Harvey Keitel
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| Harvey Keitel | |
 Harvey Keitel in Clockers (1995) |
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| Birth name | Harvey Johannes Keitel[1] |
| Born | May 13, 1939 (age 67) Brooklyn, New York, United States |
| Notable roles | Charlie Cappa in Mean Streets Mickey Cohen in Bugsy "Sport" Matthew in Taxi Driver Mr. White in Reservoir Dogs Judas Iscariot in The Last Temptation of Christ George Baines in The Piano Winston Wolf in Pulp Fiction |
Harvey Keitel (born May 13, 1939) is an Academy Award-nominated American actor based in New York City.
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[edit] Biography
[edit] Early life
The son of Harry Keitel and Miriam Klein, Jewish immigrants from Poland and Romania [2], Keitel was born in Brooklyn, New York and grew up in the Brighton Beach section of Brooklyn with his sister, Renee, and brother, Jerry. At the age of sixteen, Keitel decided to join the United States Marine Corps, a decision that took him to Lebanon. After his return to the United States, he was a court reporter and was able to support himself before beginning his acting career.
[edit] Career
As a younger adult in New York City, before becoming a famous actor, Harvey Keitel was a free-lance court reporter.
Keitel studied under both Stella Adler and Lee Strasberg, eventually landing roles in some off-Broadway productions. During this time, Keitel met another struggling filmmaker named Martin Scorsese and gained a part in Scorsese's student production, Who's That Knocking at My Door. Since then both Scorsese and Keitel have worked together on numerous projects. Keitel had the starring role in Scorsese's Mean Streets but this proved to be Robert De Niro's breakthrough film. He later appeared with De Niro in Taxi Driver, playing the pimp Matthew for Jodie Foster's character of Iris.
Originally, Keitel was to have played the role of Captain Willard in Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now. However, he was fired early in the production and replaced by Martin Sheen. After this, it was many years before he would be able to get anything other than minor roles. At the end of the 1970s, Keitel was mostly working in European films for directors such as Ridley Scott, usually in sinister character parts.
Throughout the 1980s, Keitel continued to find plenty of work on both stage and screen, but was usually in the stereotypical role of a thug. This role reached its zenith when Keitel starred in Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs in 1992, where his performance as "Mr. White" relaunched his semi-slumping career. Ridley Scott also helped Keitel by casting him as the sympathetic policeman in Thelma and Louise in 1991. That same year he landed a role in Bugsy, for which he obtained an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Since then, Keitel has chosen his roles with care, seeking to change his image and show off a broader acting range. His decision to co-star in Jane Campion's The Piano marks the approximate beginning of this phase of Keitel's career. In 1997, he starred in the crime drama, Cop Land. It starred Sylvester Stallone, Ray Liotta and for the third time, Robert De Niro. Later roles include an efficient cleanup expert Winston Wolf in Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction, the fatherly Satan in Little Nicky, a wise navy man in U-571 and a diligent F.B.I. agent in National Treasure. In 1999, Keitel was replaced with Sydney Pollack on the set of Eyes Wide Shut due to scheduling conflicts. Keitel then came to great notoriety for his performance in The Bad Lieutenant. He has also shown a willingness to help other startup 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 (Yellow Lotus).
Unlike many American male actors who either never appear nude in film or only do so once, Harvey Keitel has appeared in several films nude, including full frontal nudity.
[edit] Personal life
Keitel was formerly married to actress Lorraine Bracco. He married Daphna Kastner in 2001. Keitel is the father of three children: daughter Stella (born 1985) from his marriage to Bracco; son Hudson (born 2001) from his relationship with Lisa Karmazin; and son Roman (born 2003) from his marriage to Kastner.
[edit] Selected filmography
- Who's That Knocking at My Door (1967)
- Mean Streets (1973)
- Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974)
- A Memory of Two Mondays (1974)
- Taxi Driver (1976)
- Mother, Jugs & Speed (1976)
- Blue Collar (1978)
- The Duellists (1978)
- Fingers (1978)
- Bad Timing (1980)
- Saturn 3 (1980)
- Deathwatch (1981)
- Corrupt (1981)
- That Night in Varennes (1982)
- Exposed (1983)
- The Pick-up Artist (1987)
- The Last Temptation of Christ (1988)
- The January Man (1989)
- Thelma and Louise (1991)
- Bugsy (1991)
- Bad Lieutenant (1992)
- Reservoir Dogs (1992)
- Sister Act (1992)
- Rising Sun (1993)
- The Piano (1993)
- Young Americans (1993)
- Imaginary Crimes (1994)
- Pulp Fiction (1994)
- Get Shorty (uncredited)) (1995)
- Smoke (1995)
- Ulysses' Gaze (1995)
- Blue in the Face (1995)
- Clockers (1995)
- From Dusk Till Dawn (1996)
- Cop Land (1997)
- City of Industry (1997)
- Finding Graceland (1998)
- Shadrach (1998)
- Lulu on the Bridge (1998)
- Three Seasons (1999)
- Holy Smoke! (1999)
- Presence of Mind (1999)
- Prince of Central Park (2000)
- U-571 (2000)
- Little Nicky (2000)
- Taking Sides (2001)
- Red Dragon (2002)
- Crime Spree (2003)
- Dreaming of Julia (2003)
- National Treasure (2004)
- The Bridge of San Luis Rey (2004)
- Be Cool (2005)
- A Crime (2005)
- The Path to 9/11 (2006)
- One Last Dance (2007)
- Arn (2007)
- National Treasure: The Book of Secrets (2007)
[edit] Books about Keitel
- You Shoot Me in a Dream, You Better Wake Up and Apologize: The Films of Harvey Keitel by Glenn Salter, David Shaw and Craig Proctor (Toronto, Salter Press, 1994)
The title is taken from one of his lines in Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs.
[edit] Trivia
- Harvey Keitel is not related to Wilhelm Keitel.
- Harvey played the role of Elvis in the filmFinding Gracelandin which he impersonates Elvis. Harvey's technical advisor for that performance was Elvis Tribute Artist Grova of Ringwood, NJ.
- In Red Dragon (2002), he plays a character originally played by Dennis Farina in Manhunter (1986). In Get Shorty, Keitel plays Farina's character in the movie within the movie.
