Steve Buscemi

Steve Buscemi has made a career out of characters who seem slightly out of step with everyone around them. Nervous criminals, weary outsiders, fast talkers and quiet observers all fit his particular screen rhythm: dryly funny, unpredictable and often more vulnerable than they first appear. Born in Brooklyn on December 13, 1957, Buscemi worked for four years with New York City Fire Department Engine Company 55 before his film career took hold. He came through New York’s downtown performance scene and made his film debut in Eric Mitchell’s 1985 no wave feature The Way It Is or Eurydice in the Avenues. His early work quickly placed him in distinctive independent movies, including Jim Jarmusch’s Mystery Train and Alexandre Rockwell’s In the Soup, his first lead role. Reservoir Dogs brought wider attention, with Buscemi playing the argumentative, self-preserving Mr. Pink and winning an Independent Spirit Award for the performance. His five-film association with the Coen brothers produced sharply drawn supporting parts in Miller’s Crossing, Barton Fink, Fargo and The Big Lebowski. As Carl Showalter in Fargo and Donny in The Big Lebowski, he showed two very different sides of his talent: frantic volatility in one, gentle bewilderment in the other. Buscemi has moved easily between independent drama, studio comedy, television and animation. Ghost World gave him the substantial role of Seymour, while Monsters, Inc. introduced his voice as Randall Boggs. On television, he both acted in and directed episodes of The Sopranos, playing Tony Blundetto and directing the acclaimed episode “Pine Barrens.” He later led Boardwalk Empire as Prohibition-era Atlantic City politician Nucky Thompson, winning a Golden Globe for the performance. His work behind the camera is an important part of the same career. He starred in, wrote and directed Trees Lounge, set and largely filmed in Valley Stream, where he grew up, and later directed Lonesome Jim and Interview. Whether leading a sprawling television drama or slipping into a few perfectly judged scenes, Buscemi brings the same valuable quality: the sense that his character has a whole life continuing just beyond the frame.