Harvey Keitel

Harvey Johannes Keitel (/kaɪˈtɛl/ ky-TEL; born May 13, 1939) is an American actor and producer. Known for his portrayal of morally ambiguous and "tough guy" characters, he rose to prominence during the New Hollywood movement.

Keitel has long been associated with Martin Scorsese, starring in six Scorsese films: Who's That Knocking at My Door (1967), Mean Streets (1973), Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974), Taxi Driver (1976), The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), and The Irishman (2019). He is also known for his roles in the Quentin Tarantino films Reservoir Dogs (1992) and Pulp Fiction (1994) and the Wes Anderson films Moonrise Kingdom (2012), The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014), and Isle of Dogs (2018).

Keitel's role as Mickey Cohen in Bugsy (1991) earned him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, while The Piano (1993) won him the AACTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role. Other notable films include Blue Collar (1978), Thelma & Louise (1991), Bad Lieutenant (1992), Sister Act (1992), Imaginary Crimes (1994), From Dusk till Dawn (1996), Cop Land (1997), Holy Smoke! (1998), U-571 (2000), Red Dragon (2002), National Treasure (2004), National Treasure: Book of Secrets (2007), and Youth (2015).

Keitel was one of the co-presidents of the Actors Studio from 1995 to 2017.

Early life

Harvey Johannes Keitel was born in the Brooklyn borough of New York City on May 13, 1939, the son of Jewish immigrants Miriam (née Klein; 1911–1987) and Harry Keitel (1904–2000). His mother was Romanian and his father was Polish. His parents owned and ran a luncheonette, and his father also worked as a hat maker.

He grew up with his older sister Renee and older brother Jerry in Brooklyn's Brighton Beach neighborhood. He attended Abraham Lincoln High School and enlisted in the Marines at the age of 16. After his discharge, he worked as a court stenographer for around ten years 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 (1973), which also proved to be Robert De Niro's breakthrough film. Keitel re-teamed with Scorsese for Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974), in which he had a villainous supporting role, and appeared with Robert De Niro again in Scorsese's Taxi Driver (1976), playing the role of Jodie Foster's character's pimp. Between those, he portrayed Bugsy Siegel in the 1974 TV movie Virginia Hill starring Dyan Cannon.

In 1977 and 1978, Keitel starred in the directorial debuts of Paul Schrader (Blue Collar, co-starring Richard Pryor and Yaphet Kotto), Ridley Scott (The Duellists, co-starring Keith Carradine), and James Toback (Fingers, in which Keitel played a street hood with aspirations of being a pianist – a role Toback wrote for Robert De Niro to play).

He was originally cast as Captain Willard in Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now (1979). 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 as a passive onlooker". After viewing the first week's footage, Coppola replaced Keitel with a casting session favorite, Martin Sheen.

Keitel continued to do work on both stage and screen in the 1980s, often in the stereotypical role of a thug. Keitel played a corrupt police officer in the 1983 thriller Copkiller (co-starring musician John Lydon), before taking a supporting role in the romantic drama Falling in Love (1984), starring Robert De Niro and Meryl Streep.

Between 1985 and 1988, he was one of the busiest character actors around, appearing in 16 films and telefilms, including Brian De Palma's mobster comedy Wise Guys (1986), starring Danny DeVito and Joe Piscopo, and as Judas in Martin Scorsese's controversial The Last Temptation of Christ (1988).

Keitel co-starred with Jack Nicholson in the Chinatown sequel The Two Jakes (1990), directed by Nicholson. Ridley Scott cast Keitel as the sympathetic policeman in Thelma & Louise in 1991; that same year, Keitel landed a role in Barry Levinson's Bugsy, for which he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.

The following year, Keitel played another mobster in the Whoopi Goldberg-starring comedy Sister Act which was a commercial success at the box office.

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 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 co-starred in the Jane Campion film The Piano in 1993, and played Winston "The Wolf" Wolf in Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction, an apparent reprise of his Victor the Cleaner character from 1993's Point of No Return. Keitel starred as a police detective in Spike Lee's Clockers (an adaptation of Richard Price's novel, co-produced by Martin Scorsese).

In 1996, Keitel had 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.

Keitel's later roles include the fatherly Satan in Little Nicky, a wise Navy man in U-571, diligent FBI 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 Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut as he quit after doing 68 takes for a scene of his character walking through the door, and appeared in Tony Bui's award-winning directorial debut, Three Seasons (which Keitel also executive produced). Keitel also re-teamed with Jane Campion for Holy Smoke! (co-starring Kate Winslet).

In 2001 Keitel played opposite roles: as a U.S. Army denazification investigator in the film Taking Sides and as SS-Oberscharführer Erich Muhsfeldt in the film The Grey Zone. In 2002, at the 24th Moscow International Film Festival, Keitel was honored with the Stanislavsky Award for his 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.

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

In 2013, he appeared in a music video for "Pretty Hurts" by Beyoncé. In 2013, he starred in the independent film A Farewell to Fools.

Between 2014 and early 2020, he reprised his role of Winston Wolf from Pulp Fiction as part of a £40 million television advertising campaign for British insurance company Direct Line. In 2021, he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Newport Beach Film Festival. In 2022, Keitel starred in Steven Brand's noir thriller Joe Baby alongside Dichen Lachman, Willa Fitzgerald and Ron Perlman.

Keitel has recently collaborated with Wes Anderson acting in minor roles in his films Moonrise Kingdom (2012), The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014), and Isle of Dogs (2018). He reunited with Martin Scorsese after 30 years appearing as Philadelphia crime family acting boss Angelo Bruno in his gangster movie The Irishman (2019) alongside Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci.

