Enoch "Nucky" Thompson was born around 1870 and raised in
Atlantic City,
New Jersey, the eldest child of a poor
Irish Catholic family. His father Ethan was an
abusive alcoholic who at one point scarred Nucky's hand with a fireplace poker. Nucky's sister Susan later died of
tuberculosis. As a child, Nucky began working for local
political boss Commodore Louis Kaestner (
Dabney Coleman), who became his mentor in politics. For a time, Nucky attended
New Jersey State Normal School in
Trenton and planned on becoming a teacher. However, he left college and returned to Atlantic City, working his way up the ladder to become the deputy sheriff in the Commodore's
political machine under the close watch of Sheriff Jacob Lindsay (
Boris McGiver). Nucky became sheriff after he arranged for the Commodore to
rape Gillian Darmody (
Gretchen Mol), who was only 13 years old at the time. Fifteen years prior to the series' timeline, Nucky lost his infant son, Enoch Jr., to
pneumonia, a tragedy that drove his wife, Mabel, to kill herself. Nucky helped raise
Jimmy Darmody (
Michael Pitt), the Commodore's son with Gillian, and pulled strings to get him into
Princeton University. He is disappointed when Jimmy drops out to enlist in
World War I, but still gives him a job as his personal driver after the war ends. When Jimmy finds out that Nucky enabled the Commodore to rape Gillian, 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. However, Jimmy conspires with Torrio's driver,
Al Capone (
Stephen Graham), to rob Nucky's shipment to Rothstein after the mobster takes Nucky's
casino for over $90,000. The heist ends in bloodshed as Jimmy and Capone kill Rothstein's men. Nucky gets Jimmy out of trouble, while privately reproaching him and banishing him from Atlantic City. 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). Nucky is immediately taken with her and gives her some money. However, Hans gambles the money away, and subsequently beats Margaret so badly that she
miscarries the child. and by the end of the season he informally adopts her children, Teddy and Emily. This creates tension between him and his former mistress, Lucy Danziger (
Paz de la Huerta). Margaret eventually learns the extent of Nucky's corruption, including his order to have Hans killed. She leaves him after they have a heated argument. Nucky suspects that the Commodore, Jimmy and Eli are plotting against him, a suspicion that is confirmed when his cronies defect to Jimmy's side. After the Commodore suffers a debilitating
stroke, Eli panics and goes to Nucky for help, but Nucky gets into a violent argument with his brother and disowns him. Shortly afterward, one of Jimmy's men makes an attempt on Nucky's life. Following his father's death, Nucky resigns as treasurer and tells Jimmy and the Commodore that they have won. It is a ruse, however; soon afterward, he sets in motion a plan to drive Jimmy and his partners out of business. He has his new driver, Owen Sleater (
Charlie Cox), blow up the warehouse containing Jimmy's alcohol, and persuades Chalky to instigate a
strike among the city's Black service workers, leaving the
speakeasies and restaurants too understaffed to serve alcohol. Nucky then travels with Owen to
Ireland to sell
Thompson machine guns to the
Irish Republican Army in exchange for Irish whiskey. Jimmy is left with no product or customers, while Nucky becomes the most powerful bootlegger in Atlantic City. By this time, the
U.S. Attorney's Office has found damning evidence of Nucky's crimes. Nucky gives Margaret temporary guardianship of a valuable piece of real estate so that she and the children will be taken care of should he go to prison. Emily contracts
polio, which Margaret believes is
divine retribution for their sins; Nucky tells her that he wants to marry her and become a better man, while admitting that marrying her would make her
unable to take the stand against him. The next day, Margaret sees him teaching Emily to walk in her leg braces and realizes that he loves her and her children. They get married that afternoon at Margaret's church. Jimmy meets with Nucky to apologize for his treason, offering to help. On Nucky's order, Jimmy and
Richard Harrow (
Jack Huston) kill Alderman James Neary (
Robert Clohessy), the prosecution's main witness. The U.S. Attorney's Office is forced to drop the charges. Nucky then visits Eli and makes him a deal: he will plead guilty to the voter fraud case and be sentenced to two years in prison, thus protecting Nucky from being charged again. That night, Nucky calls Jimmy and tells him that he has kidnapped Manny Horvitz (
William Forsythe), the man who killed Jimmy's wife Angela (
Aleksa Palladino). It is a trap, however, as Nucky actually plans to kill Jimmy as retaliation for an assassination attempt that Jimmy had ordered on him earlier in the season. Jimmy realizes that he's walking into a trap, and as such shows up to the meeting unarmed. Nucky's men hold him at gunpoint, and Nucky shoots him twice in the head, killing him. The feud escalates when Rosetti hijacks a convoy, killing eleven of Nucky's men. Rothstein sends
Benjamin Siegel (
Michael Zegen) to kill Rosetti, but the hit is unsuccessful. However, it does force Rosetti to flee Tabor Heights and go back to New York. Back home, Nucky's marriage to Margaret is now no more than a public show, and Nucky spends much of his time in
Manhattan with his mistress Billie Kent (
Meg Chambers Steedle). When Eli is released from prison, Nucky gives him a job in a liquor warehouse, but wants nothing to do with him personally. This changes when Eli tries and fails to stop one of Nucky's convoys from being ambushed by Rosetti's men. In
