Ever since Stanley Tucci earned his Actor’s Equity card in 1982, the man has left his mark on many forms of entertainment, collecting an array of showbiz nominations and trophies along the way. In 1996, he earned his first Emmy nomination for his supporting role on ABC’s “Murder One” as the twisted millionaire businessman Richard Cross who was suspected of murder. He would go on to claim three Emmy Awards for acting roles: as a lead actor in a miniseries or movie for his 1998 is role as newspaper columnist Walter Winchell in HBO’s “Winchell”; as a comedy guest actor on the USA Network detective series “Monk” in 2006; and as an executive producer of the 2016 short-form variety series “Park Bench With Steve Buscemi.”
He would be part of the SAG film ensemble win for 2015’s “Spotlight” and claimed his lone Oscar nomination for his supporting role as a killer of a young girl for the 2009 supernatural thriller “The Lovely Bones,” directed by Peter Jackson. Tucci later returned as a gay man who suffers from dementia and takes a final road trip with his partner in “Supernova.”
In honor of his latest effort in the 2024 film “Conclave,” take a photo gallery tour of Tucci’s 13 best movies, including the films mentioned above, plus “The Devil Wears Prada,” “Big Night,” “Julie and Julia,” “Captain America: The First Avenger,” “Easy A” and more.
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13. “The Lovely Bones” (2009)
Image Credit: Courtesy of DreamWorks Studios This supernatural thriller directed by Peter Jackson and based on a 2002 novel of the same name follows a teen girl named Susie (Saoirse Ronan) who is murdered by a neighbor George Harvey (Tucci). She watches as her family reacts to her disappearance and realizes that Harvey has murdered her. Susie is then pulled into a space that is neither Heaven nor Earth. Tucci prepared for his serial killer role by watching documentaries on the subject and reading books on the subject. Both Ronan and Tucci were praised for the roles but received mixed reviews. Tucci was nominated for a supporting actor Oscar but lost to Christoph Waltz in “Inglourious Basterds.”
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12. “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” (1999)
Image Credit: Courtesy of Fox Searchlight Pictures Tucci played Puck, the mischievous sprite and jester who pulls the strings of the other characters in this version of Shakespeare’s romantic comedy set in the19th century and directed by Michael Hoffman. Alongside an ensemble featuring Sam Rockwell, Michelle Pfeiffer, Christian Bale and Calista Flockhart, Tucci’s mischief maker and Kevin Kline as donkey-eared actor Bottom attracted the most praise for their performances.
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11. “Easy A” (2010)
Image Credit: Courtesy Image Emma Stone’s breakout comedy role came in the form of a John Hughesian morality tale about a sarcastic high-schooler Oliver Penderghast, who has a knack for witty one-liners. She decides to tell her promiscuous best pal that she lost her virginity over the weekend. Her white lie soon becomes the talk of her classmates while guys start buzzing around her like bees in a clover patch. Tucci and Patricia Clarkson prove to be a delightful pair as Olive’s quirky, laid back parents Dill and Rosemary, who define themselves as new-age hippies and like to discuss details of their own sex lives. A sample from Rosemary: “I had a similar situation when I was your age. I had a horrible reputation.” When Olive asks her mom why, she says, “Because I slept with a whole bunch of people. Mostly guys.”
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10. “A Private War” (2018)
Image Credit: Courtesy of Aviron Pictures In this biographical drama, Rosamund Pike plays Marie Colvin, a American journalist for The Sunday Times who goes into dangerous countries to cover their civil wars. In 2001, she and her crew are ambushed by the Sri Lankan Army. Although she tries to surrender, she is fired upon and loses her left eye to shrapnel and covers her wound with a patch. After being diagnosed with PTSD, she is determined to still cover conflicts, including Iraq and Libya. She lives in London while not putting herself in harm’s way in war zones and begins a relationship with Tucci’s businessman Tony Shaw, who brings a playful spin on his romance with Colvin that opens up a different side of a complicated character.
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9. “The Hunger Games” franchise (2012-2015)
Image Credit: Courtesy of Murray Close Tucci’s role in the four sci-fi dystopian film adventures based on author Suzanne Collins book trilogy that star Jennifer Lawrence as tribute Katniss Everdeen is Caesar Flickerman, the flashy Master of Ceremonies for the Hunger Games who conducts interviews with the participants on live TV. He changes the hue of his hair, eyebrows, eye lids and lips for each round of the deadly games, including crimson that looked like blood, powder blue and lavender. While his character seems to be rooting for the young particpants, the actor has described always-smiling Caesar as “creepy, with the sort of false generosity and duplicity.”
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8. “Captain America: The First Avenger” (2011)
Image Credit: Jay Maidment / Marvel Studios In the first film based on the Marvel Comics superhero Captain America, Chris Evans plays Steven G. Rogers, a World War II- era U.S. soldier. Tucci’s character is Dr. Abraham Erskine, a biologist, a physicist and German defector who recruits Rogers as a guinea pig after learning he has health issues and makes him a participant in a “super soldier” experiment. Tucci has said in interviews that he was drawn to the role because it gave him an opportunity to do a German accent.
