- Born
- Height5′ 7″ (1.70 m)
- Keith Gordon was born on February 3, 1961 in New York City, New York, USA. He is a director and actor, known for A Midnight Clear (1992), Waking the Dead (2000) and Mother Night (1996). He has been married to Rachel Griffin since 1998.
- SpouseRachel Griffin(1998 - present)
- ParentsMark GordonBarbara Gordon
- Took a one-day role in I Love Trouble (1994) to personally ask Nick Nolte to read the script for Mother Night (1996), after being initially dismissed by Nolte's agent.
- He quit acting to become a director.
- Appeared with Kevin Bacon in Off-Broadway theater when they were both starting out as actors.
- In 1986, his character in Back to School (1986) met Kurt Vonnegut Jr.. Ten years later, Gordon directed the motion picture Mother Night (1996), which is based on Vonnegut's book of the same name.
- Son of New York actors Mark & Barbara Gordon.
- [on working with director Brian De Palma on Home Movies (1979)] I was very impressed that Brian took the time to rehearse before shooting started. Especially on low budget film, like Home Movies, this was critical. It's much cheaper to resolve the 'What the hell is this scene really about?' questions when there isn't a crew of 30 or more people standing around waiting, with all the expenses of filmmaking on the clock. It also made the cast much more confident in ourselves, each other and Brian. At the same time, he was always encouraging experimentation and improvisation-- which wasn't what would have expected from someone known as a visual Hitchcockian filmmaker. But this was an antic comedy, that was going to rely more on performances than shots, and he was wise enough to know that and alter his style to fit the material. We did a surprising number of takes, given the limited budget, but this was my first exposure to the truism, 'film is the cheapest thing.' What's expensive is all the time getting ready to shoot; once it's set, make sure you get what you need. Brian would have us try the scene multiple ways, saying (for example), 'Good, we've got an angry version, we're printing that, now try one that's softer.' It gave us tremendous confidence to try things, knowing that there would be numerous takes, and he'd always print two or three. As an actor, you're terribly afraid of looking like an idiot, and this safety zone made a huge difference. It also gave Brian lots of choices in the editing room, when sometimes the thing that seemed best on the set didn't play as well when the whole film was put together.
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