EXCLUSIVE

“Gears of War” took a former football player/wrestler and turned him into “Cole Train”– a central character in the game — and then stiffed him royally.

Lenwood Hamilton claims he was going about his life last January when his son’s friend showed him the video game, and he was flabbergasted … he says “Cole Train” was simply him.

So, Hamilton did what any red-blooded American would do … sued. According to the docs … the physical appearances are almost identical, “Cole Train” is the only black character, they both wear derby hats, wrist bands and have a front gold tooth.

Hamilton goes on … he believes they somehow imitated his voice and implanted it in “Cole Train.” In fact, Hamilton says he hired a forensic voice examiner to compare his voice to CT, and they’re indistinguishable.

It gets even weirder … Hamilton is also suing Lester Speight, aka Terry Tate: Office Linebacker from vintage Reebok commercials, who’s credited with the voice-over and portrayal of “Cole Train.”

Hamilton says Speight used to work with his wrestling company and they talked about creating a video game character. Translation: Speight stole his idea and passed it off to the makers of “Gears of War.”

Hamilton is suing for sales and profits, and that’s a lot. The game’s been super successful since 2006.