As a younger adult in New York City, before becoming a famous actor, Harvey Keitel was a free-lance court reporter. Keitel studied under both Stella Adler and Lee Strasberg, eventually landing roles in some off-Broadway productions. During this time, Keitel met another struggling filmmaker named Martin Scorsese and gained a part in Scorsese's student production, Who's That Knocking at My Door. Since then, Scorsese and Keitel have worked together on numerous projects. Keitel had the starring role in Scorsese's Mean Streets but this proved to be Robert De Niro's breakthrough film. He later appeared with De Niro in Taxi Driver, playing the pimp Sport for Jodie Foster's character Iris.
Originally, Keitel was to have played the role of Captain Willard in Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now; however, he was fired early in the production and replaced by Martin Sheen. After this, it was many years before he would be able to get anything other than minor roles. At the end of the 1970s, Keitel was mostly working in European films for directors such as Ridley Scott, usually in sinister character parts.
Throughout the 1980s, Keitel continued to find plenty of work on both stage and screen, but was usually in the stereotypical role of a thug. This role reached its zenith when Keitel starred in Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs in 1992, where his performance as "Mr. White" relaunched his semi-slumping career. Ridley Scott also helped Keitel by casting him as the sympathetic policeman in Thelma and Louise in 1991. That same year he landed a role in Bugsy, for which he obtained an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Since then, Keitel has chosen his roles with care, seeking to change his image and show off a broader acting range. One of those roles was the title character in Bad Lieutenant, about a self-hating police lieutenant trying to redeem himself. His decision to co-star in Jane Campion's The Piano marks the approximate beginning of this phase of Keitel's career. He played an efficient clean-up expert Winston Wolf in Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction. In 1997 he starred in the crime drama, Cop Land, which also starred Sylvester Stallone, Ray Liotta, and Robert De Niro. In 1997 he landed a major role in Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez's film, From Dusk Till Dawn. Later roles include the fatherly Satan in Little Nicky, a wise Navy man in U-571, and a diligent F.B.I. agent in National Treasure. In 1999, Keitel was replaced with Sydney Pollack on the set of Eyes Wide Shut, due to scheduling 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), and Tony Bui (Yellow Lotus).
-Wiki
Films:
Who's That Knocking at My Door (1967)
Mean Streets (1973)
Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974)
A Memory of Two Mondays (1974)
That's the Way of the World (1975)
Taxi Driver (1976)
Mother, Jugs & Speed (1976)
Blue Collar (1978)
The Duellists (1978)
Fingers (1978)
Bad Timing (1980)
The Border (1980)
Saturn 3 (1980)
Deathwatch (1980)
Corrupt (1981)
That Night in Varennes (1982)
Exposed (1983)
Wise Guys (1986)
The Pick-up Artist (1987)
The Last Temptation of Christ (1988)
The January Man (1989)
The Two Jakes (1990)
Thelma and Louise (1991)
Bugsy (1991)
Bad Lieutenant (1992)
Reservoir Dogs (1992)
Sister Act (1992)
Rising Sun (1993)
Point of no Return (1993)
The Piano (1993)
Young Americans (1993)
Imaginary Crimes (1994)
Pulp Fiction (1994)
Monkey Trouble (1994)
Get Shorty (uncredited)) (1995)
Smoke (1995)
Ulysses' Gaze (1995)
Blue in the Face (1995)
Clockers (1995)
From Dusk Till Dawn (1996)
Head Above Water (1996)
FairyTale: A True Story (1997)
Cop Land (1997)
City of Industry (1997)
Finding Graceland (1998)
Shadrach (1998)
Lulu on the Bridge (1998)
Three Seasons (1999)
Holy Smoke! (1999)
Presence of Mind (1999)
Prince of Central Park (2000)
U-571 (2000)
Little Nicky (2000)
The Grey Zone (2001)
Taking Sides (2001)
Red Dragon (2002)
Crime Spree (2003)
Dreaming of Julia (2003)
The Galindez File (2003)
National Treasure (2004)
The Bridge of San Luis Rey (2004)
Puerto Vallarta Squeeze (2004)
Be Cool (2005)
A Crime (2005)
The Path to 9/11 (2006)
Arthur and the Minimoys(voice) (2006)
The Stone Merchant (2006)
One Last Dance (2007)
Arn (2007)
National Treasure: The Book of Secrets (2007)
My Sexiest Year (2007)
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