Harvey Keitel Biography

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Birth Date: May 13, 1939

Birth Place: Brooklyn, New York, USA

Harvey Keitel is well-known for compelling, intense and varied performances. His riveting role as the husband in Jane Campion's Academy Award- winning The Piano earned him an Australian Best Actor Award. Keitel was also voted Best Supporting Actor by the National Society of Film Critics for his work in Alan Rudolph's Mortal Thoughts, Ridley Scott's Thelma and Louise and Barry Levinson's Bugsy, for which he also received an Academy Award nomination.

Other memorable recent roles include two for Quentin Tarantino in Reservoir Dogs (which he co-produced) and Pulp Fiction, as well as Smoke for Wayne Wang (which earned Italy's David di Dontatello Award for Best Foreign Actor, among others) and Abel Ferrara's Bad Lieutenant, for which he won an Independent Feature Project Award for Best Actor. He was last seen in Campion's Holy Smoke, in the submarine action drama U-571 and Little Nicky with Adam Sandler. Keitel also recently drew attention for the daring television production of Fail Safe.

Keitel made his debut in Martin Scorsese's Who's That Knocking at My Door and went on to star in Scorsese's classic urban drama of small-time hoods, Mean Streets. Keitel also teamed with Scorsese on Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, Taxi Driver and The Last Temptation of Christ.

Among his other film credits are Robert Altman's Buffalo Bill and the Indians, Sister Act with Whoopi Goldberg, Jack Nicholson's The Two Jakes, Point of No Return, Rising Sun, Blue in the Face, Imaginary Crimes, The Border, Mother, Jugs and Speed, Spike Lee's Clockers, James Toback's The Pick-Up Artist, Robert Rodriguez's From Dusk Til Dawn, Fairy Tale: A True Story and Prince of Central Park. Forthcoming for Keitel is Joel Silverman's Nailed, Tim Blake Nelson's The Grey Zone and Juan Gerard's Dreaming of Julia.

Together with his partner Peggy Gormley, Keitel has his own film production company, The Goatsingers, which has a first look deal with Kinowelt USA, the U.S. production arm of Munich-based Kinowelt Medien AG. The Goatsingers served as executive producers on Tony Bui's Three Seasons, winner of the Grand Jury Prize and audience Award at 1999's Sundance Film Festival, and Wayne Wang and Paul Auster's Blue in the Face, both of which Keitel appeared in. Keitel also served as co-producer on Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs.

The Goatsingers, working out of their New York office, is currently involved in a number of other projects. Included among those are The Grey Zone by Tim Blake Nelson, which The Goatsingers is executive producing with Christine Vachon producing; Henry and the Second Gunman by Tom Leopold, being co-produced by The Goatsingers and Leopold, and Dreaming of Julia by Juan Gerard and Letvia Arza-Goderich, which The Goatsingers are producing with Letvia Arza-Goderich, Andy Pfeffer and Bonnie Timmerman. Also on The Goatsingers' slate is Johnny Jump-Up by Tony Kavanaugh, which is being co-produced with Parallel Films in Dublin and Mean by Carla Miles, being co-produced with Ruth Charny.

Keitel is renowned for the support he has provided to young and first-time filmmakers, notably: Quentin Tarantino, Paul Schrader (Blue Collar), Alan Rudolph (Welcome to LA), Ridley Scott (The Duellists), James Toback (Fingers), Susanna Styron (Shadrach), Paul Auster (Lulu on the Bridge) and Tony Bui (Three Seasons). He has also worked with such European directors as Nicholas Roeg (Bad Timing: A Sensual Obsession); Bernard Tavernier (Deathwatch); Ettore Scola (La Nuit de Varennes); and Lina Wertmuller (A Complicated Story of Streets, Crime and Women).

Born in Brooklyn, New York, Keitel turned to acting after having served in the United States Marine Corps, studying with Frank Corsaro, Lee Strasberg and Stella Adler. He is a member of the Actor's Studio and has worked extensively in the New York theater community. He made his off-Broadway debut in Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman. He returned to Broadway in 1984 in David Rabe's Hurlyburly, directed by Mike Nichols. The following year, he appeared in Sam Shepard's A Lie Of The Mind.