Harvey Keitel Biography

Harvey Keitel (born May 13, 1939) is an American actor and producer. Some of his most notable starring roles were in Martin Scorsese's Mean Streets and Taxi Driver, Ridley Scott's The Duellists and Thelma & Louise, Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, Jane Campion's The Piano, Abel Ferrara's Bad Lieutenant, James Mangold's Cop Land and playing the devil in Little Nicky. Along with actors Al Pacino and Ellen Burstyn, he is the current co-president of the Actors Studio, considered "the nation's most prestigious acting school".

Early life

Keitel ( ) was born in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, the son of Miriam (née Klein) and Harry Keitel, Jewish immigrants from Romania and Poland. His parents owned and ran a luncheonette and his father also worked as a hat maker.

Keitel grew up in the Brighton Beach section of Brooklyn, with his sister, Renee, and brother, Jerry. He attended Abraham Lincoln High School. At the age of sixteen, he decided to join the United States Marine Corps, a decision that took him to Lebanon, during Operation Blue Bat. After his return to the United States, he was a court reporter for several years and was able to support himself before beginning his acting career.

Career

Keitel studied under both Stella Adler and Lee Strasberg and at the HB Studio, eventually landing roles in some Off-Broadway productions. During this time, Keitel auditioned for filmmaker Martin Scorsese and gained a starring role as "J.R.", in Scorsese's first feature film, Who's That Knocking at My Door (1967). Since then, Scorsese and Keitel have worked together on several projects. Keitel had the starring role in Scorsese's Mean Streets, which also proved to be Robert De Niro's breakthrough film. He later appeared with De Niro in Taxi Driver, playing the role of Jodie Foster's pimp.

Cast as Captain Willard in Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now, Keitel was involved with the first week of principal photography in the Philippines. Coppola was not happy with Keitel's take on Willard, stating that the actor "found it difficult to play him a passive onlooker". After viewing the first week's footage, Coppola made the difficult decision to replace Keitel with a casting session favorite, Martin Sheen.

Keitel drifted into obscurity through most of the 1980s. He continued to do work on both stage and screen, but usually in the stereotypical role of a thug. In 1987 he again worked with Scorsese as Judas in The Last Temptation of Christ. Ridley Scott cast Keitel as the sympathetic policeman in Thelma & Louise in 1991. That same year, he landed a role in Bugsy, for which he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor, then played another mobster, Deloris's gangster ex-boyfriend Vince LaRocca in Sister Act several months later. Keitel starred in Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs (which he co-produced) in 1992, where his performance as "Mr. White" took his career to a different level. Since then, Keitel has chosen his roles with care, seeking to change his image and show off a broader acting range. One of those roles was the title character in Bad Lieutenant, about a self-loathing, drug- addicted police lieutenant trying to redeem himself. He also appeared in the movie The Piano in 1993, and played an efficient clean-up expert Winston "The Wolf" Wolfe in Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction. In 1996 he did a major role in Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez's film, From Dusk Till Dawn, and in 1997 he starred in the crime drama Cop Land, which also starred Sylvester Stallone, Ray Liotta, and Robert De Niro.

His later roles include the fatherly Satan in Little Nicky, a wise Navy man in U-571, diligent F.B.I. Special agent Sadusky in National Treasure, and the latter's sequel National Treasure: Book of Secrets. In 1999, Keitel was replaced by Sydney Pollack on the set of Eyes Wide Shut, due to shooting conflicts. He has shown a willingness to help other start-up filmmakers by appearing in their first feature film. He did this not only for Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino, but also Ridley Scott (The Duellists), Paul Schrader (Blue Collar), James Toback (Fingers), and Tony Bui (Three Seasons).

In 2002 at the 24th Moscow International Film Festival, Keitel was honored with the Stanislavsky Award for the outstanding achievement in the career of acting and devotion to the principles of Stanislavsky's school.

