Goodfellas Actor Sues The Simpsons

Actor Frank Sivero, best known for playing a mobster in Goodfellas, is suing The Simpsons for $250M over a character he claims is based on him.

Mr. Sivero, who evidently wants it to be known that he is not a clown and not here to amuse you, has filed a lawsuit against Fox and the creators of “The Simpsons,” saying that the character of Louie, a cartoon mafia man who occasionally appears on that show, is an appropriation of his likeness and an infringement on his right to publicity. Court documents reported at Deadline.com show that Mr. Sivero’s suit was filed Tuesday in California Superior Court for Los Angeles County. The lawsuit states that Mr. Sivero has had contact with “The Simpsons” since 1989 (when he lived in the same Sherman Oaks apartment complex as some of the show’s writers), and that the “appearances and mannerisms” of the Louie character, who first appeared on the show in 1991, “are strongly evocative of” Mr. Sivero. The suit asks for up to $250 million in damages and injunctive relief, considerably more than was netted in the notorious Lufthansa heist. A representative for Fox said the studio had no comment. A lawyer for Mr. Sivero did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.

Many Simpsons characters are based on real life people or famous movie characters. Mayor Quimby is based on JFK, Professor Frink is based on Jerry Lewis' Nutty Professor, action hero Ranier Wolfcastle is based on Arnold Schwarzenegger, and on and on.