Steve Buscemi

Buscemi was born in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, to John Buscemi, a sanitation worker and Korean War veteran, and Dorothy (née Wilson) Buscemi, a hostess at Howard Johnson's. Buscemi's father was of Italian descent; his ancestors were from the town of Menfi in Sicily. Buscemi's mother was of Irish, English, and Dutch ancestry. He has three brothers—Jon, Ken, and Michael. Michael is also an actor. Buscemi was raised Catholic.

He hosts, directs, and produces his own web series talk show, Park Bench, which debuted in May 2014. In January 2016, Buscemi began co-starring alongside Louis C.K. in C.K.'s comedy-drama web series Horace and Pete.

In 2014, Buscemi starred in and narrated the HBO documentary A Good Job: Stories of the FDNY, in which he revisited his work with fellow firefighters. He shares their stories, including those from September 11.

Buscemi starred in the HBO series Boardwalk Empire, as Enoch "Nucky" Thompson (based on Enoch L. Johnson), a corrupt Atlantic City politician who rules the town during the Prohibition era. He won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Television Series Drama for the role. In 2011 he hosted NBC's Saturday Night Live.

A guest in episode 13 of the genealogy series Who Do You Think You Are?, he was helped to trace his maternal ancestry to Julia Vanderhoof and Ralph B. Montgomery (1834–1878), individuals of Dutch and English descent. The program aired March 25, 2011.

In the middle of 2011, he joined rallies against the threat of the closing of eight Brooklyn firehouses during the administration of Mayor Michael Bloomberg, saying "Closing [these firehouses] is no way to protect New York."

In 2002 Buscemi contributed to Lou Reed's concept album The Raven with the song "Broadway Song", and poems "Old Poe" and "The Cask". In 2003 Buscemi made a brief celebrity guest appearance as himself on the long-running Fox animated television show The Simpsons, in the episode "Brake My Wife, Please". Most recently, Buscemi provided the voice for Dwight, a bank robber whom Marge Simpson befriends, in "I Don't Wanna Know Why the Caged Bird Sings", which originally aired on October 14, 2007.

Buscemi has had lead voiceover roles in films including Home on the Range (2004), Monster House (2006), Charlotte's Web (2006), Igor (2008) and The Boss Baby (2017). He portrayed the voice of Randall Boggs in the Monsters, Inc. film franchise (2001-2013), and Wayne the Werewolf in the Hotel Transylvania film franchise (2012-present). From 2010 to 2014, Buscemi portrayed Enoch "Nucky" Thompson in the critically acclaimed series Boardwalk Empire, which earned him two Screen Actors Guild Awards, a Golden Globe and two nominations for an Emmy Award. He made his directorial film debut with Trees Lounge (1996), in which he also starred. Other films he has directed include Animal Factory (2000), Lonesome Jim (2005), and Interview (2007). Buscemi played the role of Pete Wittel in the tragicomedy web series Horace and Pete (2016).

In 2004 Buscemi joined the cast of The Sopranos as Tony Soprano's cousin and childhood friend, Tony Blundetto, a role that earned him an Emmy Award nomination. Buscemi had previously contributed to the show as director of the third-season episode "Pine Barrens", which was one of the most critically acclaimed episodes of the series, and the fourth-season episode "Everybody Hurts". He appeared in episode three of season 6 as a doorman in the afterlife, which is portrayed as a country club in Tony Soprano's dream. He also directed the episodes "In Camelot", the seventh episode of season 5, and "Mr. & Mrs. John Sacrimoni Request...", the fifth episode of season 6. As well, he appeared in the music video for Joe Strummer's cover version of Bob Marley's "Redemption Song".

Buscemi was a New York City firefighter from 1980 to 1984, with Engine Company No. 55, in the Little Italy section of New York. The day after the 9/11 attacks in New York, he returned to his old firehouse to volunteer: he worked twelve-hour shifts for a week, and dug through rubble looking for missing firefighters. On May 25, 2003, Buscemi was arrested with nineteen other people, while protesting the closing of a number of firehouses, including Engine 55.