He also appeared in the Steinlager Pure commercials in New Zealand in 2007. Unlike many American male actors, Keitel has appeared nude in several films, including full frontal nudity in Bad Lieutenant and The Piano.

In January 2008, Keitel played Jerry Springer in the New York City premiere of Jerry Springer: The Opera at Carnegie Hall. In 2008, Keitel was cast in the role of Detective Gene Hunt in ABC's short-lived US cover version of the successful English time-travel police drama series Life on Mars.

In June 2009, he made a cameo appearance in the Jay-Z video for "D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune)", a nod to his Brooklyn origins.

Personal life

Keitel was formerly in a long-term relationship with actress Lorraine Bracco. He married actress Daphna Kastner in 2001. Keitel is the father of three children: daughter Stella (born 1985) from his relationship with Bracco; son Hudson (born 2001) from his relationship with Lisa Karmazin; and son Roman (born 2004) from his marriage to Kastner. He is a godfather of close friend Michael Madsen's son Max.

Recurring directors

Keitel has worked with a wide list of reputable directors. Along his 40 year long career, Keitel has established a solid collaboration with some directors such as: Martin Scorsese (5), Paul Auster (3), Quentin Tarantino (3), James Toback (3), Jane Campion (2), Abel Ferrara (2), Brad Mirman (2), Manuel Pradal (2), Alan Rudolph (2), Ridley Scott (2), Jon Turteltaub (2), and Wayne Wang (2). Moreover, Keitel has worked for other acclaimed directors such as: Theodoros Angelopoulos, Dario Argento, Luc Besson, Fernando Colomo, Brian De Palma, Stanley Donen, Philip Kaufman, Spike Lee, Barry Levinson, Jack Nicholson, Robert Rodriguez, George A. Romero, Paul Schrader, Ettore Scola, Luis Sepúlveda, István Szabó and Bertrand Tavernier; and for TV productions with Stephen Frears, Clint Eastwood, and Joel Schumacher.

