Early life

Keitel was born in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, the son of Miriam (née Klein) and Harry Keitel, Jewish immigrants from Romania and Poland, respectively. His parents owned and ran a luncheonette and his father also worked as a hat maker.

Keitel grew up in the Brighton Beach section of Brooklyn, with his sister, Renee, and brother, Jerry. He attended Abraham Lincoln High School. At the age of sixteen, he decided to join the United States Marine Corps, a decision that took him to Lebanon, during Operation Blue Bat. After his return to the United States, he was a court reporter for several years and was able to support himself before beginning his acting career.

Career

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, 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 pimp.

In 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 writer/director Toback wrote for Robert De Niro to play).

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 a passive onlooker". After viewing the first week's footage, Coppola replaced Keitel with a casting session favorite, Martin Sheen.

Keitel drifted into obscurity through most of the 1980s. He continued to do work on both stage and screen, but usually in the stereotypical role of a thug. Keitel played a corrupt police officer in the 1983 thriller Copkiller (co-starring British rock musician John Lydon), before taking supporting roles in the romantic drama Falling in Love (1984), starring Robert De Niro and Meryl Streep, and Brian De Palma's mobster comedy Wise Guys (1986), starring Danny DeVito and Joe Piscopo.

Keitel played Judas in Martin Scorsese's controversial The Last Temptation of Christ (1988) and 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 those 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 movie The Piano in 1993, and played an efficient clean-up expert, Winston "The Wolf" Wolfe in Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction. 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 the crime drama Cop Land, which also starred Sylvester Stallone, Ray Liotta and Robert De Niro.

His 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, due to shooting conflicts, and appeared in Tony Bui's award-winning directorial debut, (Three Seasons (which Keitel also executive produced). Keitel also re-teamed with Jane Campion for Holy Smoke! (co-starring Kate Winslet).

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. Unlike many American male actors, Keitel has appeared nude in several films, including full frontal nudity in Bad Lieutenant and The Piano.

In January 2008, Keitel played Jerry Springer in the New York City premiere of Jerry Springer: The Opera at Carnegie Hall. In 2008, Keitel was cast in the role of Detective Gene Hunt in ABC's short-lived US remake of the successful British time-travel police drama series Life on Mars.

In June 2009, he made a cameo appearance in the Jay-Z video for "D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune)", a nod to his Brooklyn origins. In 2013, he appeared in a music video for "Pretty Hurts" by Beyoncé Knowles.

In 2013 he starred in the independent film A Farewell to Fools.

In 2014 he reprised his role of Winston Wolfe from Pulp Fiction as part of a £40 million television advertising campaign for Direct Line, an insurance company in the United Kingdom.

Personal life

Keitel was formerly in a long-term relationship with actress Lorraine Bracco. He married actress Daphna Kastner in 2001. Keitel is the father of three children: daughter Stella (born 1985) from his relationship with Bracco; son Hudson (born 2001) from his relationship with Lisa Karmazin; and son Roman (born 2004) from his marriage to Kastner. He is a godfather of close friend Michael Madsen's son Max.

