Harvey Keitel (see more)

Harvey Keitel


Spouse 

Daphna Kastner (7 October 2001 - present) (1 child)

Trade Mark 

Often works with Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro
Heavy Brooklyn accent
Frequently plays violent characters with a deep seated moral center
Intense emotional acting style

Trivia 

Chosen by Empire magazine as one of the 100 Sexiest Stars in film history (#95).
Served in the U.S. Marines. He was sent to Lebanon in 1958 during a U.S. military intervention aimed at defusing a major political crisis there.
Worked as a court stenographer in NYC for about 10 years while he was a struggling actor.
Worked as a salesman in a women's shoestore.
Ranked #37 in Empire (UK) magazine's "The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time" list. [October 1997]

Has demonstrated extraordinary enthusiasm for working with first-time directors, from Martin Scorsese in 1968 to Ridley Scott, Paul Schrader, James Toback, Quentin Tarantino, and in 1999, Vietnamese-American Tony Bui.
His last name is pronounced "ky-tel".
Listed as one of Entertainment Weekly's 25 Best Actors.
Was in a long-term relationship with actress Lorraine Bracco (1982-1993). They had a daughter, Stella Keitel in 1985.
Met wife, Daphna Kastner at the Toronto film festival on 11 September 2001 and married her in a secret ceremony in Jerusalem, Israel three weeks later (7 October).

Has a son, Hudson, born to then girlfriend Lisa Karmazin, a potter in California, in the summer of 2001.
A member of The Actors Studio, had studied with Frank Corsaro, Lee Strasberg & Stella Adler.
Operates his own film production company, The Goatsingers, with partner Peggy Gormley.
Shares two roles with Dennis Farina. At the end of Cómo conquistar Hollywood (1995), he plays the Dennis Farina character in the movie-within-a-movie. Farina also originated the role of Jack Crawford in Hunter (1986), a role that Keitel played in the remake El dragón rojo (2002).
He was originally cast as Captain Willard in Apocalypse Now (1979). He was let go from the film, just two weeks into filming due to creative differences with director Francis Ford Coppola. Martin Sheen replaced him.

Appears in Cómo conquistar Hollywood (1995) and its sequel, Be Cool (2005), but in two completely different parts.
Like his good friend Robert De Niro, Keitel is usually very uncomfortable during interviews, often nervously laughing through them.
Although he frequently plays U.S. Italian characters, Keitel is the son of Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe. His mother, Miriam (Klein), was from Romania, and his father, Harry Keitel, was from Poland.
Is one of three actors to play Jack Crawford in the Hannibal Lecter films. He played the role in El dragón rojo (2002), while Scott Glenn played the role in El silencio de los corderos (1991), and Dennis Farina played the role in Hunter (1986).

Graduated from the BFA program at the prestigious Actors Studio, New School University in New York city, under Dean James Lipton.
He was honored with a lifetime achievement award at the 24th Istanbul Film Festival. (16 April 2005)
Son, Roman, with wife Daphna Kastner. [August 2004]
Apocalypse Now (1979), from which he was fired, was loosely based on Joseph Conrad's novel, "Heart of Darkness". Although Keitel didn't appear in the final film, he does appear in Los duelistas (1977), which is based on another Conrad story.

Presented good friend and fellow actor Michael Madsen with the inaugural Rebel Award for his past, present and ongoing commitment to independent film at Rebelfest 2005, Toronto.
He is Godfather to Michael Madsen's son Max.
Played a "cleaner" in both La asesina (1993) (Victor the Cleaner) and in Pulp Fiction (1994) (Winston "The Wolf" Wolfe").
Appears in Puerto Vallarta Squeeze (2004) opposite Scott Glenn, with whom he shared the role of Jack Crawford in the Hannibal Lecter films.

Resides in New York City. Also owns a home in California.
He studied drama at HB Studio in Greenwich Village in New York City.
In 1992 he played both a criminal pursuing a woman who is disguised as a nun by a police lieutenant in Sister Act: una monja de cuidado (1992) and a police lieutenant pursuing two criminals who raped a nun in Bad Lieutenant (1992).

At the Haifa International Film Festival, in Haifa, Israel. Married in Jerusalem a few days later. [October 2001]
In Istanbul for 24th International Istanbul Film Festival [April 2005]
In Washington, DC filming the La búsqueda (2004) sequel with Nicolas Cage. [March 2007]
Rehearsing for Broadway premiere of "Jerry Springer: The Opera." [January 2008]
As of 2014, has appeared in five films that were nominated for the Best Picture Oscar: Taxi Driver (1976), Bugsy (1991), El piano (1993), Pulp Fiction (1994) and Malditos bastardos (2009).

Personal Quotes 

Everyone wants to learn something; maybe not everyone makes the effort, because they get discouraged. I certainly was like that as a teenager in Brooklyn, always trying to hide my ignorance. But you have to find the strength to acknowledge that ignorance within yourself, otherwise you are going to remain stagnant. I learnt a valuable lesson with Ridley Scott. My agent kept insisting that I go watch the show-reel of this commercial director and I kept turning him down, thinking there was no way that I was even going to consider working with a commercial director. In the end I saw his reel and I was blown away by how great it was.

Fear is a marker I need to rise above, otherwise I would drown in my fear of myself.
I don't want people to think that awards amount to the value of an actor. Real success means involvement - to engage oneself totally in something. Unless you become involved, you will stay uninvolved. If money is your god, you will accumulate money, but little else. If you seek out the experience of something . . . you have a good chance to have a full life.

Existence is a struggle.

[explaining why he supports a mandatory military draft] We, the people, should participate in the privileges we have in this democracy that we live in, and we should all share in the dangers and the risks with our lives to protect the freedoms that we have. 
I don't see how our young men can feel they're part of the country if they don't participate in the defense of the country - in the defense of our values - when it's necessary to do so. I feel, strongly, that by excluding themselves, they sacrifice something integral. They separate themselves from the hero's journey - this journey we all must take to find ourselves.