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Nicholas Pileggi
Pileggi in 2010
Born	(1933-02-22) February 22, 1933 (age 91) New York City, U.S.
Occupation	Author, screenwriter, journalist
Genre	Crime fiction
Subject	Mafia
Years active	1989–present
Notable works	Wiseguy (1985) Casino: Love and Honor in Las Vegas (1995)
Spouse	Nora Ephron ​ ​(m. 1987; died 2012)​

Nicholas Pileggi (/pɪˈlɛdʒi/, Italian: [piˈleddʒi]; born February 22, 1933) is an American author and screenwriter. He wrote the 1985 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.

Early life

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

In the 1950s, he worked as a journalist for Associated 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 (1985), 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 authored 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. Journalist Gay Talese is his first cousin.

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

1. Patrick, Vincent (January 26, 1996). "Not So Organized Crime". New York Times. Retrieved March 2, 2019.
2. ^ Adams, Tim (February 3, 2013). "Nicholas Pileggi: the mob, Nora Ephron's death and Vegas". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved January 31, 2016.
3. Vlastelica, Ryan (September 18, 2015). "Goodfellas turned Wiseguy's simple prose into cinematic gold". AV Club.
4. "BLYE, PRIVATE EYE: The Real World of the Private Detective by Nicholas Pileggi". Kirkus Reviews. Retrieved January 31, 2016.
5. McGrath, Charles (April 18, 2006). "Gay Talese's New Memoir Emerges After 14 Tortured Years". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved February 5, 2024.
6. Loynd, Ray (July 25, 1994). "'Loyalty and Betrayal': An Inside Look at the Mafia". Los Angeles Times.

External links

• Resources in your library
• Resources in other libraries

• 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

• 1933 births
• Best Adapted Screenplay BAFTA Award winners
• Living people
• American male screenwriters
• American writers of Italian descent
• Organized crime novelists
• Organized crime memoirists
• Non-fiction writers about organized crime in the United States
• Film producers from New York (state)
• Writers from Brooklyn
• Male novelists
• American male non-fiction writers
• Screenwriters from New York (state)