Stanley Tucci Biography

Stanley Tucci’s rather fascinating film career began in 1985 with a tiny part as a mob soldier in Prizzi’s Honor, and for awhile he was cast as swarthy heavies and jittery oddballs: Lucky Luciano in Billy Bathgate (1991, with Dustin Hoffman), a dog catcher in the shaggy dog story Beethoven (1992), the revenge-minded mugger Muerte in the spy comedy Undercover Blues (1993, with Randy Quaid). That all changed with Big Night, his charming and nostaligic 1996 film about brothers struggling to save their authentic Italian restaurant. Tucci co-wrote, co-directed, produced, and starred in the film, and it took him off the mobster beat and put him on the map as an art-house favorite. He directed the farce The Imposters (1998) and the eccentric Joe Gould’s Secret (2000, based on a story by Joseph Mitchell, with Tucci also starring as Mitchell). He also continued to act, winning warmer (and larger) parts like Nigel, the fashion consultant in The Devil Wears Prada (with Anne Hathaway) and a big role as a frustrated airport administrator in Steven Spielberg‘s shaggy tourist story The Terminal. In 2009 Tucci played the husband of jovial chef Julia Child in Julie and Julia (with Meryl Streep as Julia). That same year Tucci returned to the creepy in a big way, playing a child killer in The Lovely Bones and winning an Academy Award nomination for his efforts.