Enoch Malachi[1] "Nucky" Thompson is a fictional character and the protagonist of the HBO TV series Boardwalk Empire, portrayed by Steve Buscemi.

Throughout the series he is portrayed as a Machiavellian politician who makes his henchmen do the dirty work, while showing a more humane side to his friends and family.

Enoch "Nucky" Thompson was born around 1870 and raised in Atlantic City, New Jersey, the eldest child of a poor Irish Catholic family.

[6][7] Fifteen years prior to the series' timeline, Nucky lost his infant son, Enoch Jr., to pneumonia, a tragedy that drove his wife, Mabel, to commit suicide.

[8] Nucky helped raise Jimmy Darmody (Michael Pitt), the Commodore's son with Gillian, and pulled strings to get him into Princeton University.

In the pilot episode, set the day before Prohibition is to take effect, Nucky – despite publicly supporting the ban of alcohol – conspires with other local politicians to profit from a bootlegging scheme.

[9] Nucky makes a deal with mobsters Arnold Rothstein (Michael Stuhlbarg), Lucky Luciano (Vincent Piazza) and Johnny Torrio (Greg Antonacci) to let them purchase his seaborne liquor shipments exclusively.

[11] The truck heist also leads to Nucky being put under investigation by Nelson Van Alden (Michael Shannon), an agent from the Bureau of Prohibition who suspects he knows more about the hijacking than he admits.

Nucky meets Margaret Schroeder (Kelly Macdonald), a pregnant member of the Women's Temperance League who seeks work for her abusive husband, Hans (Joseph Sikora).

[7] When Margaret finds out that Nucky had lost a child, however, she meets with him to express her sympathy, and he tells her that the time he spent with her and her children was the happiest of his life.

They first make their move by lynching a driver of Northside gangster Chalky White (Michael K. Williams), one of Nucky's partners.

[11] Nucky is forced to demote Eli while the heat blows over, and while he eventually reinstates his brother, their relationship is badly strained.

As Nucky rings in the new year of 1921 with Margaret at his side, Jimmy, Eli and the Commodore conspire to overthrow him and take over Atlantic City.

[8] A few months later, Nucky is arrested for voter fraud concerning his behind-the-scenes role in the election of Mayor Edward L. Bader (Kevin O'Rourke), with corruption and murder charges soon to follow.

Emily contracts polio, which Margaret believes is divine retribution for their sins;[18] she considers cleansing her soul by testifying against Nucky, which would send him to the electric chair.

On Nucky's order, Jimmy and Richard Harrow (Jack Huston) kill Alderman James Neary (Robert Clohessy), the prosecution's main witness.

[21] At the start of 1923, Nucky faces trouble from Gyp Rosetti (Bobby Cannavale), a New York gangster who works for Joe Masseria (Ivo Nandi).

Infuriated, Rosetti takes over Tabor Heights, a small town on the road between Atlantic City and New York where convoys stop for gas.

[24] In Washington, D. C., Daugherty plans to indict Nucky for bootlegging to make him a scapegoat for the corruption charges facing the Harding Administration.

Acting on a tip from Gillian, who wants revenge for Jimmy's murder, Rosetti bombs Nucky's favorite restaurant in order to kill him, Rothstein and Luciano.

[25] Nucky organizes a meeting with the East Coast crime bosses to seek support for killing both Rosetti and Masseria.

As Owen enters a Turkish bathhouse to murder Masseria, the crime lord's men ambush and kill him and shipped back to Nucky in a crate.

Meanwhile, Harrow unexpectedly storms the Artemis Club, massacring Rosetti's men and managing to rescue Tommy Darmody, who is held at gunpoint.

He travels to Tampa, Florida to look into investing in a distillery run by Bill McCoy (Pearce Bunting), but rejects the deal, believing the location is too high-profile.

[34] Meanwhile, Nucky gets Eli's son Willie (Ben Rosenfield) off a murder charge by framing his college roommate and bribing the Philadelphia district attorney.

Nucky refuses to get involved, but Chalky becomes more insistent after Narcisse tries to kill him and brutalizes his mistress, Daughter Maitland (Margot Bingham).

[38] In 1931, Nucky travels between Cuba, New York and New Jersey, planning to go into the legal liquor business in anticipation of the end of Prohibition.

[40] Nucky goes back to Atlantic City, where he befriends a bellboy named Joe Harper (Travis Tope), who reminds him of himself as a young man.

[40] Nucky goes to meet with Maranzano, in hopes of joining forces with him against Luciano, but he ends up surviving another attempt on his life, this time backed by his old friend Torrio.

Desperate to save his nephew, Nucky gives Luciano control of his empire in Atlantic City and arranges to have Maranzano killed.