• Faith: Spirituality
• Career: Actor
• Birthday:  May 13, 1939

Harvey Keitel is an American actor and producer known for intense, often morally complicated characters in films including Mean Streets, Taxi Driver, Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Bad Lieutenant and The Piano. A prominent figure in American independent cinema and the New Hollywood era, Keitel has built a career spanning more than six decades and has worked repeatedly with directors Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino.

Keitel was born on May 13, 1939, in Brooklyn, New York, to Jewish immigrant parents. His mother, Miriam Klein, came from Romania, while his father, Harry Keitel, came from Poland. His parents operated a luncheonette, and his father also worked as a hat maker. Keitel grew up with an older brother, Jerry, and an older sister, Renee, in Brooklyn's Brighton Beach neighborhood.

As a teenager, Keitel attended Abraham Lincoln High School before joining the U.S. Marine Corps. He served overseas in Lebanon and later credited his military experience with teaching him discipline and helping shape his outlook on life. After leaving the Marines, Keitel worked for years as a court stenographer while pursuing an interest in acting. He studied with influential teachers including Stella Adler and Lee Strasberg and performed in Off-Broadway productions before breaking into film.

Keitel's career became closely connected with Martin Scorsese after he auditioned for the young filmmaker and was cast in Scorsese's first feature, Who's That Knocking at My Door (1967). The two reunited for Mean Streets (1973), followed by Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974), Taxi Driver (1976) and The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), in which Keitel portrayed Judas. Decades later, he appeared in Scorsese's The Irishman (2019).

During the 1970s and 1980s, Keitel developed a reputation as a forceful character actor, appearing in films including Ridley Scott's The Duellists, Paul Schrader's Blue Collar and James Toback's Fingers. He was originally cast as Captain Willard in Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now but was replaced by Martin Sheen early in production.

Keitel experienced another major career surge in the early 1990s. His portrayal of Mickey Cohen in Bugsy earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. In 1992, he starred as Mr. White in Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs, which Keitel also co-produced. He reunited with Tarantino for Pulp Fiction (1994), memorably playing Winston "The Wolf" Wolfe. Other notable films from the period included Thelma & Louise, Bad Lieutenant, The Piano, Clockers, From Dusk till Dawn and Cop Land. His later credits include National Treasure, Moonrise Kingdom, The Grand Budapest Hotel and the television miniseries The Tattooist of Auschwitz.

Keitel was in a long-term relationship with actress Lorraine Bracco from 1982 to 1993, and they have a daughter, Stella. He also has a son, Hudson, from a relationship with Lisa Marie Karmazin. In 2001, Keitel married Canadian actress and filmmaker Daphna Kastner in Jerusalem. They have a son, Roman, who has also pursued acting. Keitel has maintained strong connections to his family's Eastern European heritage and was named an honorary citizen of Romania's Maramureș County in 2017.

Harvey Keitel's Religious Beliefs

Keitel was raised in a traditional Jewish family and has continued to identify his upbringing as an important part of his background. His Jewish heritage has also intersected with his career, including his portrayal of Jewish gangster Meyer Lansky in Lansky and Holocaust survivor Lali Sokolov in The Tattooist of Auschwitz. His ties to Israel include marrying Kastner in Jerusalem in a Jewish ceremony and celebrating their son's bar mitzvah at the Western Wall.

Keitel's spiritual outlook, however, has grown broader than the religious tradition of his childhood. Discussing religion and his relationship with God, he has rejected the idea that one faith possesses an exclusive connection to the divine. "I can say that there is only one Divine and that is the Divine," he told Jewish News in 2024. Summarizing his personal philosophy, Keitel added, "I grew up Jewish. Now, my religion is to do what is right." His comments suggest that while his Jewish heritage remains meaningful to him, he approaches faith through a more universal belief in God, morality and shared spiritual truth.