Cubby Broccoli (He got his nickname from a mobster)
[Worth noting that upon inspection, Cubby was a bit of a fabulist. Howard Hughes enters the story, so does his father's competing story about how he got his nickname (from a comic character) as well as disputes as to whether the family had quite as much in the way of resources as one might guess. Hollywood!]
And yes, the LA Times says that the legend about the vegetable might be true.
Susan Blackmore on memetics