Steve Buscemi

Steve Buscemi’s biography

Steve Buscemi is an American actor, comedian, director, and producer. Buscemi is known for a line of successful Hollywood films, including New York Stories (1989), Reservoir Dogs (1992), Desperado (1995), Armageddon (1998), and The Big Lebowski (1998).

In the photo: Steve Buscemi

Childhood and youth

Steven Vincent Buscemi was born on December 13, 1957, in Brooklyn, New York. Steve's father, John Buscemi, a Korean War veteran dreamed of becoming a cameraman his entire life but worked as a nightman. His Mother Dorothy (née Wilson) was a hostess at Howard Johnson's, the chain of American hotels.

Steve Buscemi in childhood (photo from the school album)

Buscemi's father has Italian roots - his ancestors are from Sicily. Irish, English, and Dutch blood flows in the mother’s veins. The popular British Family Tree project helped Buscemi find his roots on his mother’s side.

Steve has three brothers – Jon, Ken, and Michael. Michael Buscemi also became an actor. The brothers appeared together in eight films and series.

Steve Buscemi in young age

Steve Buscemi began performing on stage yet in youth at the school drama section. After school, he attended Nassau Community College for a while but soon moved to Manhattan and enrolled in the Lee Strasberg Institute.

Steve Buscemi worked as a fireman for four years

However, Steve didn’t become an actor right away - in the early 1980s he worked as a fireman for four years. It is remarkable that following the tragedy of September 11 the actor returned to his fire department and for several days worked 12-hour shifts alongside other firefighters to sift through the rubble of the World Trade Center. In 2014 he was appointed an Honorary Battalion Chief of the FDNY.

Acting career

While studying at the institute, Steve not only played in student productions but even wrote himself scripts and staged plays in small New York theaters.

Steve Buscemi in the picture Parting Glances

Buscemi made his film debut in 1985 in the picture The Way It Is by Eric Mitchell, but, according to Steve, his career as an actor began with the picture Parting Glances (1986), where he played a rock musician dying from AIDS.

Steve Buscemi in the Miller's Crossing drama

Then followed a series of episodic and less notable roles, but in 1990 Steve was first lucky to work with the famous Coen brothers on the set of their Miller's Crossing drama, which was later included in the top 100 best films according to the Time magazine. Buscemi twice auditioned for the role, but his persistence brought him a start in life. The Miller’s Crossing was the first of the five Coen films which Buscemi starred in and the picture introducing him to Hollywood.

Steve Buscemi in the Soup comedy

In 1991 Steve played doorman Chet in the black comedy of the Coen Brothers Barton Fink. Buscemi got his first main role next year - he played a quiet and insecure screenwriter in the Soup comedy by Alexandre Rockwell, the director of the Four Rooms (1996) cult film.

Steve Buscemi and Quentin Tarantino

Buscemi attracted close attention to himself after playing in the Reservoir Dogs picture by Quentin Tarantino. The actor played one of the members of a robbery named Mr. Pink. It is remarkable that Tarantino wrote the role for himself but in the end appeared in another image - Mr. Brown. On the set, Steve worked with Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, and Harvey Keitel.

Steve Buscemi in the Reservoir Dogs (the scene about tips)

Buscemi appeared in Tarantino’s next picture Pulp Fiction which was honored most of the prestigious awards including the Oscar and the Golden Palm (Palme d'Or). Though Steve played a supporting role in the film, his talent wasn’t left unnoticed by the audience.

Uma Thurman, Steve Buscemi and John Travolta in the Pulp Fiction

According to rumors Buscemi auditioned for the role of the character of Scarecrow in the fifth film about Batman directed by Joel Schumacher but the project was closed. Nevertheless, Steve's career blossomed in the late 1990s: he was invited to play by the most famous directors. So Buscemi appeared in two more projects of the Coen brothers, playing talker Carl Showalter in Fargo (1996) and the bowling companion of Dude and Walter named Donny in The Big Lebowski (1998).

Steve Buscemi in The Big Lebowski

The audience remarked the role of maniac killer Garland Greene in the Con Air (1997, director Simon West) and genius geologist Walter Rockhound in the cult Armageddon (1998) by Michael Bay and Buscemi was nominated for the Golden Globe for the role of lonely loser Seymour in the Ghost World (2001) tragicomedy alongside young Thora Birch and Scarlett Johansson.

Steve Buscemi alongside Thora Birch in the Ghost World tragicomedy

The actor comments the fact that he was often given roles of paranoids, psychopaths, and losers the following way:

{cite # This is weird. Of course, I’ve never been the coolest guy in high school but in the end, I mostly play all these psychopaths and criminals. But I like the struggle that these people lead and their feelings that they do not fit into society. Because I have similar feelings.#}

Since the early 2000s, Steve has been doing a lot of voice acting. Heroes of the popular animation films Monsters, Inc. (2001), Home on the Range (2004) and Monster House (2006) spoke in his voice.

