Bugsy Siegel

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Bugsy Siegel : biography

February 28, 1906 – June 20, 1947

In popular culture

Film

  • In The George Raft Story (1961), Siegel is portrayed by Brad Dexter
  • In The Godfather (1972), he is portrayed as the character Moe Greene, played by Alex Rocco
  • In The Virginia Hill Story (1974), Siegel is played by Harvey Keitel
  • In The Gangster Chronicles (1981), a crime drama based on historical facts about the lives of gangsters "Bugsy" Siegel, Lucky Luciano and Al Capone, Siegel is played by Joe Penny
  • Sergio Leone’s film Once Upon a Time in America (1984) is loosely based on the lives of Siegel and Lansky
  • Bugsy (1991) is a semi-fictional biography of Siegel, featuring Warren Beatty as the mobster
  • Mobsters (1991) is a semi-fictitious account of the rise of Charles "Lucky" Luciano, Meyer Lansky, Frank Costello and Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel, featuring Richard Grieco as Siegel
  • The Marrying Man (1991), a romantic comedy set in the 1930s, features Armand Assante as Siegel
  • His assassination is depicted in L.A. Confidential (1997)
  • In Lansky (1999), starring Richard Dreyfuss in the title role, Siegel is played by Eric Roberts

Literature

  • In DC Comics, Siegel is a recurring villain of Greg Saunders, the first Vigilante
  • Siegel is featured in the Eric Dezenhall historical novel The Devil Himself (2011)
  • Tim Powers imagined Siegel as a modern-day Fisher King in his novel Last Call (1992)
  • Siegel was the basis for the Moe Greene character in Mario Puzo’s novel, The Godfather (1969)

Music

  • His name appears in hip hop song "Drugs" by rapper E-40
  • He is referenced in hip-hop song "Fast Life" by rapper Nas
  • He is referenced in hip hop song "2 of Amerikaz Most Wanted" by rapper Snoop Dogg
  • The song "Mr. Siegal" by Tom Waits refers to him

Television

  • In Breaking Bad (season 3) (episode 11), character Saul Goodman makes a reference to Bugsy Siegel about how he opened a Casino in the middle of the desert.http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0148234/filmokey#reference-to-bugsy-siegel
  • In Boardwalk Empire (2011), teenaged "Benny" Siegel is played by Michael Zegen
  • In The Sopranos episode "Denial, Anger, Acceptance" (1999), Brendan Filone is executed with a bullet through the eye

Videogames

  • In Fallout New Vegas, Benny (a reference to Bugsy Siegel) is one of the main antagonists and a mobster who controls a New Vegas casino
  • In L.A. Noire, Siegel is mentioned in a conversation between protagonist Detective Cole Phelps and his partner on the Vice Desk, the corrupt Detective Roy Earle (who is scheming to discredit Phelps). Earle mentions a rumor that Mickey Cohen (who figures prominently in the game) is planning to have Siegel killed. Earle is known to be an associate of Cohen, and is also conniving and dishonest, so it is unclear whether this is disinformation, a misread of the situation by Earle, or poetic license by the game designers.

Early life

Benjamin Siegel was born in 1906 in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, to a poor Jewish family from Letychiv,Chapin, David A. and Weinstock, Ben, The Road from Letichev: The history and culture of a forgotten Jewish community in Eastern Europe, Volume 2. ISBN 0-595-00667-1 iUniverse, Lincoln, NE, 2000. Podolia Governorate of the Russian Empire, in modern Ukraine. However, other sources"Mobsters: Bugsy Siegel". 2 minutes in. Broadcast: April 3, 2007, The Biography Channel. state that his family came from Austria. His parents, Max and Jennie, constantly worked for meager wages. Siegel, the second of five children, vowed that he would rise above that life. As a boy, Siegel dropped out of school and joined a gang on Lafayette Street on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. He committed mainly thefts, until he met Moe Sedway. With Sedway, Siegel developed a protection racket where pushcart merchants were forced to pay him a dollar or he would incinerate their merchandise. Siegel had a criminal record that included armed robbery, rape and murder dating back to his teenage years.Gribben, Mark. TruTv. Crime Library. Retrieved June 1, 2012