Trivia for
Once Upon a Time in America (1984)

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• The Miami Beach scenes were actually filmed in St. Petersburg at the Don Cesar resort.
  
  
• Filmed in 1982.
  
  
• When Noodles (Robert De Niro) is watching TV, there's an interview with a character called James Conway O'Donnell. In Goodfellas (1990), De Niro's character was called James Conway.
  
  

• Claudia Cardinale reportedly wanted the role of Carol, but was turned down by Leone.
  
  
• James Woods said Robert De Niro suggested that Woods wear a set of perfect, bright white teeth to demonstrate the aging character's wealth and vanity. The producers balked at the cost, so De Niro paid for them himself.
  
  
• The bar in which the five young members of the gang debate whether to take the dollar the bartender offers them for burning the news-stand or roll the drunk, is McSorley's Alehouse on 15th East 7th Street near St. Mark's Square. It opened in 1854 and is the oldest continually operating bar in the United States. The building the boys exit from is not, however, the exterior of McSorley's.
  
  
• The director was originally inspired by Harry Grey's autobiographical novel, "The Hoods", but, beginning in 1970, began to expand the story into grand-scale proportions with a succession of screenwriters including, early on, Norman Mailer and Stuart Kaminsky.
  
  
• It reportedly took many years for Sergio Leone to secure the rights to Harry Grey's book "The Hoods" on which this film was based.
  
  
• When Stuart Kaminsky was hired, he was given an outline for the film. Kaminsky claims that the outline was over 400 pages.
  
  
• The U.S. distributor reportedly failed to file the proper paperwork so that Ennio Morricone's score, regarded as one of his best, could be put up for nomination for an Academy Award.
  
  
• This was the first feature film role for child model Jennifer Connelly. This drew the attention of another Italian director, Dario Argento, who cast her in her first starring role in Phenomena (1985).
  
  
• Sergio Leone printed 10 hours of film to assemble as the initial cut of the movie, which he pared down to a six-hour cut that he was satisfied with. For a time, he strongly considered releasing the movie in two three-hour parts before cutting it down to its four-hour version. However, the studio still wasn't happy with this, and hired editor Zach Staenberg to further shorten the movie.
  
  
• Even at four hours long, the full cut of this film leaves about 45 minutes that Sergio Leone considered "essential" on the cutting room floor, including: further explanation of the mob/labor relationship, Robert De Niro meeting Tuesday Weld's character in the 1968 sequences, and a good deal of footage featuring Darlanne Fluegel, who played DeNiro's girlfriend, "Eve".
  
  
• When Robert De Niro takes Elizabeth McGovern out to dinner, the elaborate hotel was filmed in Venice, while the fateful ride home was filmed an ocean away at the New Jersey Shore.
  
  
• Cameo: [Arnon Milchan] Noodles's chauffeur
  
  
• Director Sergio Leone was noted for his dynamic use of the 2.35:1 format. This film, his last, was his only one not shot in the 2.35:1 aspect ratio.
  
  
• The actor at the end who walks up to the garbage truck was not James Woods, but an actor made up to look like James Woods.
  
  
• In the very early stages of the production (the mid-1970s), Gérard Depardieu was supposedly in line for Max or Noodles, and said that he was willing to perfect an American accent for the role if need be. Richard Dreyfuss was reported also to be in consideration for Max. According to Leone, over 200 actors auditioned for that part.
  
  
• Joe Pesci suggested Larry Rapp for the role of Fat Moe having worked with him in Dear Mr. Wonderful (1982).
  
  
• The exteriors in the scene where the adult Noodles visits the mausoleum containing the bodies of his three friends was filmed at Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx. The mausoleum was actually that of John "Bet a Million" Gates, a founder of Texaco and the man credited with popularizing barbed wire.
  
  
• In preparation for his role as David "Noodles" Aaronson, Robert De Niro requested a private meeting with renowned crime boss, Meyer Lansky, upon whom the character was loosely based. The request was denied.
  
  
• Joe Pesci originally auditioned for Max, but Sergio Leone convinced him that he wouldn't be quite "right" for the part. As a favor to Pesci's friend Robert De Niro (the star of the film), Leone told Pesci that he could pick whichever of the available roles he wanted as his own instead. He chose the part of Frankie, which was considerably larger in the original script than it is in the finished movie.
  
  
• Sergio Leone was contracted to deliver a film that would run for 2 hours and 45 minutes. His final cut was nearly 4 hours long. The American distributors reacted by excising an hour from the running time (though Leone's intended cut was seen in its entirety in Europe).
  
  
• A few days before the premier in 1984, Treat Williams found out the 2 hour version, not the 4 hour version would be shown in theaters. He was heard to have said that no one would understand the movie in the shortened version. Indeed, the film did not do well at theaters and the film was shut out of the Oscars and received zero nominations. When the video and DVD versions were released in the original 4 hour versions, the film ultimately found commercial and critical success.
  
  
• The book that young Noodles is reading is "Martin Eden" by Jack London, published in 1909. Its plot is similar to the storyline involving Noodles and Deborah, except that the hero is an aspiring writer and the girl is an heiress.
  
  
• Sergio Leone's final film due to his death in 1989 of a heart attack but before that, he was planned to direct another film about the siege of Leningrad in which Sergio was planned to cast Robert De Niro.
  
  
• It took six writers, including director Sergio Leone to screenplay Harry Grey's novel for this film.
  
  

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