Steve Buscemi presented his voice to Randall Boggs from the Monsters, Inc

A huge part of Buscemi’s career is tied to actor and screenwriter Adam Sandler. Steve has starred in over a dozen films alongside him like Big Daddy, the Airheads and the Grown-Ups. The actor with an unusual appearance and voice wasn’t left unnoticed by other famous of the world of cinema. For example, famous director Robert Rodriguez shot Buscemi in three of his films: Desperado in 1995 and two parts of Spy Kids in 2002-2003.

Steve Buscemi in the Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams

The main representative of the independent cinema Jim Jarmusch felt great sympathy for the talented actor - he shot Steve in five more pictures, including Dead Man (1995), Coffee and Cigarettes (2003), and Mystery Train for which Steve was nominated for the Independent Spirit Award.

A shot from the Mystery Train

About his work Steve Buscemi says:

I don’t think about my career. I think that I have a job. I want to do my job well, I want to make interesting films. And, of course, I need to make a living. Choose a job that you like and invest in it for one hundred percent.

In 2004 Buscemi was given a role in the popular The Sopranos TV series, playing a cousin of Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini), Tony Blundetto. The role brought the actor an Emmy nomination. In addition, Steve acted as director of four episodes.

Steve Buscemi in The Sopranos

Work on The Sopranos is not at all Buscemi’s debut as a director. He shot his first film, a short film What Happens to Pete in 1992. Steve's own projects include successful pictures Lonesome Jim (2005) with Casey Affleck and the Interview (2007) with Sienna Miller, as well as episodes in series Oz, Nurse Jackie, and Portlandia.

The trailer of the Boardwalk Empire series starring Steve Buscemi

In 2010-2014 Buscemi starred in the lead role in the HBO crime series Boardwalk Empire, where he played politician and the corrupt treasurer of Atlantic County. The ultimate talent for impersonation brought Steve the Golden Globe Award. Famous Michael Pitt, Kelly Macdonald, and Michael Shannon were Steve's colleagues on the set.

Steve Buscemi in The Death of Stalin tragicomedy

In 2015 Buscemi hosted his own comedy talk-show Park Bench, which was visited by many famous people in Hollywood. A year later Steve could be seen in the Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer thriller and in the Horace and Pete drama series, filmed by the script by comedian Louis C. K. and in 2017 Buscemi played Nikita Khrushchev in The Death of Stalin scandalous tragedy, directed by Armando Iannucci, banned in Russia.

Steve Buscemi’s personal life

His entire life Buscemi pronounces his last name as BuSemi, though in Sicily, where his family comes from, the last name reads Buscemi. The actor’s name is read the same way by the whole world, but Steve treats this with understanding.

Once Steve remarked: I had to go to Sicily to find out I pronounce my name wrong.

In 1987 Steve Buscemi married Jo Andres, an American film director, choreographer, and artist, whom he met in the early 80s. In 1990 their son Lucian was born, who also became an actor though in very small roles. Basically Lucian works on his father's projects.

Steve Buscemi with his wife Jo Andres

In 2001 on the set of the Domestic Disturbance thriller Buscemi was injured. His colleagues on the set, Vince Vaughn and Scott Rosenberg were taking a rest after work at a local bar, where a fight broke out between them and two visitors. Steve was struck several times with a knife, after which the actor had to be hospitalized urgently. The wounds were shallow and after treatment, Buscemi was quickly back in service.

Similar unpleasant incidents happened to the actor more than once. In his youth he fell under the bus and received a skull bone fracture. Sometime later he got hit by a car, trying to catch the ball, which rolled out while playing on the roadway. The actor got off with cuts and bruises. Buscemi jokes that he is always in trouble because he was born on Friday the 13th.

Steve Buscemi nowadays

Steve Buscemi is one of the most demanded actors in Hollywood who manages to star in several projects at once. So in 2018, it was possible to see the Nancy mystical drama with Andrea Riseborough and another comedy with Adam Sandler The Week Of. In addition, Steve traditionally voiced funny werewolf Wayne in the third part of the Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation animated film.

The trailer of Nancy starring Steve Buscemi

In 2019, the comedy series "Miracle Workers", in which Buscemi played God, started on streaming services and TV. His partner on the set was the famous actor Daniel Radcliffe. The series received high marks from critics and viewers after the first season. Also in 2019, with the participation of Buscemi, the horror film "The Dead Don’t Die" was released, in which the actor played the farmer Miller.

Steve Buscemi is one of the most demanded actors in Hollywood

Donald Nelson

I can not call Steve even a little handsome but his charisma is something special so that`s why he has the audience`s attention.

2021-05-17 21:49:20
Bobbie Foster

I watched not long ago with him the film The Dead Don`t Die. Very bad film and also a very unfortunate role for him.

2021-05-14 22:17:47
Nicholas Ortega

It is so sad what happend with his wife. It`s difficult to see the person who lose his wife and need to spend the rest of his life alone in his age...

2021-04-01 11:34:28
Linda Mendez

Steve Buscemi is a cool actor, very organically looks in all the films with him in that there is a charm.

2021-03-22 08:15:30
Michael Simmons

The old guard is in town, one of those is better and better with the age.

2021-02-17 15:42:33

Photos: Steve Buscemi

Steve Buscemi’s biography

Childhood and youth

Acting career

Steve Buscemi’s personal life

Steve Buscemi nowadays

Steve Buscemi - latest news and articles