Sami Järvi is a Finnish writer. He was the main writer of Max Payne and Max Payne 2 and also helped design levels for the games. He is also one of the founders of Remedy Entertainment. The name Sam Lake is just a nickname and an English reference to his real name.
Max Payne's face was designed to Lake's likeness in the first instalment of the series.
Trivia
- Sam acted as Max Payne in the graphic novel cutscenes, because Remedy didn't have enough money to hire real actors.