Young ‘Bugsy’ in Boardwalk Empire Season Two

HBO announced this week that mobster, Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel will show up in their second season and will be portrayed by “Rescue Me” actor, Michael Zegen.

Zegen’s role will be “recurring” and is described as “a tough, smart urban kid” and an “aspiring Jewish gangster.” He will be called “Benny” as opposed to “Bugsy” since they’re saying the nickname didn’t surface until the late 1930s.

But, just as in the case of Charlie “Lucky” Luciano’s nickname, there are conflicting reports as to when, how and why Bugsy Siegel acquired the crazy insect nickname.

In his book, Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America’s Most Powerful Mafia Empires, Selwyn Raab writes:

“On the Lower East Side, [Benjamin] Siegel and [Meyer] Lansky’s pack of hoodlums were called schtarkers, Yiddish for strongmen or tough guys, and became recognized as the “Bug and Meyer Gang.” The gang protected crap games run by Lansky and and Siegel, and rode shotgun to prevent hijackings of shipments of beer and liquor during Prohibition.

“Siegel supposedly acquired his nickname when a judge reviewing charges of a savage street fight, commented, “You boys have bugs in your head.” Throughout their alliance, Lansky was viewed as the inventive idea man and the combustible-tempered Siegel was feared for his reckless violence. Anyone who dared call him “Bugsy” to his face might get punched out and kicked in the ribs, often with the warning: “The name is Ben Siegel. Don’t you ever forget it.”

Also keep in mind that Bugsy Siegel was born in 1906 (as Benjamin Siegelbaum) and therefore was only 14 when Prohibition went into effect in 1919, but this in fact was the tender age at which the Brooklyn-born street kid began his life of crime. By the time Prohibition ended, he was 27 years old.

Other actors who have portrayed Bugsy Siegel are Harvey Keitel in “Virginia Hill: Mistress to the Mob” (1974); Joe Penny in “The Gangster Chronicles” (1981); Armand Assante in “The Marrying Man’ and Warren Beatty in “Bugsy,” both in 1991, and Richard Grieco also played him in “Mobsters” that year. In 1999, Eric Roberts played Siegel in the TV movie “Lansky.”

HBO is currently filming the second season of Boardwalk Empire, which is set to begin airing in the fall of 2011.