Harvey Keitel Movies and Career Information

Harvey Keitel (born May 13, 1939) is an American actor who has starred in Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, Jane Campion's The Piano, Martin Scorsese's Mean Streets and Taxi Driver, Ridley Scott's The Duellists and Thelma and Louise, Abel Ferrara's Bad Lieutenant, James Mangold's Cop Land and Theo Angelopoulos's Ulysses' Gaze (which TIME Magazine called one of the Top 100 Films of All Time). His latest work is as Detective Lieutenant Gene Hunt on the American adaptation of Life on Mars. Keitel (pronounced /kaɪˈtɛl/ kye-tel) was born in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, the son of Miriam and Harry Keitel, Jewish immigrants from Romania and Poland. 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 16, he decided to join the United States Marine Corps, a decision that took him to Lebanon. After his return to the United States, he was a court reporter and was able to support himself before beginning his acting career. Keitel studied under both Stella Adler and Lee Strasberg