Washington, D. C., Daugherty plans to
indict Nucky for bootlegging to make him a scapegoat for the corruption charges facing the
Harding Administration. Nucky goes to
Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon (
James Cromwell) and convinces him to have
George Remus (
Glenn Fleshler) arrested in exchange for Nucky illegally running Mellon's distillery in
West Overton,
Pennsylvania. Remus has direct ties to Daugherty's accomplice
Jess Smith (Ed Jewett), causing further problems for Daugherty and leaving Nucky in the clear. Rosetti convinces Masseria to provide him with extra men to take over Atlantic City. 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. All three survive the explosion, but Billie is killed and Nucky is left with temporary
tinnitus. However, Luciano and Lansky alert Masseria to Nucky's attempted hit in exchange for Masseria financing their
heroin operation. 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. From Margaret's grief-stricken reaction to Owen's death, Nucky deduces that the two had been having an affair. Nucky narrowly escapes an attempt on his life by Masseria's men, killing his would-be assailants (although not before Eddie is wounded), and recruits Chalky and Capone to provide men to fight back against Rosetti. An all-out gang war ensues, with massive casualties on both sides. Rothstein tries to convince Masseria to end his support for Rosetti in exchange for Nucky giving up 99% of the profits from Mellon's distillery. The agreement is a trap, however; as part of his deal with Nucky, Mellon has Rothstein arrested. Chalky and Capone send their men to ambush and massacre Masseria's men as they are withdrawing from Atlantic City. Meanwhile, Harrow unexpectedly storms the Artemis Club, massacring Rosetti's men and managing to rescue Tommy Darmody, who is held at gunpoint. Rosetti and two of his men are able to escape. While searching the club afterwards, Nucky and Eli find Rosetti's right-hand man Tonino Sandrelli (Chris Caldovino) hiding in a closet, and get him to kill Rosetti in exchange for sparing his life. Nucky tries to reconcile with Margaret, who has left him and taken the children. Margaret rebuffs him, however, and refuses to accept money from him.
Season four In 1924, Nucky has made peace with Masseria and Rothstein, and is a silent partner in Chalky's nightclub on the Boardwalk. 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. He changes his mind and becomes part owner, unaware that McCoy has killed one of his investors. He also takes on Luciano and Lansky as partners in the distillery. While in Florida, he begins an affair with speakeasy owner Sally Wheet (
Patricia Arquette). Nucky's empire faces a new threat in
Bureau of Investigation Agent James Tolliver (
Brian Geraghty), who infiltrates his distribution network by posing as a corrupt Prohibition agent. Days later, Nucky has an uneasy reunion with Margaret and tells her of Eddie's death. Meanwhile, Nucky gets Eli's son Willie (
Ben Rosenfield) off a murder charge by framing his college roommate and
bribing the
Philadelphia district attorney. Tolliver finds out the truth, however, and tells Eli he will put Willie in prison unless he informs on Nucky. Eli becomes Tolliver's spy, and arranges for Nucky to attend a meeting with Masseria in which both will be arrested. Chalky asks for Nucky's backing in a war with heroin kingpin
Valentin Narcisse (
Jeffrey Wright). Nucky refuses to get involved, but Chalky becomes more insistent after Narcisse tries to kill him and brutalizes his mistress, Daughter Maitland (Margot Bingham). Nucky learns that Lansky is smuggling Narcisse's heroin on Masseria's orders and meets with Masseria and Narcisse in order to get his cut of the profits. Nucky orders Bader to have two sheriff's deputies drive Chalky to Philadelphia, but Bader is now supporting Narcisse and orders the deputies to kill Chalky. They fail, however, and Chalky shows up at Nucky's door demanding answers. The hit goes awry, and Harrow and Chalky's daughter are killed. When Eli kills Tolliver, Nucky sends him to
Chicago under Capone's protection and goes to Cuba with Sally. 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. He has Siegel kidnapped to force a meeting with Luciano and Lansky, who kidnap Willie in retaliation. At the meeting, Luciano threatens to kill Willie. Desperate to save his nephew, Nucky gives Luciano control of his empire in Atlantic City and arranges to have Maranzano killed. That night, he receives a letter from Gillian, who is now in a
sanitorium, begging him for help. In the
series finale, Nucky
short sells Mayflower's stock with Margaret's help, and he makes a huge profit. He plans to leave Atlantic City forever, and says goodbye to Eli, leaving him with a bag of money. He refuses to help Gillian get out of the sanatorium but offers to establish a
trust fund for her should she get out on her own. On Nucky's last night in Atlantic City, he gets a call from the police, who have arrested Harper. Nucky bails him out and offers to give him money, but Harper angrily rejects the gesture. Hours later, Harper confronts Nucky and reveals who he truly is; Tommy Darmody, Jimmy Darmody's son and Gillian's grandson. Tommy accuses Nucky of betraying Gillian and guns him down. Nucky dies as
IRS agents, who had followed him the entire evening, identify themselves and arrest Tommy. The arrival of the agents is a reference to the eventual fate of the real Enoch Johnson, who was imprisoned in 1941 on
tax evasion charges. ==Casting==