In April 2001, Buscemi was in Wilmington, North Carolina, shooting the film Domestic Disturbance. He was stabbed multiple times after intervening in a bar fight between Vince Vaughn, Scott Rosenberg, and two local men, and was released from hospital after treatment.

In 1991, he played the bellboy, Chet, in the Coen Brothers film Barton Fink. His first lead role was as Adolpho Rollo in Alexandre Rockwell's In the Soup (1992). He gained wider attention as Mr. Pink in Quentin Tarantino's film Reservoir Dogs (1992), a role that Tarantino wrote for himself. He also appeared in Tarantino's next film, Pulp Fiction, in which he acts as a waiter at the 1950s-themed restaurant patronized by Mia Wallace and Vincent Vega. In 1995, Buscemi played suspected cop-shooter Gordon Pratt in the episode "End Game" at the end of a three-episode arc of Homicide: Life on the Street. He also had a role as Phil Hickle, Ellen's father and older Pete's guidance counselor, in The Adventures of Pete and Pete, as well as guest-starring in Miami Vice in 1986. Buscemi was rumored to be considered for the role of The Scarecrow in Joel Schumacher's proposed fifth installment of the first Batman franchise, Batman Unchained, before Warner Bros. cancelled the project.

Buscemi has also worked as a director, making his directing debut in the 1990s. His directorial credits include:

He also played Mink in the Coen Brothers' Millers Crossing. Although he had to audition twice for this role, it marked the first of five of the Coen Brothers' films in which Buscemi performed. Before his work with the Coen Brothers, he appeared in Jim Jarmusch's anthology film Mystery Train, released in 1989, for which he received an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Supporting Male.

Buscemi married Jo Andres in 1987; they were married until her death in early January 2019. They had one son.

Buscemi made his acting debut in the 1985 film The Way It Is, directed by Eric Mitchell and produced by No Wave Cinema. His other early films include Parting Glances (1986), Slaves of New York (1988), and Tales from the Darkside, a 1990 film in three segments. Buscemi starred in the first segment, playing Bellingham, a college student who orders a mummy and unleashes it on fellow college students (played by Christian Slater and Julianne Moore). In 1990 Buscemi had additional crime roles. He played the henchman of Laurence Fishburne named Test Tube in Abel Ferrara's King of New York.

Buscemi has a body of work in both film and television dating back to the 1980s.

Having taken a civil service test in 1976, Buscemi became a firefighter in New York City in 1980. He served in the FDNY's Engine Co. 55 in Manhattan's Little Italy for four years. After 9/11, Buscemi returned to Engine 55 and for several days worked 12-hour shifts alongside other firefighters to sift through the rubble of the World Trade Center. In 2003, at a union rally, he gave a speech supporting higher wages for firefighters. In 2014 he was appointed an Honorary Battalion Chief of the FDNY.

The family moved to Valley Stream in Nassau County and Buscemi graduated in 1975 from Valley Stream Central High School along with classmate and future actress Patricia Charbonneau. In high school Buscemi wrestled for the varsity squad and participated in the drama troupe. Buscemi's 1996 film Trees Lounge, in which he starred and served as screenwriter and director, is set in and was largely shot in his childhood village of Valley Stream. Buscemi briefly attended Nassau Community College before moving to Manhattan to enroll in the Lee Strasberg Institute.

Steven Vincent Buscemi (/b uː ˈ s ɛ m i / boo-SEM -ee, Italian: [buʃˈʃɛːmi] ; born December 13, 1957) is an American actor, voice actor, director, writer, producer, and former firefighter. He has starred in a number of successful movies, including Parting Glances (1986), New York Stories (1989), Mystery Train (1989), Reservoir Dogs (1992), Desperado (1995), Con Air (1997), Armageddon (1998), The Grey Zone (2001), Ghost World (2001), Big Fish (2003), and The Death of Stalin (2017). Buscemi is also known for his supporting roles in the Coen brothers films Miller's Crossing (1990), Barton Fink (1991), The Hudsucker Proxy (1994), Fargo (1996), and The Big Lebowski (1998).