Steve Buscemi Keeps Dying In Movies

Woodcut of Steve Buscemi. (artwork by author)

Steve Buscemi entered most people’s radar with his performance as Mr. Pink in Quentin Tarantino’s debut film Reservoir Dogs. He’s known for playing sleazy, fast-talking criminals and outcasts and is a favorite of filmmakers like Jim Jarmusch and the Coen Brothers.

Before Buscemi became an actor, he worked as a bartender, an ice cream man and a New York City fireman. He started acting in 1985 and became an indie-film favorite with low-budget classics like Ghost World and Living In Oblivion. For some reason, when Buscemi appears in a film it’s almost guaranteed he will be killed before the end credits. His characters have been shot, bludgeoned, blown up, burned, run over and pulverized. Buscemi said, “When I get cast, I always flip to the end of the script to see if my character gets beaten up or killed.”

Here’s an incomplete list of Steve Buscemi’s movie and television deaths.

Miami Vice: Shot to death in a cemetery shootout.

Lonesome Dove: Scalped by a band of rampaging Sioux Indians.

Homicide: Shot to death by an unknown assailant.

Night of Too Many Stars: Dies from food allergy after eating peanuts.

Twenty Bucks: Shot in the chest and killed by Christopher Lloyd after an argument.

The Grey Zone: Shot in the chest by Harvey Keitel.

The Last Outlaw: Shot in the face by Mickey Rourke.

Things To Do In Denver When You’re Dead: Shot in the chest with a rifle by Treat Williams.

Billy Bathgate: Shot to death by a hit man.

Boardwalk Empire: Shot and killed on the Atlantic City boardwalk by a teenager.

Desperado: Stabbed in the chest when Danny Trejo hurls several knives at him.

The Island: Shot in a bar then falls off a second-story balcony through a glass ceiling of a bar.

Switchblade: Thrown off a catwalk and falls to his death.

Miller’s Crossing: Shot in the face by John Turturro in the woods. (The first of three deaths in Coen Brothers movies.)

Tales From The Crypt: Roger Daltrey tricks him into entering an off limits part of the jungle where he dies of an exotic flesh-eating virus.

Domestic Disturbance: Stabbed in the back with an ice pick by Vince Vaughn. (During production, Buscemi and Vaughn were involved in a real life brawl with two locals in a Wilmington, North Carolina bar. Buscemi was stabbed in the face, arm and throat and still bears a scar on his cheek.)

Final Fantasy, The Spirits Within: Dies after an evil spirit absorbs his soul.

Monsters, Inc.: Buscemi provided the voice for the lizard villain Randall Bogs, who takes a severe shovel blow to the head. (It’s not clear the blow is fatal but we’ll count this as a Buscemi movie death.)

Sopranos: Tony Soprano shoots him in the face with a rifle.

The Big Lebowski: Dies of a heart attack in a bowling alley parking lot. His friends Walter Sobchak (John Goodman) and The Dude (Jeff Bridges) carry Donny’s cremated ashes in a Folgers Coffee can then spread the ashes above the Pacific Ocean. A strong wind blows the ashes into The Dude’s face.

Fargo: Hacked to death with an axe by his criminal partner Peter Stormare outside their mountain hideout. His body is ground up in a wood chipper.

Ghost World: Stricken with a heart attack. (Near death experience.)

Grown Ups: Suffers a waterpark accident that puts him in a full body cast then shot with an arrow in the foot. (Near death experience.)

The Dead Don’t Die: Buscemi plays a MAGA-loving racist farmer who is killed and eaten by zombies.

Rick and Morty: Burned to death after having his finger bitten off by Morty.

Wednesday: Turned to stone then crushed by a falling chandelier.

For those keeping count, that’s ten deaths by shooting, six by stabbing or hacking, two by heart attack, two by falling from a balcony, one by zombie attack, one by scalping, one by burning, one by flesh eating virus, one by possession, one by a falling chandelier and one by peanut allergy.

Ironically, Buscemi is the only character who survives in the ultra-violent film Reservoir Dogs.

In 2015, Jon Stewart asked Buscemi how many times he’d been murdered in movies. Buscemi said he’d lost count. He told Stewart his favorite movie death came in Big Lebowski when he died of a heart attack outside a bowling alley. “It was flat out gratuitous. I think the Coen Brothers said Buscemi is in it, let’s just kill him.”

In 2024, Buscemi experienced a real life violent attack. While walking the streets of New York, the 66-year old Buscemi was attacked by a mentally deranged man. Buscemi suffered a black eye, facial bleeding and swelling and body bruises. The attacker was arrested and Buscemi recovered from his injuries.