The drama, which HBO hopes will fill the void left by The Sopranos, stars Steve Buscemi as politico and gangster Enoch "Nucky" Thompson, whose dirty hands and iron fist rule Prohibition-era Atlantic City.
Topham, an English fireplug who was five feet ten and weighed two hundred pounds, could bend iron pokers with his bare hands, roll pewter dishes into cannoli, and win a tug-of-war with a horse.