Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#1048
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Harvey Keitel represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 59 years in, and Harvey is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Harvey Keitel appears in 52 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Harvey. The connective tissue of American independent cinema for fifty years. Pulp Fiction is the clearest case: a film rated 9.2 by our editors, where the performance carries weight the script only implies.
The recognisable elements are versatility, transformation, quiet performance. Watch two of these films back to back and the method separates from the material — the same instrument, tuned differently for action, science fiction, thriller. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Isaac Florentine, Steven Brand, Marco Pontecorvo and others, Harvey Keitel helped set a standard other performers now audition against. Awards bodies have been slower than the work, which is usually the sign of a career built on choices rather than campaigns.
Pulp Fiction (1994) as The Wolf · The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) as Ludwig · Pulp Fiction (1994) as The Wolf
Career snapshot
Ranked #1048 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
52
1968–2027
Career length
61 yrs
Active since 1965
Academy Awards
0
Competitive wins
Oscar nominations
1
Career total
Highest Nutevio score
9.2
Pulp Fiction
Average Nutevio score
6.6
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
8.9
Pulp Fiction
Most frequent director
Wes Anderson
4 films together
Longest collaboration
4×
With Wes Anderson
Most common genre
Drama
27 titles
Average runtime
1h 50m
Across catalogue work
Golden Globe wins
—
Unknown
Nutevio metric
Ten weighted categories, applied identically to everyone we cover.
Nutevio Performer Score
7.3
out of 10
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio metric
Cultural impact and legacy, measured separately from craft — how far the work travelled once it left the cinema.
Nutevio Influence Score
7.5
out of 10
A quieter influence — felt inside the films rather than across the industry.
How far the work travelled past the people who saw it first.
What survives once the release-week conversation has burned off.
Institutional acknowledgement, weighted but never decisive.
Years of chosen, relevant work rather than years merely employed.
Statuettes, read as evidence rather than verdict.
Roles named without needing the film named alongside them.
Directors who wrote parts because this performer existed.
The reading other performers now have to answer.
Actor DNA
A fingerprint derived from the roles themselves — register, range and the kind of film they carry.
The shape of a career
Every performance plotted in time. Hover a point to read the title behind it.
Peak years
Where the scores, the awards and the sheer volume of work agree with each other.
Best decade
1990s
7.0 average MV
The 1990s are where the work and the material meet. Holy Smoke, Cop Land, From Dusk Till Dawn — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1990s
7.0
Across 17 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
1970s
7.1
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
1990s
1 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. Holy Smoke, Cop Land, From Dusk Till Dawn.
Most productive era
1990s
17 films
The busiest stretch of the catalogue — volume that reads as appetite rather than availability.
Range, mapped
Genres down the side, decades across the top. Warmer cells mean stronger titles.
| Genre | 1960s | 1970s | 1980s | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | 6.11 film | 6.93 films | 7.02 films | 7.09 films | 7.52 films | 7.36 films | 6.74 films |
| Action | — | — | — | 6.53 films | 6.63 films | 5.21 film | 5.66 films |
| Thriller | — | — | — | 6.97 films | 7.82 films | — | 5.87 films |
| Comedy | — | — | — | 6.96 films | 5.72 films | 7.27 films | — |
| Crime | — | 7.01 film | — | 7.310 films | 6.32 films | — | 6.03 films |
| Romance | 6.11 film | 6.81 film | 6.71 film | 7.41 film | — | 6.54 films | — |
| Horror | — | — | — | 7.11 film | 7.11 film | — | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
Career begins
1965Working from 1965
The start of the professional record — years before the catalogue picks the story up.
First film in Nutevio
1968Who's That Knocking at My Door
Where our catalogue meets this career, as J.R..
First Academy Award nomination
1992Bugsy
Best Supporting Actor — the moment the industry started writing the same sentences our editors had been writing.
