Background
Steve Buscemi was born on 13 December 1957 in Brooklyn, New York, United States.
Steve Buscemi was born on 13 December 1957 in Brooklyn, New York, United States.
Just as his acting is invariably spot on, so he has adjusted to directing without any sense of being intimidated or needing to show off. Animal Factonj is a very tough look at prison life, while Trees Lounge had Buscemi as the lead in scenes from a Long Island bar (in a way, both are about being confined). In addition, he has done excellent work directing episodes from Oz, Homicide, and The Sopranos (he did the great lost-in- the-woods story).
The directing could yet become his big thing. Still, for the moment he is the best sickly psychopath: he had been doing bit parts for several years already before he began to attract notice in Paiiing Glances (86, Bill Sherwood); Mystery Train (89, Jim Jarmusch); Slaves of New York (89, James Ivon); King of New York (90, Abel Ferara); Mink in Miller’s Crossing (90, foel and Ethan Coen); the hood who tries to shoot Nicole Kidman in Billy Bathgate (91, Robert Benton); Barton Fink (9i, Coen); In the Soup (92, Alexander Rockwell); Mr. Pink in Reservoir Dogs (92, Quentin Tarantino); CrissCross (92, Chris Menges); Rising Sun (93, Philip Kaufman).
He was in The Hudsucker Proxy (94, Coen); Somebody to Love (94, Rockwell); Pulp Fiction (94, Tarantino); the harassed filmmaker in Living in Oblivion (95. Tom DiCillo); Dead Man (95, Jarmusch); Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead (95, Gan' Fleder); Desperado (95, Robert Rodriguez); not willing to debate the matter in Fargo (96, Coen); The Search for One-Eyed Jimmy (96, Sam Henry Kass); Escape from L A. (96, John Carpenter); Kansas City (96, Robert Altman): the Marietta Mangier in Con Air (97, Simon West); The Real Blonde (98, DiCillo); The Wedding Singer (98, Frank Coraci); Donny in The Big Lebowski (98, Coen).
Armageddon (98, Michael Bay) was one of his few mainstream films, but he reestablished his below-ground credentials with The Impostors (98, Stanley Tucci); a homeless guy in Big Daddy (99, Dennis Dugan); 28 Days (00, Betty Thomas); and Seymour in Ghost World (01, Terry Zwigoff).
There is a group of excellent character actors who also direct—it includes Tom Noonan, Kevin Spacey, Sean Penn, and Steve Buscemi, who has also made himself one of the best-known faces in modern movies. As an actor, Buscemi is easily cast as hood, low-life, baby-faced thug, sleazeball, scumbag—or as a kind of Brooklyn Peter Lorre (there is a poetic resemblance).