Who

The grizzled actor is known for his tough guy roles, his willingness to participate in nude scenes, and his messy split with Lorraine Bracco.

Backstory

Born and bred in Brighton Beach, Keitel says he was a delinquent before he decided to clean up his act and sign up for the Marine Corps in 1956. After his discharge, he paid the bills working as a court reporter and a shoe salesman, but eventually decided he wanted to be an actor and took classes with Stella Adler and Lee Strasberg. Parts in small, off-Broadway plays followed, but his career break came in 1965 when he responded to NYU student Martin Scorsese's ad seeking actors to appear in his thesis film. The connection led to parts in Scorsese movies like Who's That Knocking at My Door?, Mean Streets (Robert De Niro's big break), Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, and Taxi Driver.

Keitel's career took a downward turn in the late '70s and '80s. Francis Ford Coppola picked him to play the role of Captain Willard in Apocalypse Now, only to quickly fire him (he was replaced by Martin Sheen), and he spent the 1980s appearing in a slew of foreign films and little-watched indies. (The one bright spot was playing Judas in Scorcese's 1987 The Last Temptation of Christ). His career began to rebound in 1991 with Thelma & Louise; a year later he was nominated for an Oscar for Bugsy, then he earned a new generation of fans with roles in Quentin Tarantino's most popular films, Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction.

Of note

Keitel has carved out a niche for himself as one of Hollywood's favorite tough guys, a type he's played to perfection in Tarantino's movies and in films like Clockers and Copland. But he's proved he can take on serious dramatic roles, too: In Tony Bui's moving 1999 film Three Seasons he played an American soldier searching for his lost daughter in Vietnam.

In recent years, Keitel has kept busy with work that, while often brainless (Little Nicky, National Treasure, Be Cool), at least provides a steady paycheck (and at this point he probably has enough cred to survive the clunkers). Upcoming films include the cop movie The Ministers and Dust of Time, alongside Willem Dafoe.

For the record

Keitel doesn't have any problem displaying his manhood. If you're dying to see it, put Bad Lieutenant, The Piano, Shadows in the Sun, and Holy Smoke on your Netflix queue.

Personal

Keitel was married to actress Lorraine Bracco for 10 years, a relationship that ended in a very messy divorce. (A 1998 unauthorized biography of Keitel called The Art of Darkness painted him as abusive.) In 2001, he married actress Daphna Kastner in Jerusalem after a three-week courtship. He has three children from three women: eldest daughter, Stella, with Bracco; a son named Hudson with ex-girlfriend Lisa Karmazin; and a son named Roman with Kastner. They live in a rented loft on North Moore Street. Keitel has had trouble finding a buyer for his three-apartment Tribeca penthouse. So far he's reduced the price from $7 million to $5.2 million.