First Nutevio masterpiece · Highest rated performance · Career peak
1994Pulp Fiction
The first film here to clear 9.0 on our scale — a threshold fewer than one film in ten reaches. 9.2 on the Nutevio scale, the top of the catalogue for this performer. Weighing billing against the film's own quality, this is the point where everything aligned at once.
Most recent film
2027Fate
The current state of the argument.
Our order
Every performance in the catalogue, ordered by Nutevio Score.
Every title
Filter by genre or decade, and compare any two titles side by side.
52 of 52 films
as The Wolf
Directed by Quentin Tarantino
as Mr. White / Larry Dimmick
Directed by Quentin Tarantino
as The Wolf
Directed by Quentin Tarantino
as Ludwig
Directed by Wes Anderson
as OSS Commander Who Agrees to Deal (voice) (uncredited)
Directed by Quentin Tarantino
From the library
Every movie and TV credit stored for this name in the Nutevio catalogue — filter by media, role or sort by rating.
Showing 24 of 54 titles · 56 total credits · active 1968–2027
Fate
2027 · Actor
Kill Code
2026 · Eion
Hellfire
2026 · Jeremiah
Milarepa
2025 · Marpa
The Wrecker
2025 · Dante
Paradox Effect
2024 · Silvio
Joe Baby
2024 · Randall Kane
The Tattooist of Auschwitz
2024 · TV · Lali Sokolov (Old)
The Baker
2023 · Merchant
100 Years of Warner Bros.
2023 · TV · Self
Mike
2022 · TV · Cus D'Amato
National Treasure: Edge of History
2022 · TV · Peter Sadusky
Lansky
2021 · Meyer Lansky
Fatima
2020 · Professor Nichols
11 Colours of the Bird
2020 · Self
See You Soon
2019 · Billy
Isle of Dogs
2018 · Gondo (voice)
Youth
2015 · Mick Boyle
The Ridiculous 6
2015 · Smiley
The Grand Budapest Hotel
2014 · Ludwig
The Congress
2013 · Al
Moonrise Kingdom
2012 · Commander Pierce
Little Fockers
2010 · Randy Weir
Inglourious Basterds
2009 · OSS Commander Who Agrees to Deal (voice) (uncredited)
The defining work
#1
The Wolf
Pulp Fiction (1994)
Performance score9.0
The performance the rest of the career is read through. The Wolf gives Harvey Keitel a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Mr. White / Larry Dimmick
Reservoir Dogs (1992)
Performance score8.7
Reservoir Dogs asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Mr. White / Larry Dimmick is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
The Wolf
Pulp Fiction (1994)
Performance score8.6
Pulp Fiction asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. The Wolf is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Ludwig
The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)
Performance score8.4
The Grand Budapest Hotel asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Ludwig is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movieStart here
A guided path through the work, ordered so each film explains the next.
Best entry point
as The Wolf
Start here. Pulp Fiction is the clearest statement of what Harvey Keitel does — accessible, 154 minutes, and rated 9.2 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Harvey at the most legible performance, then move forward in time so each film reads as a response to the one before it rather than a repetition of it.
Reservoir Dogs (1992)
Same director as Pulp Fiction, different problem to solve. Watching them in order shows how much of the effect was the collaboration.
Pulp Fiction (1994)
Same director as Reservoir Dogs, different problem to solve. Watching them in order shows how much of the effect was the collaboration.
Inglourious Basterds (2009)
Same director as Pulp Fiction, different problem to solve. Watching them in order shows how much of the effect was the collaboration.
