Cracked Actor: Steve Buscemi

Steve Buscemi often plays the trickster: the aggrieved huckster, the jack-of-all-trades struggling to make it work through zany gig after gig. On screen, he’s a hustler. Best known as a quirky character actor, Buscemi has frequently played offbeat criminals or smarmy conmen in his collaborations with directors Quentin Tarantino—Reservoir Dogs (1992), Pulp Fiction (1994)—the Coen Brothers—Barton Fink (1991), Fargo (1996), The Big Lebowski (1998)—and Jim Jarmsuch—Mystery Train (1989), Coffee and Cigarettes (2003), and The Dead Don’t Die (2019). He built his career on memorable turns in cult classics such as Parting Glances (1986), King of New York (1990), and Ghost World (2001), a performance that earned him his first Golden Globe nomination.