Harvey Keitel
Harvey Keitel | |
---|---|
Keitel at the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival | |
Born | Brooklyn, New York City, U.S. | May 13, 1939
Occupation(s) | Actor, producer |
Years active | 1967–present |
Spouse | Daphna Kastner (2001–present) |
Partner | Lorraine Bracco (1982–1993) |
Children |
|
Harvey Keitel (/kaɪˈtɛl/ ky-TEL; born May 13, 1939)[1] 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, Robert Rodriguez's From Dusk till Dawn, James Mangold's Cop Land, FBI Special agent Sadusky in National Treasure and the latter's sequel National Treasure: Book of Secrets, as well as playing the devil in Little Nicky. Along with actors Al Pacino and Ellen Burstyn, he is the current co-president of the Actors Studio, which claims itself to be considered the United States' "most prestigious acting school".[2]
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, respectively.[3] 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,[4] 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,[4] 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.[4]
Career
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/58/HarveyKeitelNov09.jpg/170px-HarveyKeitelNov09.jpg)
Keitel studied under both Stella Adler and Lee Strasberg and at the HB Studio, eventually landing roles in some Off-Broadway productions.[4] 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).[4] Since then, Scorsese and Keitel have worked together on several projects.[4] 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.[4]
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".[5] 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.[4] 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,[4] 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.[4] One of those roles was the title character in Bad Lieutenant, about a self-loathing, drug- addicted police lieutenant trying to redeem himself.[4] He co-starred in the movie The Piano in 1993,[4] and played an efficient clean-up expert, Winston "The Wolf" Wolfe in Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction. In 1996 he had a major role in Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez's film From Dusk till Dawn. 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 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 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), as well as Tony Bui (Three Seasons).
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.[6]
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.[4] In 2008, Keitel was cast in 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.[7]
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. In 2013, he appeared in a music video for "Pretty Hurts" by Beyoncé Knowles.[8]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d3/Harvey_Keitel_Shankbone_2010_NYC.jpg/220px-Harvey_Keitel_Shankbone_2010_NYC.jpg)
In 2013 he starred in the independent film A Farewell to Fools.[9]
In 2014 he reprised his role of Winston Wolfe from Pulp Fiction as part of a £40 million advertising campaign for Direct Line, one of the UK's leading insurance companies. [10][11]
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.
Filmography
References
- ^ "Person details for Harvey Kutel". familyserarch.org. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Retrieved December 27, 2014.
- ^ Lipton, James (October 18, 2007). Inside Inside. Dutton. p. 14. ISBN 9780525950356.
- ^ Schoemer, Karen (November 7, 1993). "Harvey Keitel Tries A Little Tenderness". The New York Times. Retrieved March 7, 2013.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Inside the Actors Studio. The Actors Studio, Bravo Network, Betelgeuse Productions. 1998. Retrieved December 27, 2014.
- ^ Cowie, Peter (1994). Coppola: A Biography. New York: Scribner. p. 122. ISBN 978-0-306-80598-1.
- ^ "24th Moscow International Film Festival (2002)". MIFF. Retrieved March 30, 2013.
- ^ Mitovich, Matt (July 24, 2008). "Scoop! Keitel Lands on Mars as Homicide Boss". TV Guide. Retrieved March 7, 2013.
- ^ Dolan, Jon (December 13, 2013). "'Beyonce' Breakdown: The Ultimate Guide to Bey's Surprise New Album". Rolling Stone. Retrieved December 14, 2013.
- ^ "Monterey Media Acquires Three Films, Including Works Starring Gerard Depardieu and Harvey Keitel". indiewire.com. October 17, 2013. Retrieved November 6, 2013.
{{cite web}}
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{{cite web}}
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suggested) (help) - ^ "Meet Winston Wolfe". directline.com. August 30, 2014. Retrieved September 4, 2014.
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suggested) (help) - ^ Mottern, James (November 29, 2012). "Slate for "God Only Knows"". jamesmottern.com. Retrieved March 7, 2013.
External links
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/30px-Commons-logo.svg.png)
- Harvey Keitel at IMDb
- Harvey Keitel at the Internet Broadway Database
- Please use a more specific IOBDB template. See the template documentation for available templates.
- 1939 births
- Male actors from New York City
- Actors Studio members
- American male film actors
- American people of Polish-Jewish descent
- American people of Romanian-Jewish descent
- Independent Spirit Award for Best Male Lead winners
- Jewish American male actors
- Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute alumni
- Living people
- People from Brooklyn
- People from Fire Island, New York
- United States Marines
- David di Donatello winners
- 20th-century American male actors
- 21st-century American male actors