The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)
Keeps the drama register of Inglourious Basterds but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Martin Scorsese
Director
4 films together
Notably The Last Temptation of Christ
Quentin Tarantino
Director
4 films together
Notably Pulp Fiction
Wes Anderson
Director
4 films together
Notably The Grand Budapest Hotel
Ridley Scott
Director
2 films together
Notably Thelma & Louise
Jane Campion
Director
2 films together
Notably The Piano
Jon Turteltaub
Director
2 films together
Notably National Treasure
Barry Levinson
Director
1 film together
Notably Bugsy
Emile Ardolino
Director
1 film together
Notably Sister Act
Philip Kaufman
Director
1 film together
Notably Rising Sun
John Badham
Director
1 film together
Notably Point of No Return
Barry Sonnenfeld
Director
1 film together
Notably Get Shorty
Spike Lee
Director
1 film together
Notably Clockers
Robert Rodriguez
Director
1 film together
Notably From Dusk Till Dawn
James Mangold
Director
1 film together
Notably Cop Land
Jonathan Mostow
Director
1 film together
Notably U-571
Steven Brill
Director
1 film together
Notably Little Nicky
Brett Ratner
Director
1 film together
Notably Red Dragon
F. Gary Gray
Director
1 film together
Notably Be Cool
Luc Besson
Director
1 film together
Notably Arthur and the Invisibles
Paul Weitz
Director
1 film together
Notably Little Fockers
Ari Folman
Director
1 film together
Notably The Congress
Frank Coraci
Director
1 film together
Notably The Ridiculous 6
Paolo Sorrentino
Director
1 film together
Notably Youth
David Mahmoudieh
Director
1 film together
Notably See You Soon
Marco Pontecorvo
Director
1 film together
Notably Fatima
Steven Brand
Director
1 film together
Notably Joe Baby
Isaac Florentine
Director
1 film together
Notably Hellfire
Christopher Walken
Actor
1 film together
Notably Pulp Fiction
John Travolta
Actor
1 film together
Notably Pulp Fiction
Samuel L. Jackson
Actor
1 film together
Notably Pulp Fiction
Uma Thurman
Actor
1 film together
Notably Pulp Fiction
Bruce Willis
Actor
1 film together
Notably Pulp Fiction
Ving Rhames
Actor
1 film together
Notably Pulp Fiction
Eric Stoltz
Actor
1 film together
Notably Pulp Fiction
Tim Roth
Actor
1 film together
Notably Pulp Fiction
Amanda Plummer
Actor
1 film together
Notably Pulp Fiction
Maria de Medeiros
Actor
1 film together
Notably Pulp Fiction
Quentin Tarantino
Actor
1 film together
Notably Pulp Fiction
Rosanna Arquette
Actor
1 film together
Notably Pulp Fiction
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Quentin Tarantino
Director
4 films together · 8.7 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 4 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Pulp FictionWes Anderson
Director
4 films together · 8.1 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 4 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
The Grand Budapest HotelMartin Scorsese
Director
4 films together · 6.8 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 4 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
The Last Temptation of ChristRidley Scott
Director
2 films together · 7.3 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Thelma & LouiseJon Turteltaub
Director
2 films together · 6.6 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
National TreasureJane Campion
Director
2 films together · 6.6 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
The PianoMarco Pontecorvo
Director
1 film together · 7.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
FatimaBrett Ratner
Director
1 film together · 7.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Red DragonRobert Rodriguez
Director
1 film together · 7.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
From Dusk Till DawnPaolo Sorrentino
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
YouthEmile Ardolino
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Sister ActJames Mangold
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Cop LandSpike Lee
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
ClockersJonathan Mostow
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
U-571Barry Sonnenfeld
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Get ShortyAri Folman
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The CongressLuc Besson
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Arthur and the InvisiblesBarry Levinson
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
BugsyJohn Badham
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Point of No ReturnPhilip Kaufman
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Rising SunDavid Mahmoudieh
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
See You SoonSteven Brill
Director
1 film together · 5.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Little NickyPaul Weitz
Director
1 film together · 5.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Little FockersSteven Brand
Director
1 film together · 5.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Joe BabyF. Gary Gray
Director
1 film together · 5.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Be CoolIsaac Florentine
Director
1 film together · 5.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
HellfireFrank Coraci
Director
1 film together · 5.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Ridiculous 6Six degrees
Follow the thread outward — director, film, co-star, and the film after that.
