As far back as he can remember, the character actor Frank Sivero has been best known for playing gangsters, in films like “The Godfather Part II” and, most famously, in “Goodfellas,” which cast him as the mobster Frankie Carbone.
And as the real-life mobster Henry Hill could have told you, being a goodfella means nobody can mess around with you, not even a long-running animated series that may or may not be paying homage to your work.
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.