Nicholas Pileggi (/pɪˈlɛdʒi/, Italian::; born February 22, 1933) is an American author, producer and screenwriter. He wrote the non-fiction book Wiseguy and co-wrote the screenplay for Goodfellas, its 1990 film adaptation, for which he received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.

Contents

• 1 Early life
• 2 Career
• 3 Personal life
• 4 Partial filmography
• 5 Books
• 6 References
• 7 External links

Early life

Pileggi was born and raised in Brooklyn, the elder son of an Italian immigrant father, Nicola ("Nick") Pileggi from Calabria and an American-born mother, Susie. Nicola "Nick" Pileggi was a musician who played slide trombone in a cinema orchestra for silent films; he subsequently also owned shoe stores.

In the 1950s, he worked as a journalist for *ociated Press and New York magazine, specializing in crime reporting for more than three decades.

Career

Pileggi began his career as a journalist and had a profound interest in the Mafia. He is best known for writing Wiseguy: Life in a Mafia Family (1986), which he adapted into the movie Goodfellas (1990), and for writing Casino: Love and Honor in Las Vegas and the subsequent screenplay for Casino (1995). The movie versions of both were directed and co-written by Martin Scorsese. Pileggi also wrote the screenplay for the film City Hall (1996), starring Al Pacino. He served as an Executive Producer of American Gangster (2007), a biographical crime film based on the criminal career of Frank Lucas. He also aut*d Blye, Private Eye (1987).

Pileggi co-wrote the pilot of the CBS television series Vegas, which first aired in September 2012.

Personal life

Pileggi was married to fellow author, journalist, and filmmaker Nora Ephron from 1987 until her death in 2012.

Partial filmography

Books

• Pileggi, Nicholas (1995). Casino: Love and Honor in Las Vegas (First:ed.). Simon & Schuster. ISBN:978-0-684-80832-1.
• Pileggi, Nicholas (1985). Wiseguy: Life in a Mafia Family (First:ed.). Simon & Schuster. ISBN:978-0-671-72322-4.
• Pileggi, Nicholas (1976). Blye, Private Eye (First:ed.). Playboy Press, Chicago. ISBN:978-0-87223-475-8.

References

External links

• Nicholas Pileggi at IMDb
• Biography at Film Reference.com
• Fleeman, Mike, "Nora Ephron, Writer-Director of Sleepless in Seattle, Dies at Age 71" Archived June 28, 2012, at the Wayback Machine, People magazine, Tuesday June 26, 2012