Steve Buscemi doesn’t just make people laugh: he was also there when New York needed help the most.
Before becoming known in Hollywood, the actor had worked as a firefighter in New York, and after the September 11 attacks, he returned to his former fire company to join the rescue efforts.
For several days, he worked shifts of up to 12 hours amid the rubble of the World Trade Center, taking part in the search for survivors and victims alongside other firefighters.
He did so without interviews, cameras, or trying to turn the gesture into a story about himself. In fact, for a long time, almost no one knew he had been there.
Years later, when photographs of him at Ground Zero began circulating, many people only then discovered that part of his story.
While the world knew him for his movies, during those days Steve Buscemi simply went back to helping out as he had done long before Hollywood.