If he hadn't bothered to answer an advertisement placed by a New York university student making his thesis film, then we might never have heard of Harvey Keitel (pronounced kuh'taal).

The student was Martin Scorsese and he chose Keitel for his 1968 debut film Who's That Knocking At My Door? The relationship reached a peak with the landmark Mean Streets.

Since then, the 66-year-old actor has made almost as many films as his age, usually as a brooding killer.

Occasionally, he can be persuaded to play a good guy - eg the sympathetic cop in Thelma And Louise, and as a gypsy organ-grinder with a pet monkey in the children's film Pet.

We will next see him on screen in The Gypsy's Curse, about a disabled man who falls in love with a temptress.

Framework>

The crumpled face, the angry hazel eyes, the deeply-etched scowl are fuelled by the controlled tension that makes him the most chilling screen baddie of his generation.

The 5ft 9in star was convinced he would never fulfil his dream of becoming an actor because he had an awful stammer.

"As a young man it was very difficult for me to talk," he says. "I realised I'd need time and patience to get rid of it. And I did - it took me 20 years."

Exercise>

He is solidly built and regular training sessions keep him that way.

"When I was 17, I joined the marines and served in the infantry, rising to the rank of corporal," he says.

"If anyone knows how to keep fit, it's the marines, and we had one of the toughest drill sergeants in the corps.

"We were proud of our physique and enjoyed our training - I still am and still do."

Diet>

Like so many of the tough characters he plays, he can eat and drink hard with the best of them - when the mood takes him.

But beneath Keitel's dark exterior and his near permanent scowl lies a soft man who values fitness and usually eats sensibly.

He enjoys Italian and Chinese food, the latter ever since filming Smoke.

Love-life>

He was married for 11 years to Goodfellas star Lorraine Braco, with whom he had a daughter, Stella.

He also has a son, Hudson, born in the summer of 2001 to his then girlfriend Lisa Karmazin, a potter in California.

In October, 2001, Keitel married Israeli-born Daphne Kaster in Jerusalem, having met her just three weeks previously at a Toronto film festival. They have a year-old son, Roman. Others he has been linked with in the past include Madonna and actress Andie MacDowell.