He reprised his role FBI Agent Peter Sadusky in the recent Disney+ series National Treasure: Edge of History (2022).

Personal life

From 1982 to 1993, Keitel was in a relationship with American actress Lorraine Bracco, which ended acrimoniously and triggered a prolonged custody battle over their daughter Stella (born 1985). He dated American potter Lisa Marie Karmazin from 2000 to 2001, after they met in Israel. They have a son named Hudson (born 2001), with whom Keitel does not have any relationship. Karmazin took Keitel to court for child support, and he settled in 2004.

Keitel reconnected with Canadian actress Daphna Kastner at the Toronto Film Festival in September 2001, having gone on a date with her in the 1980s before they lost contact. They married three weeks later in Jerusalem. Their son, Roman (born 2004), is also an actor.

In July 2017, Keitel became an honorary citizen of Romania's Maramureș County, from where his mother hailed.

Filmography

Film

• † — Denotes films that have not yet been released

Television

• Hogan's Heroes — German Soldier — UncreditedEpisode: "The Great Impersonation"
• Dark Shadows — Blue Whale customer — Uncredited2 episodes
• N.Y.P.D. — Ramby — Episode: "Case of the Shady Lady"
• Great Performances — Jerry — Episode: "A Memory of Two Mondays"
• Kojak — Jerry Talaba — Episode: "Siege of Terror"
• The F.B.I. — Ernie — Episode: "Deadly Ambition"
• A Memory of Two Mondays — Jerry — Television film
• Virginia Hill — Bugsy Siegel — Television film
• La bella Otero — Ernest Jurgens — Television film
• Amazing Stories — Byron Sullivan — Episode: "Vanessa in the Garden"
• The Ellen Burstyn Show — Frank Tanner — Episode: "Reading Between the Lines"
• The Play on One — Carl — Episode: "Down Where the Buffalo Go"
• This Ain't Bebop — Television short
• Saturday Night Live — Himself (host) — Episode: "Harvey Keitel/Madonna"
• Fail Safe — Brigadier General Warren A. Black — Television film
• Saturday Night Live — Siegfried — Episode: "Robert De Niro/Norah Jones"
• The Path to 9/11 — John O'Neill — 2 episodes
• Life on Mars — Lieutenant Gene Hunt — 17 episodes
• Fatal Honeymoon — Tommy Thomas — Television film
• Inside Amy Schumer — Proposition Man — Episode: "Fame"
• Mike — Cus D'Amato — 2 episodes
• 2022 — National Treasure: Edge of History — FBI Agent Peter Sadusky — Episode: "I'm a Ghost"
• The Tattooist of Auschwitz — Older Lale Sokolov — 6 episodes

Theatre

• 1975 — Death of a Salesman — Happy — Circle in the Square, Broadway
• 1984 — Hurlyburly — Phil — Goodman Theatre, Chicago
• 1984–1985 — Hurlyburly — Phil — Ethel Barrymore Theatre, Broadway
• 1985 — A Lie of the Mind — Jake — McGinn/Cazale Theatre, Off-Broadway
• 1986 — Goose and Tomtom — Bingo — Lincoln Center, New York
• 2008 — Jerry Springer: The Opera — Jerry Springer — Carnegie Hall Playhouse, New York

Awards and nominations

• 1973 — National Society of Film Critics Award — Best Supporting Actor — Mean Streets — Nominated
• 1976 — National Society of Film Critics Award — Best Supporting Actor — Taxi Driver — 2nd place
• 1976 — New York Film Critics Circle Awards — Best Supporting Actor — Taxi Driver — 2nd place
• 1991 — National Society of Film Critics Award — Best Supporting Actor — Mortal Thoughts — Won
• 1991 — National Society of Film Critics Award — Best Supporting Actor — Thelma & Louise — Won
• 1991 — Academy Award — Best Supporting Actor — Bugsy — Nominated
• 1991 — Golden Globe Award — Best Supporting Actor - Motion Picture — Bugsy — Nominated
• 1991 — Chicago Film Critics Association — Best Supporting Actor — Bugsy — Won
• 1991 — National Society of Film Critics Award — Best Supporting Actor — Bugsy — Won
• 1992 — Sant Jordi Award — Best Foreign Actor — Reservoir Dogs — Won
• 1992 — Independent Spirit Award — Best Male Lead — Bad Lieutenant — Won
• 1992 — New York Film Critics Circle — Best Actor — Bad Lieutenant — 2nd place
• 1993 — Australian Film Institute Award — Best Actor in a Leading Role — The Piano — Won
• 1993 — Venice Film Festival — Best Actor — Dangerous Game — Won
• 1995 — Berlin International Film Festival — Silver Bear – Special Jury Prize — Smoke — Won
• 1995 — David di Donatello — Best Foreign Actor — Smoke — Won
• 1996 — Saturn Award — Best Supporting Actor — From Dusk till Dawn — Nominated
• 2000 — Blockbuster Entertainment Award — Favorite Supporting Actor – Action — U-571 — Nominated
• 2008 — Satellite Award — Best Supporting Actor - Series, Miniseries or Television Film — Life on Mars — Nominated
• 2014 — Screen Actors Guild Award — Outstanding Ensemble in a Motion Picture — The Grand Budapest Hotel — Nominated
• 2019 — Screen Actors Guild Award — Outstanding Ensemble in a Motion Picture — The Irishman — Nominated