“People wear shorts to the Broadway theater. There should be a law against that.”
–Stanley Tucci
Stanley Tucci was born on this day in Peekskill, New York in 1960. He is 52 years old.
His mom, Joan, was a writer and secretary and his father, Stanly, Sr., was an art teacher. His grandparents immigrated from Calabria Italy. He enjoyed playing soccer and baseball in school, and he acted in school plays. He went to SUNY Purchase where he got his BFA from the school’s Conservatory of Theatre Arts.
Tucci’s twin loves are acting and food — something he indulged in Big Night and Julie & Julia. [My personal favorite pair of Tucci films.]
He’s made 93 movies and television shows in his career thus far. [For a complete breakdown of his film credits go to his IMDb page HERE] Starting 1985 with a bit part in Prizzi’s Honor and spanning nearly three decades to his role as Caeser Flickerman in the upcoming the Hunger Games: Catching Fire, Tucci has been a very busy man.
He’s a terrific collaborative actor and has been the backbone of many a movie. Think the Devil Wears Prada, orJulie and Julia for that matter, in both he plays second fiddle to Meryl Streep. He never tries to out shine his co-star, but his performance is a little gem of acting goodness.
Movie still from Conspiracy [Image courtesy HBO]
Still from Big Night.
When filming Big Night –which Tucci co-wrote, co-directed and starred in — he and his mother produced a short cook book called Cucina & Famiglia. He worked with her again to put out The Tucci Cookbook ‘“The Tucci Cookbook,” a paean to Italian cooking — and to Italian-American families…” [nytimes.com] was published in October. It’s a tribute to Tucci’s Italian grandmother who taught him his kitchen skills.
“The Tucci Cookbook,” in which the recipes are interlaced with reminiscences from two generations of Tuccis, suggests the meaty, saucy ways in which a love of food can bind and govern a family. That love has certainly shaped Stanley Tucci’s life and career, in which cooking and eating seem to be the glues for every relationship, the sidebars to every adventure, the grace notes of every achievement. [Ibid]
Still from Julie & Julia
When he was cast as Paul Child in Julie & Julia he called up Meryl Streep and encouraged her to research their roles by cooking together.
Mr. Tucci… is a proud and avid cook, and at his home in northern Westchester County, … his arsenal of equipment trumps what many restaurants have on hand. In addition to the six burners and acres of counter space in his kitchen, there’s a mammoth stone pizza oven, made in Italy, on the patio outside, along with a gas grill as large as a Fiat, a free-standing paella pan the size of a wading pool, and a coffinlike wood-and-aluminum roasting box, called a Caja China, that can accommodate up to 100 pounds of meat. He likes his dinner parties populous and his friends carnivorous.[Ibid]
Related articles
- In The Kitchen With Stanley Tucci (huffingtonpost.com)
- Good Taste (wnyc.org)
ritaLOVEStoWRITE 
November 12th, 2012 at 4:20 pm
i LOVE him!!
November 12th, 2012 at 4:43 pm
Me too. But he plays a bad guy a LOT of the time. So when he does play a good guy, like Paul Child in Julie and Julia, I think my fandom is justified. You know?