Recognition
1 win · 1 nomination
1 win · 1 nomination · latest 1995
Pulp Fiction
Bugsy · as Actor
Categories of our own
Six editorial categories we apply to every performer we cover.
Most rewatchable
Pulp Fiction
as The Wolf
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
The Piano
as George Baines
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Pulp Fiction
as The Wolf
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Inglourious Basterds
as OSS Commander Who Agrees to Deal (voice) (uncredited)
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Pulp Fiction
as The Wolf
If the career had to be argued in a single scene, our editors would pick one from this film and rest the case.
In their films' words
“You can build a whole film around a performer who knows when not to speak. Harvey Keitel has known it for a long time.”
“They call it a Royale with cheese.”
“English, motherf—er, do you speak it?”
Head to head
Put two careers on the same scale and see where the argument actually sits.
| Nutevio Performer Score | 8.3 | 9.0 |
|---|---|---|
| Career ranking | #91 of 681 | #1 of 681 |
| Awards on file | 1 recorded | 3 recorded |
| Oscar wins | 0 | 1 |
| Oscar nominations | 1 | 5 |
| Average Nutevio score | 9.0 | 9.1 |
| Genres | Comedy, Adventure, Drama, Crime | Adventure, Drama, Fantasy, History |
| Directors | Wes Anderson, Quentin Tarantino | Christopher Nolan, Martin Scorsese |
| Performance DNA | Screen presence, Quiet performance, Rewatchability | Transformation, Drama, Screen presence |
| Career timeline | 1994–2014 | 2006–2026 |
| Most iconic role | The Wolf — Pulp Fiction | Odysseus — The Odyssey |
| Most rewatchable film | Pulp Fiction | Interstellar |
| Filmography | 2 catalogue films | 4 catalogue films |
Films together
Nothing in common in the library yet.
Shared directors
Nothing in common in the library yet.
Shared collections
Adventure Movies, Drama Movies, Top 250 Movies of All Time, Crime Movies, Top 100 Crime Movies
Matt Damon edges ahead here — a higher floor across a comparable body of work.
Ours alone
Recognitions handed out by this desk, on criteria no awards body uses.
Career Achievement
Awarded
59 years of relevant work — not merely a long career, but a long career of choices.
Modern Classic Performer
Awarded
Defining performances delivered inside the last twenty-five years, in films already being taught rather than merely remembered.
Drama Legend
Awarded
27 catalogue titles in drama, each one a reference point for the films that followed.
Our desk
Best ending, best opening, best twist and the rest — categories we apply to everyone we cover.
Best ending
Pulp Fiction
as The Wolf
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Pulp Fiction
as The Wolf
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Milarepa
as Marpa
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Clockers
as Det. Rocco Klein
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Pulp Fiction
as The Wolf
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
The Ridiculous 6
as Smiley
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Moonrise Kingdom
as Commander Pierce
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
The Grand Budapest Hotel
as Ludwig
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
Across the library
Every Nutevio collection this name turns up in, and how high they rank there.
Collection footprint
Appears in 8 Nutevio collections
Keep reading
genre
Drama Movies
Includes The Grand Budapest Hotel, Pulp Fiction
Read the collectiongenre
Best Comedies
Features The Grand Budapest Hotel at #1
Read the collectiongenre
Comedy Movies
Features The Grand Budapest Hotel at #2
Read the collectiongenre
Best Family Movies
Features The Grand Budapest Hotel at #3
Read the collectionranking
Top 250 Movies of All Time
Features Pulp Fiction
Read the collectiongenre
Crime Movies
Features Pulp Fiction
Read the collectionFrom the magazine
If you like this performer
Matt Damon
Works with the same directors — Martin Scorsese
Michael Caine
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Tom Hanks
Built a career in the same territory: animation and family
Bonnie Hunt
Built a career in the same territory: animation and family
Harry Dean Stanton
Works with the same directors — Ridley Scott
Leonardo DiCaprio
Works with the same directors — Martin Scorsese
Have your say
Community
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