set, the young actor got to appear in the same frame as experienced screen performers like Pesci, Ray Liotta and Robert De Niro, and take direction from Scorsese. “The thing I’m most grateful for is that they — particularly Marty because he was the boss — treated me like I belonged there,” he says now. “They treated me like an actor, and for that I’ll always be grateful.”

Imperioli also received a crash course in how freak accidents can, and do, happen on movie sets. In the scene where Spider is shot for the second time, the actor cut his hand on glass and had to be rushed to the ER for stitches. There was only one problem: He was still covered in fake blood and bullet holes that the hospital staff confused for the real thing. “The whole hospital staff was convinced I was about to die, and wouldn’t listen to me when I explained I was in a movie! Eventually they saw the wires and the squibbing and made me wait in the corner for four hours before they got to me and stitched me up. Then I went back and shot another take.”

Joe Pesci Casino Pen Stabbing Case

In contrast, Schirripa’s time on the Casino set was mercifully accident free. At the time, the novice actor had been working in Las Vegas as the entertainment director of the famed Riviera Hotel, and hoped to land a role as a maître d in Scorsese’s Sin City epic, which reunited De Niro and Pesci. “I auditioned for [Scorsese] and De Niro,” Schirripa remembers. “You say hello to Robert De Niro, and he’s stuck for an answer!”

He didn’t get that part, but he was brought onboard as an extra for one 16-hour day of filming the scene where Pesci commits another violent act: stabbing a guy with a pen. “They said to get in the scene, so I yelled, ‘Joey, look out!’ Scorsese gave me some direction, but I was green and I didn’t really know. If you put the VCR in really slow and turn the volume way up high, you can maybe see and hear me.” Besides the memory of working with Scorsese, Schirripa walked away from Casino with an important building block for the rest of his career: his Screen Actors Guild card.

And in case there’s still any lingering doubt that David Chase was heavily influenced by Scorsese’s work, Imperioli points to a Goodfellas Easter egg that’s hidden in a Season 1 episode of The Sopranos, “The Legend of Tennessee Moltisanti.” In the sequence, Christopher pulls a Tommy DeVito by shooting a Spider-esque bakery clerk in the foot and says “It happens!” Eagle-eyed fans have long speculated that Chase wrote that into the script as a Goodfellas reference and Imperioli confirms those theories. “David thought it would be fun to make a direct reflection of Goodfellas there, without a doubt.” What a wiseguy.

Goodfellas is available to rent or purchase on Amazon and FandangoNOW; Casino is available to rent or purchase on Amazon and FandangoNOW.

Read more from Yahoo Entertainment:

Farah Nayeri interviews Yayoi Kusama in conjunction with her Tate Modern retrospective. “I have been using polka dots since I was a very young child,” Kusama says, when asked about Damien Hirst. “It’s only after that, it seems, that they’ve become popular throughout the art world.” Also, she loves Godiva chocolates and monarchies, and is not a fan of men. [Bloomberg]
Some argue that a recent $6.5 million theft at the Greek National Gallery could have been avoided were it not for the austerity measures that have slashed security personnel by 50 percent. [AMM]

Painter Will Barnet, sculptor Martin Puryear and curator and collector Emily Rauh Pulitzer were honored with the 2011 National Medal of Arts by President Obama yesterday. [ARTFIXdaily]

Las Vegas, in the spirit of Joe Pesci stabbing a guy in the neck with a pen in Casino, opens a Mob Museum. [NYT]

The Art Newspaper notices the strange provenance of a Lucian Freud. [TAN]

The Kimball Art Center in Utah will be renovated with old train tracks. [Arts Beat]

Joe Pesci Casino Pen Stabbing 2019

“President’s Proposed Budget Includes N.E.A. Increase.” [NYT]