Filmography

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1967	Who's That Knocking at My Door	J.R.
	Reflections in a Golden Eye	Soldier	Uncredited
1973	Mean Streets	Charlie
1974	A Memory of Two Mondays (TV)	Jerry
	Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore	Ben
1975	That's the Way of the World	Coleman Buckmaster
1976	Taxi Driver	'Sport' Matthew	Nominated: National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actor (2nd place) Nominated: New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actor (2nd place)
	Buffalo Bill and the Indians	Ed Goodman
	Mother, Jugs & Speed	Tony "Speed" Malatesta
1978	Blue Collar	Jerry Bartowski
	The Duellists	Feraud
	Fingers	Jimmy Fingers
1979	Eagle's Wing	Henry
	Death Watch	Roddy
1980	Bad Timing	Inspector Netusil
	Saturn 3	Benson
1982	That Night in Varennes	Thomas Paine
	The Border	Cat
1983	Exposed	Rivas
	Copkiller	Lt. Fred O'Connor
1984	Falling in Love	Ed Lasky
	Nemo	Mr. Legend
1985	El caballero del dragon (The Knight of the Dragon)	Clever	Spanish film
1986	Blindside	Penfield Gruber
	Camorra (A Story of Streets, Women and Crime)	Frankie
	The Inquiry	Pontius Pilate
	Off Beat	Mickey
	Wise Guys	Bobby DiLea
	The Men's Club	Solly Berliner
1987	The Pick-up Artist	Alonzo Scolara
1988	Down Where The Buffalo Go	Carl	BBC TV Movie
	The Last Temptation of Christ	Judas Iscariot	Nominated: Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actor
	Grandi cacciatori	Thomas
	Dear Gorbachev	Nikolaj Bucharin
1989	The January Man	Police Commissioner Frank Starkey
	Imagining America
1990	The Two Jakes	Julius 'Jake' Berman
	Two Evil Eyes	Roderick Usher	Segment "The Black Cat"
1991	Thelma & Louise	Hal	Won: National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actor
	Mortal Thoughts	Det. John Woods	Won: National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actor
	Bugsy	Mickey Cohen	Won: Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actor Won: National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actor Nominated: Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor Nominated: Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor " Motion Picture
1992	Bad Lieutenant	The Lieutenant	Won: Fantasporto's International Fantasy Film Award for Best Actor Won: Independent Spirit Award for Best Male Lead Nominated: New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor (2nd place)
	Reservoir Dogs	Mr. White " Larry Dimmick	Also co-producer Won: Sant Jordi Award for Best Foreign Actor
	Sister Act	Vince LaRocca
1993	Rising Sun	Lt. Tom Graham
	Dangerous Game	Eddie Israel	Won: Venice Film Festival - Golden Ciak for Best Actor
	Point of No Return	Victor the Cleaner
	The Piano	George Baines	Won: Australian Film Institute Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role
	Young Americans	John Harris
1994	Imaginary Crimes	Ray Weiler
	Pulp Fiction	Winston 'The Wolf' Wolfe
	Monkey Trouble	Azro
1995	Get Shorty	Himself	Uncredited
	Smoke	Augustus 'Auggie' Wren	Won: Berlin International Film Festival's Special Jury Prize (shared with Wayne Wang) Won: David di Donatello for Best Foreign Actor Nominated: Chlotrudis Award for Best Actor
	Ulysses' Gaze	A
	Blue in the Face	Auggie Wren	Also executive producer
	Clockers	Det. Rocco Klein
1996	From Dusk till Dawn	Jacob Fuller	Nominated: Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor
	Head Above Water	George
1997	FairyTale: A True Story	Harry Houdini
	Cop Land	Ray Donlan
	City of Industry	Roy Egan
1998	Finding Graceland	Elvis
	Gunslinger's Revenge (Il mio West)	Johnny Lowen
	Shadrach	Vernon
	Lulu on the Bridge	Izzy Maurer
1999	Three Seasons	James Hager	Also executive producer
	Holy Smoke!	PJ Waters
	Presence of Mind	The Master
2000	Prince of Central Park	The Guardian
	U-571	CPO Henry Klough	Nominated: Blockbuster Entertainment Award for Favorite Supporting Actor - Action
	Little Nicky	Satan
2001	Nailed	Tony Romano
	The Grey Zone	SS-Oberscharführer Eric Muhsfeldt	Also executive producer
	Taking Sides	Major Steve Arnold
2002	Red Dragon	Jack Crawford
	Ginostra	Matt Benson
2003	Crime Spree	Frankie Zammeti
	Dreaming of Julia	Che	Also producer
	The Galindez File	Edward Robards
2004	National Treasure	Agent Peter Sadusky
	The Bridge of San Luis Rey	Uncle Pio
	Puerto Vallarta Squeeze	Walter McGrane
2005	Be Cool	Nick Carr
	A Crime	Roger Culkin
	Shadows in the Sun	Weldon Parish
2006	The Path to 9/11	John O'Neill
	Arthur and the Minimoys	Miro	Voice
	The Stone Merchant	The Merchant Ludovico Vicedomini
2007	One Last Dance	Terrtano
	My Sexiest Year	Zowie
	National Treasure: Book of Secrets	Agent Peter Sadusky
2008	The Ministers	Detective Joseph Bruno
2008-2009	Life on Mars (TV)	Lieutenant Gene Hunt	Nominated: Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actor " Series, Miniseries or Television Film
2009	Inglourious Basterds	Allied Commanding Officer	Voice/Uncredited
	Chaos
	Wrong Turn at Tahoe	Nino
2010	Little Fockers	Randy Weir
	A Beginner's Guide to Endings	Duke White
	The Last Godfather	Don Carini
2012	Moonrise Kingdom	Commander Pierce
	Gandhi of the Month	Edward Baker	Previously titled: Against Itself
2013	God Only Knows		Filming
2014	The Grand Budapest Hotel		Announced
TBA	Enemy Way		Post-production