Childhood & Early Life
Born on November 11, 1960, in Peekskill, New York, Stanley Tucci grew up in Katonah, one of the three hamlets within the town of Bedford, Westchester County, New York. He is the oldest child and only son of Joan (née Tropiano) and Stanley Tucci Sr. He has two sisters, actress Christine Tucci and artist Gina Tucci.
His father was an art teacher at Horace Greeley High School in Chappaqua, New York while his mother was a secretary and a writer. Both of his parents were of Italian ancestry and the family spent a year in the 1970s in Florence, Italy.
After graduating from John Jay High School in Cross River, he enrolled at the State University of New York at Purchase. He graduated in 1982 with a degree in acting.
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Career
After receiving his Actor’s Equity card for the play ‘The Queen and the Rebels’ (premiered September 30, 1982), in which Stanley Tucci starred alongside his childhood friend actor Campbell Scott and his mother Colleen Dewhurst, he performed in a Molière play at the Yale Repertory Theatre in 1991.
Following the release of his debut film ‘Prizzi's Honor’, Tucci appeared in several films, including ‘’Who’s That Girl’ (1987), ‘Slaves of New York’ (1989), ‘Men of Respect’ (1990), ‘Beethoven’ (1992), ‘The Pelican Brief’ (1993), ‘It Could Happen to You’ (1994), and ‘Sex & the Other Man’ (1995).
His first television appearance was in an episode of NBC’s crime-drama ‘Crime Story’ in 1987. He played recurring roles in ‘Miami Vice’ (1986, 1987-88), ‘Wiseguy’ (1988-89), ‘thirtysomething’ (1989-90), and ‘Equal Justice’ (1991). In the first season of the legal drama ‘Murder One’ (1995-96), Tucci portrayed Richard Cross, a charming but morally ambiguous philanthropist.
He acted, wrote, directed, and produced the comedy-drama film ‘Big Night’ (1996). This was one of his many collaborations with Tony Shalhoub, in whose show ‘Monk’, he would guest-star a decade later and win an Emmy.
He was cast as Puck in Michael Hoffman’s cinematic adaptation of ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ (1999) and as German Nazi SS-Obersturmbannführer Adolf Eichmann in the 2001 BBC/HBO war film ‘Conspiracy’.
Tucci starred as the Italian-American gangster Frank Nitti in ‘Road to Perdition’ (2002), a political aid in ‘Maid in Manhattan’ (2002), Stanley Kubrick in ‘The Life and Death of Peter Sellers’ (2004), and an airport executive in ‘The Terminal’ (2004).
In the short-lived CBS medical-drama ‘3 lbs’ (2006), he appeared in the role of brain surgeon Doctor Douglas Hanson, the lead protagonist. He played another doctor of medicine in ‘ER’ (2007-08), the Chief of Emergency Medicine, Dr. Kevin Moretti.
He became fast friends with Meryl Streep after working together in the 2006 comedy-drama ‘The Devil Wears Prada’. They would team up again for ‘Julie & Julia’ (2009). The movie ignited a passion for the culinary arts in Tucci, who has published two cookbooks to date, ‘The Tucci Cookbook’ (2012) and ‘The Tucci Table: Cooking With Family and Friends’ (2014, co-authored by his wife, Felicity Blunt), and co-owns a Finch Tavern restaurant in Croton Falls, New York.
His outing as the serial killer George Harvey in the supernatural-drama ‘The Lovely Bones’ earned him an Oscar nomination in 2009. Directed by Peter Jackson, the film also starred Saoirse Ronan, Mark Wahlberg, Rachel Weisz, and Susan Sarandon.
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In the 2010s, he became involved in three of the biggest franchises in the history of cinema. He portrayed the comic book character Abraham Erskine in Marvel’s ‘Captain America: The First Avenger’ (2011), Caesar Flickerman in the four Hunger Games films (2012-15), Joshua Joyce in ‘Transformers: Age of Extinction’ (2014) and Merlin in ‘Transformers: The Last Knight’ (2017).
Tucci voiced Herb Kazzaz in the adult animated black comedy ‘BoJack Horseman’ (2014-15) and appeared as DCI Eugene Morton in the psychological thriller ‘Fortitude’ (2015).
In the live-action remake of ‘Beauty and the Beast’ (2017), he played the role of music composer Maestro Cadenza. He is set to appear in the action-horror ‘Patient Zero’, comedy ‘Show Dogs’, and psychological-thriller ‘Nomis’ in the near future.
Awards & Achievements
Stanley Tucci won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Miniseries or Television Film for ‘Winchell’ in 1998 and the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor – Series, Miniseries or Television Film for ‘Conspiracy’ in 2001.
He received three Primetime Emmy Awards: the first one was for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or Movie for ‘Winchell’ in 1998, the second one for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series for the fifth-season episode ‘Mr. Monk and the Actor’ of ‘Monk’ in 2006, and the last one for Outstanding Short Form Variety Series for ‘Park Bench with Steve Buscemi’ in 2016.
In 2008, he and Streep received the Grammy nomination for Best Spoken Word Album For Children for the reading of the children’s book ‘The One and Only Shrek’.
Personal Life
Stanley Tucci married his first wife Kathryn “Kate” in 1995 and had three children with her, twins Nicolo Robert and Isabel Concetta (Born January 21, 2000) and Camilla (2002). A social worker, she also had two children from her previous marriage to actor and stage manager Alexander R. Scott. Kate passed away from breast cancer on April 27, 2009.
Actress Emily Blunt had introduced her elder sister, British literary agent Felicity Blunt, to Tucci a few years after they worked together in ‘The Devil Wears Prada’. They initially married in a civil ceremony in the summer of 2012 and later in a traditional wedding at Middle Temple Hall in London on September 29. Blunt gave birth to their son, Matteo Oliver, on January 25, 2015. The family resides in the leafy London suburb of Barnes, London, UK.
Tucci joined Neil Gaiman, Keira Knightley, Juliet Stevenson, Cate Blanchett, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and others in a UNHCR video to pledge their support and help raise awareness for the global refugee crisis.
