The Steve Buscemi Page
Brooklyn-born and raised in Valley Stream, on Long Island,
Buscemi was a high school athlete who discovered acting his senior
year. He dropped out of Nassau Community College after a single
semester of liberal-arts classes, and used insurance-settlement money
stemming from a childhood injury to pay his tuition to the Lee Strasberg
Institute in Manhattan. Following his garbage-collector father's advice,
he took a civil-service exam in order to work for the New York City
Fire Department; while waiting for his chance to brave blazes, Buscemi
took a variety of day jobs, including moving furniture, pumping gas,
waiting tables, selling newspapers at toll booths, and driving an
ice-cream truck. Buscemi called these sundry occupations
"drinking-money jobs," and, in truth, his ice-cream truck was quite often
seen parked in front of a local watering hole. He eventually abandoned
Long Island in favor of the East Village, where he set about creating
stand-up routines and performance art with stage partners Rockets
Redglare and Mark Boone, Jr. (both appear in Trees Lounge). When
he was finally hired on as a fireman nearly three years after applying for
the job, Buscemi lived a double life, saving the city by day and
entertaining audiences at several off-off-Broadway locales and
fire-department functions at night.
In 1986, Buscemi landed a gig playing a dying and embittered
rock star in Bill Sherwood's Parting Glances, the first film (no matter
what you hear) to tackle the subject of AIDS. Though his was just a
secondary role, Buscemi's performance stole the entire film, and he soon
quit his job with Engine Company 55 to pursue acting full-time. After
appearing in a number of small independent films, Buscemi scored his
first mainstream role, playing a performance artist in Martin Scorsese's
segment of the 1989 omnibus New York Stories. That same year, he
was cast in Jim Jarmusch's Memphis fable, Mystery Train, after which
he collaborated with the filmmaking Coen brothers in their gangster flick,
Miller's Crossing. In 1992, Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs
simultaneously rocked the indie-film world and brought Steve Buscemi
to the fore as America's sleaziest supporting actor. His fast-talking,
paranoid Mr. Pink--a non-tipper on general principle and the only
survivor of a bloodbath robbery gone wrong--earned him an
Independent Spirit Award (presented by none other than Keanu
Reeves) and instant cult status.
Supporting assignments are not the only credits on the back of
Buscemi's headshot. In 1992, he nailed his first lead in Alexandre
Rockwell's little-seen In the Soup, in which he portrayed a failed
screenwriter who gets taken under the wing of an aging gangster
(Seymour Cassel). The film proved that Buscemi was capable of playing
more than just "a funny-lookin' guy," and his efforts have since been
divided between the big-studio movies (Rising Sun, Airheads,
Desperado) that allow him to support his family, and the bit-parts in
indie classics (Pulp Fiction, The Hudsucker Proxy) that make him the
coolest American actor. Not that all of his indie parts have been small:
as Nick, the embattled director at the center of Tom DiCillo's Living in
Oblivion, Buscemi spelled out the nightmares and the joys of
independent filmmaking, and had audiences rolling in the aisles.
1996 proved to be a banner year for Buscemi. The actor piled up
critical accolades for his performance as Carl Rolvaag, the funny-lookin'
kidnapper who meets his maker in a wood chipper, in the Coen
brothers' Fargo. After appearances in two studio projects, John
Carpenter's Escape From L.A. and Robert Altman's Kansas City,
and the indie film The Search for One-Eye Jimmy, Buscemi released
Trees Lounge, a film he wrote, directed, produced, and starred in. Shot
in under a month, the $1.3-million quasi-autobiographical (Buscemi has
described it as "what might have happened if I hadn't left Valley
Stream") film takes place in a bar modeled faithfully after a dive Buscemi
frequented in his hell-raising days, and his character, Tommy, drives an
ice-cream truck. Although the bar is long gone, the sign used in the film
comes from the original Trees Lounge--Buscemi picked it up when the
establishment was sold and stashed it behind his parents' garage for
years. The old-home-week cast of Trees Lounge is peppered with
actors Buscemi has shared the screen and stage with over the years,
including Mark Boone, Jr., Seymour Cassel, Samuel L. Jackson, and his
brother Michael. With this filmic return to the familiar Long Island
barstool of his youth, Buscemi succeeded in his own unique way in
bringing his career and life back full circle.
Upcoming showcases for Mr. Buscemi's talent include The Real
Blonde, Con Air, and The Big Lebowski.
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