HBO/Heston Collection
The Character: On the HBO series ‘Boardwalk Empire,’ Steve Buscemi plays
Nucky Thompson, treasurer of Atlantic City
and bootlegger in prohibition-era New Jersey .
Nucky is a major player in the organized crime world, orchestrating some of the
biggest bootleg shipments in the country with the help of his sheriff brother
Eli and his enforcer, Jimmy, a former soldier who looks up to Nucky as a father
figure. Nucky is a charismatic guy, but get on his bad side and you’ll probably
wind up dead.
The Inspiration: Nucky Thompson is inspired by Enoch L.
Johnson, a political boss and racketeer living in Atlantic
City , who controlled the Republican politics in his
town and was a heavy-hitter in organized crime, including bootlegging,
prostitution, and gambling. Like Nucky Thomspon, Enoch Johnson wore a fresh red
carnation on his lapel every day, rode around in a powder-blue luxury car,
lived in a suite of rooms in the Ritz-Carlton, and helped Walter Edge win the
senate election. And also like Thompson, Johnson’s first wife suffered an
untimely death and he was eventually pursued on charges of tax evasion.
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