Hollywood Hero

Television and the movies have taught us that heroes are tall and handsome with steely eyes and a perfect smile.  They have broad shoulders and bulging muscles to go along with a deep rumbling voice.

Now I’m going to tell you about a true-life Hollywood hero.

Let’s call him Steve.

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When Steve entered the world, he didn’t look like a future hero.  He was born, one of four brothers, to a sanitation worker and a hostess at Howard Johnson in Brooklyn, New York.  After high school, in 1976, he took a civil service test, then started his adult life as a furniture mover during the day while doing stand-up comedy at night…and looking for a change.

Four years later he was notified that his name had come up from the civil service test and he became a firefighter on Engine 55, one of FDNY’s busiest, in Manhattan’s Little Italy.

During an interview Steven said, “I was in the engine company, which means we were responsible for getting in there with the hose and putting out the fire.”

Sound scary?

“Well, they’re all frightening,” Steve said.  “Any time you go into a burning building, there’s the potential for disaster. I never had any real close calls, though there’s no such thing as a routine fire.”

“I liked the job — the guys I worked with and the nature of the work. I think I would have been happy doing it if I hadn’t had a greater passion for acting.”

Steve said, “I was a fireman for four years, from 1980 to ’84. My first year on the job, I didn’t do any acting, even though I had gone to school for acting and had done some stand-up comedy before I took the job. But after I had been on the job for about a year, I started going back to acting classes. It was around that time that I met Mark Boone and we started doing our own work. And then I started working with the theater group Willem Dafoe was with. I was constantly doing theater, and the first couple of films I did, I was still with the fire department.”

Steve’s star was rising.  He found more and more work in the movie industry.  People were drawn to the characters he played.  His looks, his voice, his physicality all seemed to fit the roles he took on. 

And then came 9/11.

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When the news broke that the first jet had crashed into New York City’s World Trade Center, on September 1, 2001, Steve took action.  Many people were trying to get out of the city and away from the towers, but Steve worked hard to find his way to the site.

People needed him.  Somebody had to do something, and Steve wanted to lend a hand.

Wandering amid the heaps of smoking debris, trying to find a way to help, he ran into members of Engine 55.  The next day he appeared at his old fire station and suited up in his fire-resistant gear to lend a hand with the grisly work that needed to be done.  He was in the thick of it, removing buckets of debris and human remains while looking for survivors.  He put in 12 hour shifts doing stomach-churning, mind-numbing work for several days after the tragedy.

Most of the photos of Steve from those four days show him wearing a dust mask, even when others in the photos are not.  Yes, that’s safety gear but, more than that, he was already a famous actor and he wanted to do the job without his fame getting in the way.  Those times when people did recognize him during the cleanup, he politely turned down requests for photos and interviews.

Most of the world was totally unaware that Steve was there to help in the aftermath of one of the worst disasters in American history until it was discovered and reported in 2013, a dozen years after the incident. 

Yes, he kept it a secret for 12 years.

But there’s more.

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As a post in the September 2013 Brotherhood of Fire Facebook page said, “Very few photographs and no interviews exist because he declined them. He wasn’t there for the publicity. 

“In 2003 he also gave a speech at a union rally supporting higher wages for firefighters and to stop fire houses from closing.  He got arrested along with other firefighters. 

“Also not very well known is that in 2012 Brother (Steve) showed up in Breezy Point, NY and quietly assisted in the clean-up efforts of the damage and mass destruction left by Super Storm Sandy.  Once a brother, always a brother!  Just so we’re clear… this guy is a Bad A–!

Have you figured out who Steven is yet?  How about a few hints.

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Steve is well known for his depictions of weirdos and gangsters.  He has frequently played quirky roles, often as paranoid, neurotic, or downright crazy criminals.

I probably misled some of you at the beginning of this post, when I described Hollywood’s idea of a hero.  “They are tall and handsome with steely eyes and a perfect smile.  Heroes have broad shoulders and bulging muscles to go along with a deep rumbling voice.” 

Well, our friend misses that by a bit. 

His looks have inspired some creative description. The Guardian referred to him as a “strangely attractive shoelace” and one critic recalled him as “pale, almost pallid—as if he’d been reared in a mushroom cellar.”  

Think of the old Andy Griffith show.  Now forget Andy Taylor and think Barney Fife.

Yeah.

He doesn’t have bulging muscles and his shoulders miss filling a doorway by about half.  At 5’9” and about 160 pounds with rocks in his pockets, he might be able play Bruce Banner, but you won’t see him as the Hulk anytime soon.

As for the perfect smile, Steve chose long ago not to have his teeth straightened. 

Of course, I’m talking about Steve Buscemi.

Yes, Steve Buscemi, star of such movies as Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction.  Buscemi loved being a fireman and has proven he’s ready and willing to stand alongside his brethren when he feels he can help out.  But he still has a spot in his heart for his old job.  He also supports firefighters’ causes when he can.

In 2014 Buscemi hosted the HBO documentary A Good Job: Stories of the FDNY, presenting “behind-the-scenes footage and firsthand accounts” of what it’s like to work as a firefighter in New York City.  According to the film’s official description, it captures, “camaraderie and the bonds formed around firehouse kitchen tables, the cumulative effect of trauma, both physical and mental, and the stories—the good, the bad and the exciting.”

Maybe Steven’s not your stereotypical action hero, but, by golly, he’s MY kind of hero…a REAL one.

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I can do no better than share a quote from a firefighter on the Brotherhood of Fire Facebook page, “Tip of the helmet, Brother Steve!”

Tip of the helmet indeed.  I’ll be watching Steve Buscemi’s movies with a whole different eye now, because now I know what a real Hollywood hero looks like.

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By the way, in the photo at the very top, Steve is the one on the far left, wearing a dust mask. You wouldn’t give him a second glance on the scene, would you? And you certainly wouldn’t think he was an international movie star…which is just what he wanted.

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