Grew-up in the Brighton Beach section of Brooklyn, NY

Joined the US Marine Corps at age 16 and served in Lebanon; got his high school equivalency diploma while a Marine

Worked as a shoe salesman

Worked as a court stenographer at Manhattan Criminal Court for eight years

Joined the Actors Studio

Off-Broadway debut in Sam Shepard's "Up To Thursday" at the Cherry Lane Theater

Worked for over ten years in summer stock, repertory, off-off-Broadway, coffee houses and community theater

Answered a newspaper advertisement placed by Martin Scorsese, then an NYU student director, seeking actors for his first film

Film debut in "Who's That Knocking at My Door?"; first collaboration with Scorsese

Worked as a production assistant and provided stills for the little-seen documentary "Street Scenes 70"; Scorcese was production supervisor and post-production director

Breakthrough role in Scorsese's first major feature, "Mean Streets"; first collaboration with Robert De Niro

Played the abusive boyfriend of Ellen Burstyn's Alice in "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore"; again collaborated with Scorsese

First notable TV appearance, "A Memory of Two Mondays" for PBS' "Great Performances"

Played Bugsy Siegel to Dyan Cannon's Virginia Hill in the NBC biopic "The Virginia Hill Story"

Broadway debut as Happy in Arthur Miller's "Death of a Salesman"; starred George C Scott as Willy Loman

Cast in "Apocalypse Now"; had a falling out with Coppola; fired on location in the Phillipines and replaced by Martin Sheen

Portrayed Jodie Foster's lover-pimp in Scorsese's "Taxi Driver"; scripted by Paul Schrader; second feature with De Niro

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

First collaboration with filmmaker James Toback as the star of "Fingers"

Headlined the cast of Ridley Scott's period adaptation of Joseph Conrad's novel, "The Duellists"

Starred with Richard Pryor and Yaphet Kotto as auto workers in Schrader's directorial debut, "Blue Collar"

Had his "Brooklyn-real" voice dubbed over in the sci-fi flop "Saturn 3"

Reteamed with Toback on "Exposed"

Co-starred with William Hurt, Sigourney Weaver and Ron Silver in the Broadway play "Hurlyburly"

Missed about a quarter of his performances in the Off-Broadway production of Sam Shepherd's "A Lie of the Mind"

Appeared with then companion Lorraine Bracco in Rabe's "Goose and Tom-Tom"

Third film with Toback, "The Pick-Up Artist"

Played Judas Iscariot in Scorsese's "Last Temptation of Christ"; scripted by Schrader

Cast opposite Jack Nicholson (who also directed) as the titular "The Two Jakes," a loose sequel to "Chinatown"

Retemed with Rudolph to appear in the thriller "Mortal Thoughts"

Reunited with Ridley Scott to play an FBI agent in "Thelma & Louise"

Played mobster Mickey Cohen in "Bugsy"; scripted by Toback; earned Golden Globe and Oscar nominations for Best Supporting Actor

First producing credit as the co-producer of "Reservoir Dogs"; directed by Quentin Tarantino; also starred

Essayed the title role of Abel Ferrara's "Bad Lieutenant"

Reteamed with Ferrara for "Dangerous Game"

Cast as the "gone-native" man who eventually romances a mute Scottish woman in "The Piano"; first film with writer-director Jane Campion

Was a UNICEF spokesperson on behalf of the youngest victims in the war-torn land formerly known as Yugoslavia

Portrayed the Wolf in Tarantino's "Pulp Fiction"

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

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

Fourth film with De Niro, James Mangold's "Cop Land"

Teamed with Cameron Diaz in the misfire "Head Above Water"; premiered on HBO before receiving limited theatrical release

Starred in Auster's solo directing effort, "Lulu on the Bridge"

Portrayed Elvis (who thinks he really is "The King") in "Finding Graceland"

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

Reteamed with Campion for "Holy Smoke!" as an aging cult deprogrammer who more than meets his match in Kate Winslet

Acted in the all-star ensemble of Jonathan Mostow's WWII submarine drama "U-571"

Portrayed a Nazi in "The Grey Zone"; directed by Tim Blake Nelson; also served as an executive producer

Played FBI Agent Jack Crawford in "Red Dragon," a prequel to "Silence of the Lambs"

Starred as as the mysterious and secretive grandfather "Che" in Juan Gerard's "Dreaming of Julia"

Starred opposite Nicolas Cage in Jon Turteltaub's "National Treasure"

Costarred in Justin Theroux's directing debut, "Dedication," a romantic comedy premiered at Sundance

Re-teamed with Nicolas Cage for "National Treasure: Book of Secrets"

Made debut as TV series regular on ABC's "Life on Mars" playing Det. Gene Hunt