Cast and Crew

Creator: More at IMDbPro

Leading Role: Steve Buscemi, Kelly Macdonald and Michael Pitt

Summary of Boardwalk Empire Seasons 1-4 DVD Box Set

 Nucky was born and raised in New Jersey, the eldest child of a poor Irish Catholic family. The episode Home establishes that he had a troubled childhood: His father, Ethan Thompson, abused him, at one point scarring Nucky's hand with a fireplace poker, and his sister Susan died of tuberculosis. The episode A Return to Normalcy, meanwhile, reveals that, 15 years before the series' timeline, Nucky Lost his infant son, Enoch Jr., to pneumonia, a tragedy that drove his wife, Mabel, to commit suicide.

Nucky was mentored in politics by his predecessor, Commodore Louis Kaestner, and helped raise the Commodore's son Jimmy Darmody, providing the boy with the guidance he lacked from his indifferent father and pulling strings to get him into Princeton University. Nucky is disappointed when Jimmy drops out of college to enlist in World War I, but still gives him a job as his personal driver after the war ends. In the episode "A Return to Normalcy", Jimmy finds out that Nucky arranged for the Commodore to have sex with his mother, Gillian Darmody, who was only 13 at the time. This creates a rift between them that sets the stage for a major conflict in season two.