An actor who played a mobster in Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas is suing 20th Century Fox, the maker of The Simpsons, for $250 million (£155 million) for using a character with his likeness on the show.
Frank Sivero played Frankie Carbone in Goodfellas, as well as smaller mobster roles in The Godfather and The Godfather Part II, and claims that the makers of The Simpsons based the character of Fat Tony henchman Louie on him and he has filed a lawsuit for compensation, according to Deadline.
The lawsuit alleges that Simpsons producer James L. Brooks was “highly aware of who Sivero was, the fact that he created the role of Frankie Carbone, and that The Simpsons character Louie would be based on this character”, but never compensated the actor despite Louie appearing in 16 episodes of the cartoon since 1991.
Sivero also claims that he lived next door to The Simpsons creators while working on Goodfellas and that Brooks had promised to work with him in the future, but nothing came of the offer.
This is the second time that Sivero has sued over other businesses using his likeness this year, previously suing Deli Belly in California for naming a sandwich after his Frankie Carbone character and using his image to advertise it. The deli is reported to have stopped using the photograph of Sivero.
