Steven Vincent "Steve" Buscemi (; born
December 13,
1957) is an
Emmy- and
Golden Globe-nominated
American actor and
film director.
Early life
Buscemi (pronounced
Boo-shemi) was born in
Brooklyn, New York, the son of Dorothy, who worked as a hostess at
Howard Johnson's, and John Buscemi, a sanitation worker and
Korean War veteran. Buscemi's father was
Italian American and his mother
Irish American.
[Film Society of Lincoln Center][THE THIN MAN. | The New Yorker (November, 2005)][John Lahr - steve buscemi profile] He has three brothers: Jon, Ken, and Michael. Buscemi was raised
Catholic.
He graduated in 1975 from
Valley Stream Central High School in
Valley Stream, New York, a school which he attended with actress
Patricia Charbonneau and writer
Ed Renehan.
[edrenehan.com] In high school, Buscemi
wrestled for the
varsity squad and participated in the drama troupe, at that time directed by Mr. Lynne C. Lappin (Buscemi's 1996 film
Trees Lounge, in which he not only starred but served as screenwriter and director, is set in and was largely shot in his childhood village of Valley Stream).
[Delatiner, Barbara. "Cinema Arts Film Festival Stresses the Independents", The New York Times, June 1, 1997. Accessed November 1, 2007.] Buscemi briefly attended
Nassau Community College before moving to
Manhattan to enroll in the
Lee Strasberg Institute. In the early '80s Buscemi also served as a
firefighter for four years with the
FDNY. On March 4th 2005, Buscemi returned to his old high school where he was presented the Distinguished Alumni Award as part of the school's 75th anniversary celebration.
Career
Acting
Buscemi is an associate member of the
experimental theater company
The Wooster Group. Buscemi’s first appearance was in
Parting Glances in 1986, where he played Nick, an
AIDS stricken man.
He first hit the cinema in the 1988 film
Call Me, where he played Switchblade. He also was in
Tales from the Darkside, a 1990 film with 3 segments, where Buscemi starred in the first, playing Bellingham, a college student who orders a mummy and unleashes it on fellow college students played by
Christian Slater and
Julianne Moore.
During 1990, Buscemi had a couple of additional crime roles. He played the henchman of
Laurence Fishburne named Test Tube in
Christopher Walken’s
King of New York, and played Mink in the
Coen Brothers Millers Crossing. This marked the first of six of the Coen Brothers' films in which Buscemi appeared.
In 1991 he played the bellboy, Chet, in the Coen Brothers film,
Barton Fink. His first lead role was in 1992, where he played Adolpho Rollo in
In the Soup. Then he finally came to public attention for playing Mr. Pink in
Quentin Tarantino’s 1992 film,
Reservoir Dogs.
Buscemi's most notable character roles include Mr. Pink in
Reservoir Dogs, Garland Greene in
Con Air, Rockhound in
Armageddon, Donny in
The Big Lebowski and Carl Showalter in
Fargo. Although usually a supporting actor, he has had critical success as a lead actor, particularly in his role as Seymour in
Ghost World. Buscemi often plays characters that are
neurotic and
paranoid. He has appeared in a number of films by the
Coen Brothers, in which he tends to die in a grisly, prolonged or unexpected manner. He frequently provides
comic relief in
Adam Sandler films such as
Billy Madison,
The Wedding Singer,
Big Daddy and
Mr. Deeds. Buscemi also starred with Sandler (as brothers) in
Airheads. Buscemi also played a nemesis to Sandler and
Kevin James in the comedy
I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry. He also has worked with
Tim Burton,
Quentin Tarantino, producer
Jerry Bruckheimer,
Jim Jarmusch,
The Coen Brothers, and
Robert Rodriguez on various occasions.
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 who Marge promises to visit in jail if he turns himself in to the authorities. This episode, entitled "
I Don't Wanna Know Why the Caged Bird Sings", originally aired on October 14, 2007.
In 2004, Buscemi joined the cast of
The Sopranos as
Tony Soprano's cousin and childhood friend,
Tony Blundetto. Buscemi had previously contributed to the show as director of the third season episode "
Pine Barrens" (one of the most critically-acclaimed episodes of the series). He appeared in the third episode of Season 6, as a doorman in
heaven (portrayed as a country club) in
Tony Soprano's dream. He returned to direct the episode
"Mr. & Mrs. John Sacrimoni Request...", the fifth episode of Season 6.
In 2005, he played James McCord in
The Island.
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
Batman franchise,
Batman Triumphant, before
Warner Bros. cancelled the project.
[moviemansguide.com review of Batman Begins by Andy Hoglund]
In 2007 he played the voice of a gingerbread man in a cell phone commercial.
[IMDB other works]
In 2004, Buscemi appeared in the music video for
Joe Strummer's cover of the
Bob Marley track "
Redemption Song". The video is shot after Strummer's death, and Buscemi appears alongside of a graffiti portrait of Strummer.
In 2008, he provided the voice for Scamper, an intelligent and suicidal rabbit in the animated film
Igor.
Directing
Buscemi worked extensively as a director, having worked on (and starred in) the feature film,
Interview (2007). He directed
Trees Lounge (1996),
Animal Factory (2000), and
Lonesome Jim (2005). In addition to feature films, he directed episodes of the television shows
Homicide: Life on the Street and
The Sopranos, as well as two episodes of
HBO's prison-drama series
Oz, entitled "U.S. Male" and "Cuts Like a Knife".
Personal life
The day after the
September 11, 2001 attacks, Buscemi went to his old firehouse to volunteer for recovery work at Ground Zero. That week, he worked 12 hour shifts digging through the rubble, while refusing to do interviews or have his picture taken.
[indieking.com interview with photos]
In April 2001, while shooting the film
Domestic Disturbance in
Wilmington, North Carolina, Buscemi was stabbed while intervening in a bar fight between his friend
Vince Vaughn,
screenwriter Scott Rosenberg and a local man, who allegedly instigated the brawl.
[thesmokinggun.com mugshots and description][indieking.com has two news clippings on the incident.]
During his profile on the show
Inside the Actors Studio, director
John Waters said that he and Buscemi bear an uncanny resemblance to each other, to the point where Waters sent out Christmas cards with a picture of "himself" which was actually Buscemi dressed as him. He also (somewhat jokingly) noted that should a movie ever be made about Waters' life, Buscemi has agreed to star as Waters in the film.
Buscemi has one son, Lucian, with his wife
Jo Andres.
Filmography
