Keats was terrific in his film debut as Jackie Brown. I especially love the scene in which Brown displays open contempt for the hippie wannabes who he considers to be total rank amateurs.
You've seen Guy Standeven in something because the man was in everything.

To me, as a Boston native of partial Irish descent, he seemed a little out of place in the film, with his very New York Jewish accent and mannerisms. Then again, for all I know, his character was Jewish and from New York. His performance wasn't bad, but Robert Mitchum really nailed his role and was the most authentic, I think.

It WAS Mitchum's best, IMO. And it's hard for me to say anybody in particular steals the film. The cast is just that good.

Agreed as good as Mitchum is ,Keats and Richard Jordan steal the film. Funny cause it's probably one of Mitchum's top 3 or 4 roles.

the most annoying thing about him in DEATH WISH is the way he said "DAD" to Bronson. but he played the part well, because he's supposed to be annoying. this becomes apparent when bronson, who has become a working vigilante, is playing happy (game show sounding) music in his orange painted apartment, and keats says something like "You don't seem very depressed, dad" and Bronson snaps at him. awesome scene.
dont forget he played larry schiller in THE EXECUTIONER'S SONG. not a perfect film but he did well in that.

I didn't see Death Wish, but if he could play an ultra-annoying character really well it should have given him a lot of work. It's not easy to play annoying characters, even tho it seems like it ought to be.

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Keats was an excellent actor. It may not have been the career that caused him to take his life - we'll never know. He wasn't preppy enough to fit in with the Hurt crowd, but he did deserve better roles than he got, at least on film.

Steven Keats is an actor I'd totally forgotten about. I remember that he killed himself, actually am surprised to learn that it was only about fifteen years ago. It seems longer. Keats was a fine actor, and I agree that he was superb in
Eddie Coyle
. The guy had it. Even the hard to please John Simon praised Keats for his excellent performance in
Black Sunday
, in which he didn't even seem to be acting. If I didn't know better I'd have thought it was a real Israeli military op, not an American actor.
His decline is sad and seems fairly abrupt. He was an up and comer back in the 70s, was overshadowed in life (and in death) by, among others, John Cazale. Maybe he wasn't as well connected to big time directors and stars as some of his contemporaries. Keats never came on strong the way, say, Jeff Goldblum did. Goldblum had a
schtick
. Keats was an actor. He wasn't good looking like Eric Roberts (who had problems of his own), didn't seem to have the right vibe to fit in with those Yalie-
Big Chill
actors so beloved by the critics if not always the public (Meryl Streep, Treat Williams, William Hurt). It's like Keats was an odd man out. He wasn't mainstream enough to go the good 'ol boy route that Ned Beatty sometimes took, so he had nothing to fall back on.
There's a moving tribute to Keats on his message board by an old college friend of his. Keats was apparently a really good guy, and a war hero to boot! I feel sad just thinking about him. It's like the guy just fell through the cracks and scarcely anyone remembers him. Well, I do. We do.

I recall him being very good as Robert Shaw's headstrong young commando sidekick(they were both playing Israeli military agents) in the great 1977 thriller "Black Sunday."
And I know this is weird, but: I give him credit for appearing in movies with that big gap in his front teeth. The British actor Terry-Thomas had a gap that he used for comedy, but Keats played dramaticand realistic. A lot of people have gap teeth.
If he had that sad end, I'm sorry. But he was in movies, so we can still go back and visit him

Yeah but ending it on a soap opera isn't quite the heights he could hit. He was really good in Eddie Coyle.
WHAT'S IN THE BOX??????

I think he had a good career: he was a working actor. Most are not.

He was great in this movie, but his career never took off afterwards. Turns out he ended up killing himself. RIP
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Keats
WHAT'S IN THE BOX??????

He just never got a better role than this one, and it crushed him. He deserved a better career than he got, because he really proved his acting chops here. When I think of him, I always see him in that yellow muscle car.

Keats was outstanding as Jackie Brown. Pity that he committed suicide at a fairly young age.
I am the Duke of IMDb bio writers! I am A#1!

Yeah Keats. talk about your scene stealing! I can't believe how much I was pulling for this guy in every single scene. Seems like a character in need of a period made sequel/prequel. Completely compelling and with so much more meat than much of his later work.
Yates movies called by some: "directorless"? Watch the dialogs with and including Eddie and Jackie There's your direction. Freakin' riveting and when folk don't "get it", more's the pity!

Agreed. His performance is why I came to this board

Hmmm.not sure about that.
Jackie Brown is based on the Elmore Leonard novel Rum Punch - but the character's name in the novel is Jackie Burke.
My Friends of Eddie Coyle book has an intro by Leonard. So, I always figured that the Jackie Brown movie name was a nod to Higgins by Leonard.
Who knows, though.

Hi HFG
Thanks for explaining. That makes sense.
I'm also a Tarantino fan too by the way. I would have LOVED to have seen Keats in one of his movies
"This lifes hard man but its harder if you're stupid!" (Steven Keats as Jackie Brown)

Actually it's a perfect Tarantino mashup. Everyone knows that Pam Grier was Foxy Brown.. so calling her Jackie Brown is sort of expected .. but it also pays homage to the character played by one of Tarantino's sainted 1970s character players.. like John Saxon, Robert Forster, and Steve Keats. So it's, like most of Tarantino's titles.. a play on titles if you will.
Just as Inglorious Basterds references the kind of "Wild Geese" style films of the 1970s featuring casts of mercenaries out for a big payday and carrying out some shady mission like like "Geese" or a film actually titled Inglorious Bastards.. so too does Tarantino juxtapose the solemn and reverential view of WWII with the good time WWII action pictures like Kelly's Heroes, Dirty Dozen, or Force 10 From Navarone overlaid with his rumination of Hollywood and film.

He was good as the star of 7th avenue, a miniseries in the late '70's. Terrific.
"Two more swords and I'll be Queen of the Monkey People." Roseanne

yes, i remember him as Edison in that VOYAGERS episode. what a great show that was.
actually, i dont think Tarantino based the name on Keats because one of the crew members of JACKIE BROWN's name is JACQUI BROWN (or spelled something like that). plus i really feel the BROWN came from FOXY BROWN, the Jack Hill/Pam Grier blaxploitation movie. I think that's where the BROWN came from. then again, who knows with Tarantino.
steven keats was good in DEATH WISH but annoying but that was on purpose. the way he said "DAD" really strikes a nerve, of the audience and bronson's character after a while.
oh and another tarantino connection to keats:
tarantino based the scene in KILL BILL where daryl hannah is impersonating a nurse and he uses the split screens showing her putting poison in the needle for this entire scene he was inspired by the use of split screen in an old trailer for BLACK SUNDAY that shows Marthe Keller loading up a poison syringe (it's not split screen in the film, just the trailer, according to QT) and she ends up, although wanting to kill Shaw with it, murdering keats in the elevator.

hi Sean, oh I totally agree! I loved him in Black Sunday as well and got the DVD two weeks ago. He's so versatile and could literally play so many roles. I just watched him on youtube in Voyagers (the "Worlds Apart" episode) where he plays Thomas Edison. Amazing. A beautiful man.
"This lifes hard man but its harder if you're stupid!" (Steven Keats as Jackie Brown)

He's also fantastic in the excellent, supremely-underrated
Black Sunday
.
"
if that was off, I'd be whoopin' your ass up and down this street.
" ~ an irate Tarantino