Steven Keats

Steven Keats took great pride in the diversity of his lengthy acting career, which saw him portray him everyone from real-life American inventor Thomas Edison in the TV series "Voyagers!" to fictional New York City immigrant Jake Putovsky in the critically acclaimed feature film "Hester Street." Keats turned to acting after serving in the Vietnam War and started performing on Broadway by the early '70s. He made his film debut as charismatic gun runner Jackie Brown in the influential crime drama "The Friends of Eddie Coyle"; the film's success led to Keats' increased visibility in films like "Death Wish," where he portrayed vigilante Charles Bronson's grieving son-in-law, and "Hester Street," where his role as happily assimilated Russian immigrant Jake Putovsky explored the fragile relationship between the Old and New World. In 1977, Keats had a very successful year--he landed a major role as a Mossad intelligence agent in "Black Sunday," about a psychologically damaged Vietnam vet who attempts to bomb the Superbowl, and he later won critical praise for his portrayal of Jay Blackman, a ruthless Depression-era entrepreneur, in the TV mini-series "Seventh Avenue," which chronicled the legendarily brutal New York City garment industry. Though his career waned through the '80s, Keats landed guest roles on several high-profile series, including the small-town mystery serial "Murder, She Wrote" and the award-winning procedural drama "Law & Order."