The names and faces of famous New Yorkers including Mickey Mantle, Judy Garland and Malcolm X would be protected in New York from advertising and promotion not authorised by their estates under a measure being pushed by Al Pacino and Yoko Ono.

New York law already protects the unauthorised use of celebrities' faces and names while they are alive, but there is no safeguard after they die despite a high concentration of entertainment, political and sports legends in and around New York City.

The group said New York was among the last states to try to protect the famous dead from exploitation.

"I feel like one's likeness and image should be protected in some way and not abused or denigrated for the sake of profit," Pacino wrote to legislators after the estate of Lee Strasberg started talking to him.

The effort follows a May US District Court decision in New York City in which Marilyn Monroe's estate lost it fight over unauthorised images of the actress on T-shirts.

The federal court ruled a 1994 law in Indiana, where the T-shirt retail company was based, did not protect Marilyn Monroe's identity after her death.

The Marilyn Monroe LLC, which brought the suit, is headed by Anna Strasberg, the wife of Monroe's producer, Lee Strasberg, who received the bulk of the starlet's estate. He died in 1982.

Other testimonials in support of the bill announced today came from other famous New Yorkers including Ono, on behalf of herself and her deceased husband, the ex-Beatle John Lennon; the estate of musician Jimi Hendrix; and relatives of baseball greats Babe Ruth, Jackie Robinson, Lou Gehrig and Mantle.

"This is not an abstract or theoretical problem," wrote Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe, widow of tennis great and activist Arthur Ashe, citing several court challenges by estates dismissed in court.

"Let me emphatically state that this statute is meant to in no way affect the inherent and explicit rights of others to make unauthorised biographies, art pieces and myriad other works protected" by the US constitution.

"I do, however, support the New York state legislature enacting this statute ensuring that a celebrity's unique character, persona and brand be protected from commercial exploitation," she wrote.

The bill has the support of veteran lawmakers in the Republican-led Senate and in the Assembly's Democratic majority.

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