Background and career
Harvey Johannes Keitel ( 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, and 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.
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 U.S. Marines at age 16. After his discharge, he worked as a court stenographer for 10 years.
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 these movies, 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 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 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), then in the romantic drama Falling in Love (1984). From 1985 to 1988, he appearied in 16 films and telefilms, including Brian De Palma's mobster comedy Wise Guys (1986) and as Judas in Martin Scorsese's 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. 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 these 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 Cop Land.
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 he appeared in Tony Bui's Three Seasons (which Keitel also executive produced). Keitel also re-teamed with Jane Campion for Holy Smoke!. In 2001, Keitel played a U.S. Army denazification investigator in the film Taking Sides and an 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 the U.S. remake of the successful British time-travel police drama series Life on Mars. In 2009, he made an appearance in the Jay-Z video for "D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune)". 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. From 2014 to 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. Keitel 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). He reprised his role FBI Agent Peter Sadusky in the series National Treasure: Edge of History (2022).
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.. 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. 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.
