Steven Vincent Buscemi was born in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, to John Buscemi, a sanitation worker and Korean War veteran, and Dorothy Buscemi, a hostess at Howard Johnson’s. Buscemi’s father was of Italian descent; his ancestors were from the town of Menfi in Sicily.
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 made his acting debut in the 1985 film The Way It Is, directed by Eric Mitchell and produced by No Wave Cinema. Other early performances include Parting Glances (1986) and Slaves of New York (1988), as well as an appearance in an episode of the television series Miami Vice in 1986. Buscemi received a nomination for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male for his role in Mystery Train, released in 1989. In 1990, he played Mink in the Coen Brothers’ Millers Crossing. This was the first of five of the Coen Brothers’ films in which Buscemi performed. Also that year, he starred as Test Tube, a henchman of Laurence Fishburne’s character Jimmy Jump in Abel Ferrara’s crime film King of New York, as well as Edward in the anthology film Tales from the Darkside: The Movie, the protagonist of the “Lot 249” segment of the film.
In 1991, he played a 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 for his supporting part as pseudonymous criminal Mr. Pink in Quentin Tarantino’s film Reservoir Dogs (1992), a role that Tarantino originally wrote for himself, and one that earned Buscemi the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male in his second nomination.[ Also in 1992, he had a guest role as Phil Hickle, Ellen’s father and older Pete’s guidance counselor, in The Adventures of Pete and Pete. The following year, he starred as the eponymous character in the critically panned horror comedy film Ed and His Dead Mother. He also appeared in a cameo appearance in Tarantino’s next film, Pulp Fiction, where he portrays a waiter dressed as Buddy Holly who serves Mia Wallace and Vincent Vega. In 1995, Buscemi guest-starred as suspected murderer Gordon Pratt in “End Game”, an episode of the television series Homicide: Life on the Street. 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.
The next year, Buscemi again collaborated with the Coen Brothers, starring as kidnapper Carl Showalter in Fargo. Subsequently, he gained a reputation as a character actor, with supporting roles as Garland Greene in Con Air (1997), Rockhound in Armageddon (1998) and Donny in The Big Lebowski (1999). Going into the 2000s, Buscemi continued to co-star in supporting roles. He played Seymour in Ghost World (2001) and Romero in Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams (2002), as well as its successor Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over (2003). He also extensively performed voice-over work for animated films, playing Randall Boggs in Monsters, Inc. (2001), — a role he later reprised in its prequel Monsters University (2013) — Mr. Wesley in Home on the Range (2004), Nebbercracker in Monster House (2006) and Templeton the Rat in Charlotte’s Web.
In 2004, Buscemi joined the cast of the television series 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 starred in the HBO series Boardwalk Empire starting in 2010, 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.
Buscemi grew up pronouncing his name as boo-SEM-ee, in an anglicized way. In Sicily, where his ancestors are from, it is pronounced as boo-SHEM-ee. He once remarked, “I had to go to Sicily to find out I pronounce my name wrong.”
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.
Buscemi married Jo Andres in 1987; they were married until her death in early January 2019. They had one son.