| Grew-up in the Brighton Beach section of Brooklyn, NY |
| Joined the Actors Studio |
| Worked as a court stenographer at Manhattan Criminal Court for eight years |
| Worked as a shoe salesman |
| Worked for over ten years in summer stock, repertory, off-off-Broadway, coffee houses, and community theater |
1956 | Joined the U.S. Marine Corps at age 16 and served in Lebanon; received high school equivalency diploma while a Marine |
1965 | Answered a newspaper advertisement placed by Martin Scorsese, then an NYU student director, seeking actors for his first film |
1965 | Made off-Broadway debut in Sam Shepard's "Up To Thursday" at the Cherry Lane Theater |
1967 | Film debut, "Who's That Knocking at My Door?"; first collaboration with Scorsese |
1970 | Worked as a production assistant and provided stills for the little-seen documentary "Street Scenes 70"; Scorcese was production supervisor and post-production director |
1973 | Landed breakthrough role in Scorsese's first major feature "Mean Streets"; first collaboration with Robert De Niro |
1974 | First notable TV appearance, "A Memory of Two Mondays" for PBS' "Great Performances" |
1974 | Played Bugsy Siegel to Dyan Cannon's Virginia Hill in the NBC biopic "The Virginia Hill Story" |
1974 | Played the abusive boyfriend of Ellen Burstyn's Alice in "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore"; again collaborated with Scorsese |
1975 | Made Broadway debut as Happy in Arthur Miller's "Death of a Salesman"; starred George C. Scott as Willy Loman |
1976 | Acted in two screenplays written by Alan Rudolph - "Welcome to L.A.," directed by Rudolph and "Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson," directed by Robert Altman |
1976 | Cast in "Apocalypse Now"; had a falling out with Francis Ford Coppola; fired on location in the Philippines and replaced by Martin Sheen |
1976 | Portrayed Jodie Foster's lover-pimp in Scorsese's "Taxi Driver"; scripted by Paul Schrader; second feature with De Niro |
1977 | First collaboration with filmmaker James Toback as the star of "Fingers" |
1977 | Headlined the cast of Ridley Scott's period adaptation of Joseph Conrad's novel "The Duellists" |
1978 | Starred with Richard Pryor and Yaphet Kotto as auto workers in Schrader's directorial debut "Blue Collar" |
1980 | His "Brooklyn-real" voice dubbed over in the sci-fi flop "Saturn 3" |
1983 | Reteamed with Toback in "Exposed" |
1984 | Co-starred with William Hurt, Sigourney Weaver, and Ron Silver in the Broadway play "Hurlyburly" |
1985 | Missed about a quarter of his performances in the off-Broadway production of Sam Shepherd's "A Lie of the Mind" |
1986 | Appeared with then companion Lorraine Bracco in Rabe's "Goose and Tom-Tom" |
1987 | Third film with Toback, "The Pick-Up Artist" |
1988 | Played Judas Iscariot in Scorsese's "Last Temptation of Christ"; scripted by Schrader |
1990 | Cast opposite Jack Nicholson (who also directed) as the titular "The Two Jakes," a loose sequel to "Chinatown" |
1991 | Played mobster Mickey Cohen in "Bugsy"; scripted by Toback; earned Golden Globe and Oscar nominations for Best Supporting Actor |
1991 | Re-teamed with Rudolph to appear in the thriller "Mortal Thoughts" |
1991 | Reunited with Ridley Scott to play an FBI agent in "Thelma & Louise" |
1992 | Essayed the title role of Abel Ferrara's "Bad Lieutenant" |
1992 | First producing credit as the co-producer of "Reservoir Dogs"; directed by Quentin Tarantino; also starred |
1993 | Cast as the "gone-native" man who eventually romances a mute Scottish woman in "The Piano"; first film with writer-director Jane Campion |
1993 | Re-teamed with Ferrara for "Dangerous Game," co-starring Madonna |
1994 | Portrayed the Wolf in Tarantino's "Pulp Fiction" |
1994 | Served as UNICEF spokesperson on behalf of the youngest victims in the war-torn land formerly known as Yugoslavia |
1995 | Co-starred with William Hurt as a cigar store manager in "Smoke," directed by Wayne Wang and scripted by Paul Auster; reprised role in the companion film "Blue in the Face"; served as executive producer on the latter |
1996 | Cast as a solemn preacher held hostage by two derranged criminals (Tarantino and George Clooney) in the Tarantino-scripted "From Dusk Till Dawn"; directed by Robert Rodriguez |
1997 | Fourth film with De Niro, James Mangold's "Cop Land" |
1997 | Teamed with Cameron Diaz in the misfire "Head Above Water"; premiered on HBO before receiving limited theatrical release |
1998 | Portrayed Elvis (who thinks he really is "The King") in "Finding Graceland" |
1998 | Starred in Auster's solo directing effort "Lulu on the Bridge" |
1999 | Played a former GI who returns to Vietnam seeking the daughter he left behind in Tony Bui's "Three Seasons"; film selected as Vietnam's entry for the 1999 Best Foreign-Language Academy Award |
1999 | Reteamed with Campion for "Holy Smoke!" as an aging cult deprogrammer who more than meets his match in Kate Winslet |
2000 | Acted in the all-star ensemble of Jonathan Mostow's WWII submarine drama "U-571" |
2002 | Played FBI Agent Jack Crawford in "Red Dragon," a prequel to "Silence of the Lambs" |
2002 | Portrayed a Nazi in "The Grey Zone," directed by Tim Blake Nelson; also served as an executive producer |
2003 | Starred as as the mysterious and secretive grandfather "Che" in Juan Gerard's "Dreaming of Julia" |
2004 | Starred opposite Nicolas Cage in Jon Turteltaub's "National Treasure" |
2007 | Co-starred in Justin Theroux's directorial debut "Dedication," a romantic comedy that premiered at Sundance |
2007 | Re-teamed with Nicolas Cage for "National Treasure: Book of Secrets" |
2008 | Made debut as TV series regular on ABC's "Life on Mars," playing Det. Gene Hunt |
2010 | Reunited with De Niro in the comedy "Little Fockers" |
2012 | Cast in Wes Anderson's romantic adventure "Moonrise Kingdom" |
