Harvey Keitel Net Worth

Harvey Keitel's 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.
• Fear is a marker I need to rise above, otherwise I would drown in my fear of myself.
• 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.
• Existence is a struggle.
• [explaining why he supports a mandatory military draft] We, the people, should participate in the privileges we have in this democracy that we live in, and we should all share in the dangers and the risks with our lives to protect the freedoms that we have. I don't see how our young men can feel they're part of the country if they don't participate in the defense of the country - in the defense of our values - when it's necessary to do so. I feel, strongly, that by excluding themselves, they sacrifice something integral. They separate themselves from the hero's journey - this journey we all must take to find ourselves.

Interesting Facts about Harvey Keitel

1. Chosen by Empire magazine as one of the 100 Sexiest Stars in film history (#95) (1995).
2. Served 3 years in the United States Marine Corps. In 1958, he was sent to Lebanon during a U.S. military intervention aimed at defusing a major political crisis there.
3. Worked as a court stenographer in New York City for about 10 years while he was a struggling actor.
4. Worked as a salesman in a women's shoestore.
5. Ranked #37 in Empire (UK) magazine's "The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time" list. [October 1997]
6. Has demonstrated extraordinary enthusiasm for working with first-time directors, from Martin Scorsese in 1968 to Ridley Scott, Paul Schrader, James Toback, Quentin Tarantino, and in 1999, Vietnamese-American Tony Bui.
7. His last name is pronounced "ky-tel".
8. Listed as one of Entertainment Weekly magazine's 25 Best Actors (1998).
9. Was in a long-term relationship with actress Lorraine Bracco (1982-1993). They had one daughter, Stella Keitel (born 1985).
10. Met wife, Daphna Kastner at the Toronto film festival on 11 September 2001 and married her in a secret ceremony in Jerusalem, Israel three weeks later (7 October).
11. Has one son from his then girlfriend with Lisa Karmazin, a potter in California: Hudson Keitel (born 2001).
12. Is a member of the Actors Studio, had studied with Frank Corsaro, Lee Strasberg and Stella Adler.
13. Operates his own film production company, The Goatsingers, with partner Peggy Gormley.
14. Shares two roles with Dennis Farina. At the end of Get Shorty (1995), he plays the Dennis Farina character in the movie-within-a-movie. Farina also originated the role of Jack Crawford in Manhunter (1986), a role that Keitel played in the remake Red Dragon (2002).
15. He was originally cast as Captain Willard in Apocalypse Now (1979). He was let go from the film, just two weeks into filming due to creative differences with director Francis Ford Coppola. Martin Sheen replaced him.
16. Has appeared in the crime drama Get Shorty (1995) and its sequel, Be Cool (2005), but in two completely different roles.
17. Like his good friend Robert De Niro, Keitel is usually very uncomfortable during interviews, often nervously laughing through them.
18. Although he frequently plays U.S. Italian characters, Keitel is the son of Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe. His mother, Miriam (Klein), was from Romania, and his father, Harry Keitel, was from Poland.
19. Is one of three actors to play Jack Crawford in the Hannibal Lecter films. He played the role in Red Dragon (2002), while Scott Glenn played the role in The Silence of the Lambs (1991), and Dennis Farina played the role in Manhunter (1986).
20. Received his Bachelor's degree in Fine Arts from the prestigious Actors Studio, New School University in New York City, under Dean James Lipton.