Filmography

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1967	Who's That Knocking at My Door	J.R.
1967	Reflections in a Golden Eye	Soldier	Uncredited
1970	Brewster McCloud	Photographer	Uncredited
1973	Mean Streets	Charlie
1974	A Memory of Two Mondays (TV)	Jerry
1974	Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore	Ben
1975	That's the Way of the World	Coleman Buckmaster
1976	Taxi Driver	'Sport' Matthew	Nominated—National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actor Nominated—New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actor
1976	Buffalo Bill and the Indians	Ed Goodman
1976	Mother, Jugs & Speed	Tony "Speed" Malatesta
1978	Blue Collar	Jerry Bartowski
1978	The Duellists	Feraud
1978	Fingers	Jimmy Fingers
1979	Eagle's Wing	Henry
1980	Death Watch	Roddy
1980	Bad Timing	Inspector Netusil
1980	Saturn 3	Benson	Voice dubbed by Roy Dotrice
1982	That Night in Varennes	Thomas Paine
1982	The Border	Cat
1983	Exposed	Rivas
1983	Copkiller	Lt. Fred O'Connor
1984	Falling in Love	Ed Lasky
1984	Nemo	Mr. Legend
1985	El caballero del dragon (The Knight of the Dragon)	Clever	Spanish film
1986	Blindside	Penfield Gruber
1986	Camorra (A Story of Streets, Women and Crime)	Frankie
1986	The Inquiry	Pontius Pilate
1986	Off Beat	Mickey
1986	Wise Guys	Bobby DiLea
1986	The Men's Club	Solly Berliner
1987	The Pick-up Artist	Alonzo Scolara
1988	Down Where The Buffalo Go	Carl	BBC TV Movie
1988	The Last Temptation of Christ	Judas Iscariot	Nominated—Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actor
1988	Grandi cacciatori	Thomas
1988	Dear Gorbachev	Nikolaj Bucharin
1989	The January Man	Police Commissioner Frank Starkey
1989	Imagining America
1990	The Two Jakes	Julius 'Jake' Berman
1990	Two Evil Eyes	Roderick Usher	Segment: "The Black Cat"
1991	Thelma & Louise	Hal	National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actor
1991	Mortal Thoughts	Det. John Woods	National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actor
1991	Bugsy	Mickey Cohen	Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actor National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actor Nominated—Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor - Motion Picture
1992	Bad Lieutenant	The Lieutenant	Fantasporto's International Fantasy Film Award for Best Actor Independent Spirit Award for Best Male Lead Nominated—New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor
1992	Reservoir Dogs	Mr. White - Larry Dimmick	Also co-producer Sant Jordi Award for Best Foreign Actor
1992	Sister Act	Vince LaRocca
1993	Rising Sun	Lt. Tom Graham
1993	Dangerous Game	Eddie Israel	Venice Film Festival - Golden Ciak for Best Actor
1993	Point of No Return	Victor the Cleaner
1993	The Piano	George Baines	Australian Film Institute Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role
1993	Young Americans	John Harris
1994	Imaginary Crimes	Ray Weiler
1994	Pulp Fiction	Winston "The Wolf" Wolfe
1994	Monkey Trouble	Azro
1995	Get Shorty	Himself	Uncredited
1995	Smoke	Augustus 'Auggie' Wren	Berlin International Film Festival's Special Jury Prize David di Donatello for Best Foreign Actor
1995	Ulysses' Gaze	A
1995	Blue in the Face	Auggie Wren	Also executive producer
1995	Clockers	Det. Rocco Klein
1996	From Dusk till Dawn	Jacob Fuller	Nominated—Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor
1996	Head Above Water	George
1997	FairyTale: A True Story	Harry Houdini
1997	Cop Land	Ray Donlan
1997	City of Industry	Roy Egan
1998	Finding Graceland	Elvis
1998	Gunslinger's Revenge (Il mio West)	Johnny Lowen
1998	Shadrach	Vernon
1998	Lulu on the Bridge	Izzy Maurer
1998	Sweets of Roses	Hubie	Voice
1999	Three Seasons	James Hager	Also executive producer
1999	Holy Smoke!	PJ Waters
1999	Presence of Mind	The Master
2000	Prince of Central Park	The Guardian
2000	U-571	CPO Henry Klough	Nominated—Blockbuster Entertainment Award for Favorite Supporting Actor - Action
2000	Little Nicky	Satan
2001	Nailed	Tony Romano
2001	The Grey Zone	SS-Oberscharführer Eric Muhsfeldt	Also executive producer
2001	Taking Sides	Major Steve Arnold
2001	Viper	Leone
2002	Red Dragon	Jack Crawford
2002	Ginostra	Matt Benson
2003	Crime Spree	Frankie Zammeti
2003	Dreaming of Julia	Che	Also producer
2003	The Galindez File	Edward Robards
2004	National Treasure	Agent Peter Sadusky
2004	The Bridge of San Luis Rey	Uncle Pio
2004	Puerto Vallarta Squeeze	Walter McGrane
2005	Be Cool	Nick Carr
2005	A Crime	Roger Culkin
2005	Shadows in the Sun	Weldon Parish
2006	The Path to 9/11	John O'Neill
2006	Arthur and the Minimoys	Miro	Voice
2006	The Stone Merchant (it)	The Merchant Ludovico Vicedomini
2007	One Last Dance	Terrtano
2007	My Sexiest Year	Zowie
2007	National Treasure: Book of Secrets	Agent Peter Sadusky
2008	The Ministers	Detective Joseph Bruno
2008-2009	Life on Mars (TV)	Lieutenant Gene Hunt	Nominated—Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actor - Series, Miniseries or Television Film
2009	Inglourious Basterds	Allied Commanding Officer	Voice Uncredited
2009	Chaos
2009	Wrong Turn at Tahoe	Nino
2010	Little Fockers	Randy Weir
2010	A Beginner's Guide to Endings	Duke White
2010	The Last Godfather	Don Carini
2012	Moonrise Kingdom	Commander Pierce
2012	Gandhi of the Month	Edward Baker	Previously titled Against Itself
2013	A Farewell to Fools	Father Johanis
2013	The Power Inside	O'Mansky
2014	The Grand Budapest Hotel	Ludvig
2014	The Congress	Al
2014	By the Gun	Salvatore Vitaglia
2014	Two Men in Town	Bill Agati
2014	Rio, I Love You	Himself (as O Ator)	Segment: "O Milagre"
2015	Youth	Mick Boyle
2015	The Ridiculous 6	Smiley Harris	Owner of "The Golden Nugget"

[ Source: Wikipedia ]