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.
Major Works
Stanley Tucci is best known for his work in the TV film ‘Winchell.’ Directed by Paul Mazursky, the film is based on the biography ‘Walter Winchell: His Life and Times’ by Herman Klurfel and depicts the early days of the tabloid gossip columnist and radio broadcaster’s career as he goes toe-to-toe with a propagandist against the backdrop of political and social turmoil in the US in the years leading up to the World War II.
Tucci received universal critical acclaim for his performance, with Variety’s Ray Richmond writing that “Tucci is simply brilliant in conveying Winchell’s public blend of charisma and sanctimony”.
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’.
