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Steve Buscemi
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Steven Vincent "Steve" Buscemi (; born December 13, 1957) is an American character actor and film director.
emi (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. He has three brothers: Jon, Ken, and Michael. Buscemi was raised Catholic.
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Encyclopedia
Steven Vincent "Steve" Buscemi (; born December 13, 1957) is an American character 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. 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. 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). 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 Slaves of New York in 1988, and 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.
In 2007 he played the voice of a gingerbread man in a cell phone commercial.
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". He also recently directed an episode of 30 Rock, entitled "Retreat to Move Forward".
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.
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.
Buscemi has one son, Lucian, with his wife Jo Andres.
Filmography
External links
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- Lebowski Podcast tribute to Buscemi's character in The Big Lebowski.
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