SCREEN LEGENDS: HARVEY KEITEL
May 20th 2008 11:42
Harvey Keitel
Harvey Keitel is one of the most prominent yet undervalued actors of the last 40 years. Whilst people tend to throw around names such as Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, and Jack Nicholson in regards to who is the greatest living actor, Keitel is usually left without praise.
Personal Life
Keitel was born on the 13h of May, 1939, in Brooklyn, New York, to Miriam and Harry Keitel, who were Jewish immigrants of Polish and Romanian heritage.
He grew up in the Brighton Beach section of Brooklyn with his brother Jerry and his sister Renee, and attended Abraham Lincoln High School.
At 16, Keitel joined the United States Marine Corps, and when he returned to New York City he took on various jobs such as a salesman in a women’s shoe store, and also served a long tenure as a court stenographer.
During this time, Keitel studied at the acclaimed Actors Studio under the tutelage of Stella Adler, Frank Corsaro, and Lee Strasberg. He is currently a co-president of the Actors Studio alongside Ellen Burstyn and Al Pacino.
Keitel has been married twice. His first marriage was with Goodfellas and The Sopranos actress Lorraine Bracco. That relationship lasted 11 years (1982-1993) and bore them a daughter named Stella.
Keitel is the Godfather to close friend and Reservoir Dogs co-star Michael Madsen’s son, Max.
Career
During his time at the Actors Studio, Keitel starred in various off-Broadway productions. Yet it was when he met a young filmmaker named Martin Scorsese that things really got moving, landing a role in Scorsese’s student production Who’s That Knocking On My Door, and then starring in Scorsese’s gangster classic Mean Streets, which also starred a young Robert De Niro in his breakthrough role.
Keitel would go on to star in two other Scorsese films during the 1970’s (Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, Taxi Driver) albeit in supporting roles, and would also star in films directed by up and coming filmmakers such as Ridley Scott (The Duellists), Paul Schrader (Blue Collar), and James Toback (Fingers).
However, his role as Captain Willard in Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now was short lived after he was fired just two weeks into filming. He would be replaced by Martin Sheen.
The 1980’s saw Keitel work constantly on both stage and screen, yet usually in the stereotypical role as a thug or a gangster. Also, his performance as Judas in Scorsese’s The Last Temptation of Christ garnered him an (unfair) nomination as Worst Supporting Actor at that years Razzie Awards.
However, the 1990’s would see Keitel provide his best work and also reach his zenith in terms of popularity. First came his acclaimed role as a sympathetic FBI Agent in Ridley Scott’s Thelma and Louise. This would be followed by his first (and shamefully only) Oscar nomination as Mickey Cohen in Barry Levinson’s Bugsy.
In 1992, Keitel’s enthusiasm for working with up and coming directors paid off big time. His unflinching turn as a nameless, corrupt cop in Abel Ferrara’s Bad Lieutenant would prove to be the best work of his career thus far.
Then came the unexpected independent smash Reservoir Dogs, which was written and directed by then first time writer/director Quentin Tarantino, and pushed Keitel to another level of popularity.
Keitel followed these two roles with stellar work in Jane Campton’s The Piano; again with Tarantino in Pulp Fiction; Spike Lee’s Clockers; Wayne Wang’s Smoke; and James Mangold’s Copland.
2000 and onwards would see Keitel divide his work between big budget Hollywood productions (Red Dragon, Be Cool, National Treasure), and independent films (Taking Sides, The Grey Zone, My Sexiest Year).
Future films include The Ministers, a crime drama co-starring John Leguizamo and Diane Venora, and The Dust of Time, co-starring Willem Dafoe.
Top 3 Harvey Keitel performances
3) Charlie, Mean Streets (1973)
Playing writer/director Martin Scorsese’s alter-ego, Keitel is at his most raw and unabashed as Charlie, an up and coming gangster driven Catholic guilt to save his best friend, social delinquent Johnny Boy (Robert De Niro) from street creditors out for his blood.
2) Mr. White / Larry Dimmick, Reservoir Dogs (1992)
Keitel brings his no BS intensity to the role of an honourable thief in Quentin Tarantino’s feature debut classic, Reservoir Dogs. The film also features two of Keitel’s most often quoted lines: “You shoot me in a dream, you better wake up and apologize”, and “I need you to be cool! Are you cool?”
1) The Lieutenant, Bad Lieutenant (1992)
High profile actors rarely put themselves out there like Keitel had as the junkie / thief / gambler, and overall corrupt Lieutenant who ventures down a path of retribution after a Nun is brutally raped. The film
features Keitel at his most powerful, vulnerable, and depraved.
…..and the worst?
Satan, Little Nicky 2000
There is nothing like appearing in an Adam Sandler film to really assure a crappy performance. Here, Keitel is just that as the Prince of Darkness and father to Sandler’s half demon / angel hybrid, Nicky.
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."
"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."
“To create characters, one must build background. And one of the tools we use is improvisation.”
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Comment by Michaelie
Flick Wit
He certainly is undervalued. He's had some sensational roles, and yet he always seems to skirt around the underside of the big names.
Great post.
Michaelie
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