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7. ‘Conclave’ (2024)
Image Credit: Focus Tucci earned some of his best reviews in years for his work in this Vatican-set thriller as Cardinal Bellini, the American front-runner to replace the newly deceased Pope. Bellini is a sensible man — sensible enough at least to know that he wants no part of the responsibility of the Papacy — but he is far more concerned with the crisis of faith that his best friend Cardinal Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes) is undergoing. As an actor, Tucci brings with him an enormous amount of good will from audiences, but he doesn’t coast on that, here revealing surprising complexities about Bellini as the film progresses, which are key to making the film work.
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6. “The Devil Wears Prada” (2006)
Image Credit: Barry Wetcher In this fashion-forward dramedy directed by David Frankel, Tucci is the witty Nigel Kipling, the art director of a glossy Vogue-like fashion magazine Runway, who tries to be a buffer between Anne Hathaway’s green junior assistant Andy to Meryl Streep’s haughty editor Miranda Priestly, who likes to dismiss people with the chilling phrase, “That’s all.” Tucci gets to don some spectacular ensembles himself, including a plaid blue suit and fashionable specs. He also gets a fabulous monologue to counteract Andy’s defeatist mood that states in part, “This is not just a magazine. This is a shining beacon of hope for … let’s say a young boy growing up in Rhode Island with six brothers, pretending to go to soccer practice when he was really going to sewing class and reading Runway under the covers at night with a flashlight. Streep would receive Oscar nomination No. 14 for her lead role and the film also snagged a bid for costume design.
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5. “Julie & Julia” (2009)
Image Credit: Courtesy Image In filmmaker Nora Ephron’s final film, Meryl Streep stars as the trilling and towering Julia Child and a quite huggable Tucci as her adoring diplomat husband Paul who live in France in 1949. It’s clear in the way they relish dining out together that the couple is gourmands but also share an appetite for l’amour. With nothing to do with herself, Julia decides to enroll in the Cordon Bleu culinary school, spends a decade on the cookbook that would become her legacy, “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” and would become a TV star as “The French Chef” on PBS. Yes, Amy Adams is the Julie part of the title, a taciturn New York blogger who is determined to make all 524 recipes in Child’s cooking bible in one year. But hearing Tucci’s Paul lovingly call his wife “my big sprig” as they romp about like honeymooners is far more fun. Streep earned her 16th Oscar nomination for her lead role.
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4. “Road to Perdition” (2002)
Image Credit: Courtesy of DreamWorks Pictures Sam Mendes chose this gangster drama set during the Great Depression and based on a graphic novel to be his follow-up to his Oscar-winning debut “American Beauty.” Tom Hanks stars as an enforcer Michael Sullivan Sr. for Paul Newman’s Irish mob boss John Rooney. After his son Michael Jr. witnesses a hit by Rooney’s adult son Conner (Daniel Craig), Sullivan and his son flee after his wife and younger son is killed. Tucci gets to play real-life Chicago mobster Frank Nitti, who has a meeting Sullivan but rejects his offer to work with him. Tucci, who is of Italian descent, tried to avoid the stereotype of gangster roles on screen but accepted the role because he wanted to work with Mendes,. The movie collected six Oscar nominations including one for Paul Newman’s supporting role and provided a posthumous trophy for cinematographer Conrad L. Hall.
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3. “Supernova” (2020)
Image Credit: Bleecker Street This British drama directed by Harry McQueen stars Colin Firth as an English pianist Sam and Stanley Tucci as American author Tusker, a charming gay couple who have been together for 20 years. When Tusker is diagnosed with dementia, they go on a road trip in an old camping van through the Lake District to visit friends, family and places from their past while sharing what moments they have left. Bits of wit and morbid humor abound. Don’t be surprised to see Tucci’s name to pop up in the supporting Oscar category.
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2. “Spotlight” (2015)
Image Credit: Courtesy of Open Road Films Tom McCarthy’s Best Picture Oscar winner overflows with acting talent as it shows how The Boston Globe decided in 2001 to investigate a former priest who was accused of molesting more than 80 boys. The reporters and editors are relentless in their desire to find the truth and end up winning a Pulitzer Prize after uncovering what proves to be a huge cover-up job. Even with the likes of Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo and Liev Schreiber aboard, Tucci manages to stand out as an overwhelmed but sympathetic lawyer, who represents the 80 plaintiffs and provide invaluable tips to Ruffalo’s ace reporter. The film received six nominations in all, including director, supporting actor for Ruffalo and supporting actress for Rachel McAdams as a reporter while also getting a win for original screenplay.
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1. “Big Night” (1996)
Image Credit: Courtesy Image Foodies fell in love with this ode to authentic gourmet Italian food beyond spaghetti and meatballs whipped up by two immigrant brothers and set in the late 1950s at restaurant on the Jersey shore named Paradise. Tucci stars in, co-wrote the script with his cousin Joseph Tropiano and co-directed with fellow actor Campbell Scott. Tucci’s Secundo acts as maitre’d while Tony Shalhoub is Primo, who treats his dishes as fine art, even though his seafood risottos are too refined for those with pedestrian palates. Their rival Pascal (Ian Holm) serves terrible Italian food served by tacky singing waiters. Secundo tries to keep their eatery in business by putting on a banquet for visiting bandleader Louis Prima and boost their reputation. Matters don’t quite turn out as expected but what happens will hit the spot.
