David "Noodles" Aaronson

David "Noodles" Aaronson is a fictional character featured as the protagonist of the 1952 novel The Hoods by Harry Grey, and later in the book's film adaptation, Once Upon A Time In America. In the film, he was portrayed by Robert De Niro.

Early life

David Aaronson is born in the early 1900s into poverty in a Jewish enclave in Brooklyn.

Noodles later forms a gang with his friends Phillip "Cock Eye" Stein, Patrick "Patsy" Goldberg and a young boy named Dominic. Together they roll drunks in a bar run by a local mobster named Bugsy, whose protection racket they help maintain.

In 1921 Noodles and his gang are about to roll a drunk when Maximillian "Max" Bercovicz helps the drunk onto the back of his carriage. Noodles later finds Max as he is moving into his new house. Max and Noodles size each other up and Max flaunts the pocket watch he stole from the drunk — which Noodles then steals from him. A corrupt cop locally "requisitions" the item from the two boys. Noodles then helped Max finish moving his items into his house. The two had suffered a mutual defeat and become running Aaronson's gang as partners.

Noodles and Max later take a photograph of the policeman while he was having sex with an underage prostitute named Peggy. They then have Patsy hide it and blackmail the policeman, forcing him to pay for their "turns" with Peggy and cover up their crimes.

During this time, Noodles falls in love with Deborah, a neighborhood girl, and the two become childhood sweethearts.

Bugsy later has some of his underlings beat them up for operating independently from him in his neighborhood. Noodles and Max later meet with the Capuano brothers, successful bootleggers. Noodles shows them a technique of saving their shipments of booze when the coast guard forces them to throw all cargo overboard. A package of salt is tied to the crate of booze along with a balloon like sphere containing air. The crate sinks to bottom of the river and, when the salt dissolves, float back to the surface. By then the coast guards had left and Aaronson's gang picks up the crates.

Noodles and Max's gang saves the Capuanos' shipment and receive a 10 percent cut of the profits made from the shipment. Noodles, Max, Patsy, Cock Eye and Dominic go to the train station, where they stash 50 percent of their profits in a suitcase hidden within a locker.

On their way home, they are chased by Bugsy, who opens fire on them, killing Dominic. Enraged, Noodles stabs Bugsy repeatedly, almost disemboweling him. However, Bugsy squeezes off one last round that alerts nearby police officers to the scene. Max, Patsy and Cock Eye watch helplessly as Noodles murders Bugsy and then takes on two police officers, stabbing one and then being battered unconscious by his partner. Noodles is then sent to prison.

1933

Noodles is released from prison in 1933 after serving 12 years, to be picked up by Max. Noodles is soon working with his old gang.

Max introduces Noodles to mobster Frankie Minaldi, who gives him and his gang an assignment to rob a Detroit jeweler of some jewels and kill Joe from Detroit. The gang executes the job with violent ease, while Noodles rapes Carol, the woman who gave Joe the information needed to pull off the job. They later shoot Joe from Detroit and his gang in a car, as ordered by Frankie Minaldi. Noodles personally guns down one of Joe's henchmen who had escaped the car and flees into a factory.

The gang quickly becomes involved with the Mafia, including getting into a steel workers' strike on the side of unionist Jimmy Conway O'Donnell, protecting him against a steel tycoon and his thugs. The crew also deals with a corrupt police chief, who is being paid off by the steel company, by switching the chief's newborn son in the hospital with another child. Not long after, Carol becomes reacquainted with the gang and falls for Max, while Deborah reappears in Noodles' life.

Determined to show Deborah he is more than the poor kid he once was, Noodles goes with her on an extravagant date, but he is left feeling rejected after she informs him she is leaving for Hollywood. Enraged, he rapes her in the backseat of a limousine, which he soon regrets.

Meanwhile, though Max is very eager to advance his gang's position, Noodles still has misgivings about what they are doing. After Prohibition is repealed, Noodles balks when Max suggests that they rob the Federal Reserve Bank, realizing that it would be suicidal. He is convinced by Carol to tip off the police about a planned liquor run. After Noodles places an anonymous call, Max, Patsy, and Cockeye are killed in a gunfight with the police after Max starts shooting. Noodles' new girlfriend Eve is murdered by the Syndicate, and Fat Moe is beaten nearly to death before revealing the traitor's whereabouts. After hiding out in an opium den, Noodles escapes his pursuers and saves Moe from his abuser. Having retrieved the key to the locker, he makes his way to the gang's money hoard. However, Noodles is shocked to discover that the money is missing, and he flees to Buffalo, where he lives as Robert Williams.

1968

Noodles returns to New York and reunites with Fat Moe, who is still running his restaurant. When visiting the mausoleum where his friends' bodies were moved, he discovers a plaque dedicated to them by him (which he has not done) and a key to the same money locker. Upon arriving, he discovers money with a note stating it is payment for a murder.

Later, he learns from Carol that Deborah has become a famous actress. While meeting with Deborah after a performance of Antony and Cleopatra, he reconciles with her, and she confesses to him that she has forgiven him. Noodles then discovers that Secretary Christopher Bailey had a son whose mother died in childbirth, and that Deborah has been living with him. He is shocked to learn that the son David waiting outside (named after him) bears a striking resemblance to Max.

He learns that Max survived the shootout, faked his death with help from the Syndicate, stole the money and became Bailey. He is currently under investigation for corruption, and he has hired Noodles to assassinate him - allowing Noodles to obtain his revenge as well as let Max, as "Bailey," die with dignity. Noodles refuses, not wanting to kill again. Furious, Max steps into the back of a garbage truck and kills himself.