Steve Buscemi proudly served New York as firefighter before random violent attack

VENICE, ITALY - SEPTEMBER 09: Steve Buscemi poses for the photographer at the Giornate degli Autori during the 79th Venice International Film Festival on September 09, 2022 in Venice, Italy. (Photo by Maria Moratti/Getty Images)

New footage of Steve Buscemi moments before he was attacked in New York last week has emerged.

Video obtained by CBS New York showed the actor looking at his phone just moments before he was randomly punched by a person on the street.

Buscemi can be seen walking on Third Avenue just before 12 p.m. May 8, when he looks up to greet someone and cross East 27th Street.

Moments after that footage was captured, police say a man wearing blue punched Buscemi unprovoked. On Tuesday, the NYPD said it had identified the suspect wanted in the incident as 50-year-old Clifton Williams, according to FOX 5.

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Buscemi’s publicist confirmed the news to Fox News Digital Sunday, saying, "Steve Buscemi was assaulted in midtown Manhattan, another victim of a random act of violence in the city. He is OK and appreciates everyone’s well wishes, though (he's) incredibly sad for everyone that this has happened to him while also walking the streets of New York."

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The actor was taken to a hospital with bruising, swelling and bleeding to his left eye.

Buscemi’s "Boardwalk Empire" co-star Michael Stuhlbarg was also assaulted in New York recently.

In March, the actor was walking near Central Park, when he was allegedly struck in the back of the head with a rock by Xavier Israel, a 27-year-old homeless man, a DPCI spokesperson told Fox News Digital at the time.

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Israel was charged with assault in the second degree and was taken to central booking. Police say this is not Israel's first offense. He was arrested twice in January 2022 for alleged assault and robbery.

The attack on Buscemi came after a March interview with The Wall Street Journal, when he reflected on his life growing up in Brooklyn and the Long Island suburbs and how he found both firefighting and acting.

A family friend, actor Peter Miller, who had appeared in "Blackboard Jungle" and "The Delinquents" spoke with Buscemi’s father about acting, saying, "If this is what Steve is interested in, get him into an acting school to take classes."

"So my dad and I picked up brochures at Manhattan’s Neighborhood Playhouse and the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute, where I interviewed and was accepted," Buscemi recalled. "I had a little settlement set aside after a city bus hit me when I was 4. I used part of the $6,000 on acting classes."

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As he studied, he also became a firefighter at the urging of his father, a sanitation worker, "in case acting didn’t work out."

"He said, ‘Work as a firefighter, retire after 20 years and then act all you want.’ I told him it didn’t really work like that," Buscemi told the WSJ. "And it didn’t. After my first break in the 1986 film ‘Parting Glances,’ I left the FDNY."

Even though he had gained success as an actor with roles in "Miller’s Crossing" and "Reservoir Dogs," his parents were still uncertain about his future.

"Whenever I wrapped a project, we had this routine. My dad would say, ‘So what’s next?’ I’d say, ‘Actually, I don’t know.’ He’d say, ‘Oh, so you’re unemployed,’" the 66-year-old said.

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"I’d say, ‘Well, I’m technically between films, but yeah, unemployed.’ Eventually they relaxed. They saw I was going to be OK."

Buscemi had been away from firefighting for 15 years before 9/11.

The "Sopranos" star decided to volunteer with his old engine company, something that went largely unnoticed until 2013, when the Brotherhood of Fire Facebook page posted a photo of Buscemi.

The Brotherhood of Fire wrote, "In 1976 Steve Buscemi took the FDNY civil service test when he was just 18 years old. In 1980 Steve Buscemi became a New York City Firefighter. For four years, Buscemi served on one of FDNY’s busiest, Engine Co. 55 in Manhattan’s Little Italy. He later left the fire service to become a successful actor, writer and director.

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"After 9/11/2001… Brother Buscemi returned to FDNY Engine 55. On September 12, 2001 and for several days following Brother Steve worked 12-hour shifts alongside other firefighters digging and sifting through the rubble from the World Trade Center looking for survivors.

"Very few photographs and no interviews exist because he declined them. He wasn’t there for the publicity."

Buscemi kept mostly private about his work with the fire department on 9/11 but has occasionally opened up over the years.

In 2014, Buscemi appeared in an HBO documentary about the work of firefighters and the struggles they face, "A Good Job: Stories of the FDNY."

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"Firefighters are great at helping others," Buscemi told "CBS Sunday Morning" at the time. "They're great at helping each other. But they're not always — you know, they don't always know that they, themselves, are in need, you know?

"Their first reaction would be, ‘Oh, the next guy has it worse, you know? It was nothing, you know, that I went through. It wasn't just that bad. But that guy? Oh, that family, you know? They had it worse. So, what right do I have to seek any kind of help?’"

He noted that, like his father, his fellow firefighters thought it was crazy to give up the job because "nobody leaves this job."

"You just don’t – you don’t leave – first of all, a great job like this, and then a secure job," he said.

On "WTF With Marc Maron" in 2021, Buscemi said, "I was depressed. I was anxious. I couldn’t make a simple decision."

He called the firehouse multiple times that day. When he didn't get an answer, he went down to Ground Zero in person, where he saw the company working.

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"I asked if I could join them," Buscemi said. "I could tell they were a little suspicious at first, but I worked with them that day."

He worked with fellow first responders for five days, pulling 12-hour shifts.

"There was something about being there that was also very comforting, and I remember that surprising me," he told "CBS Sunday Morning" in 2014. "I went there to help, but I was the one who was – who was helped, you know? It really helped me."

Buscemi told Maron on "WTF" he hasn’t experienced any physical health issues since his work at Ground Zero, "but definitely, yeah, post-traumatic stress? Absolutely. I was only there for like five days, but when I stopped going and tried to just live my life again, it was really, really hard."

"There are times when I talk about 9/11, and I’m right back there," he added. "I start to get choked up, and I realize, ‘Ah, this is still a big part of me.’"

The "Big Lebowski" star was given the keys to the city in 2021 by Mayor Bill de Blasio.

"This is such an honor to be here with you today to receive this, to have friends and family here," Buscemi said during a press conference. "Before being an actor, I had one of the greatest jobs in New York City ... at Engine 55 in Little Italy, and I'll always be grateful to them for allowing me to work beside them in the aftermath of 9/11."

Buscemi is still on the advisory council for Friends of Firefighters, an organization dedicated to New York firefighters and their families, alongside Gary Sinise, filmmaker Kevin Smith and rocker Dee Snider.

Fox News Digital's Caroline Thayer and Stepheny Price contributed to this report.

Original article source:Steve Buscemi proudly served New York as firefighter before random violent attack