From De Palma To Die Hard

What does it feel like to walk onto your first film set and see Robert De Niro, Sean Connery, and a young Kevin Costner across the room? We sit down with character actor Don Harvey for a candid tour through a career that bridges classics, cult favorites, and the small on-set details that make them stick. From The Untouchables and Creepshow 2 to Casualties of War, Don shares how early shock turned into craft, how Brian De Palma shaped his sense of cinematic tension, and why some “horror” films like Carrie live comfortably in the mainstream canon.

The conversation turns kinetic when Bruce Willis enters the frame: Die Hard 2 and Hudson Hawk become a window into how action movies are built, with a hat tip to screenwriter Stephen E. de Souza. Don’s stories land where craft meets personality—like Thomas Jane shooting Vice barefoot in a three-piece suit and getting away with it because the camera rarely shows the floor. We zoom out to the power of scene partners, with vivid portraits of Liam Neeson’s generosity and Forrest Whitaker’s method intensity, and we spotlight Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai as a lean, inventive gem powered by RZA’s score.

We also swap origin stories. Our host traces a lifelong movie habit back to Back to the Future Part III and the electric memory of a theater’s glow, then shares a writer’s path forged in Pittsburgh—typing every script at George Romero’s own desk. Don contrasts Michael J. Fox’s effortless charm with Sean Penn’s deep immersion on Casualties of War, revealing how set dynamics shape performances and friendships alike. We close with a friendly canon skirmish—The Godfather or Goodfellas—and an open door to keep the conversation rolling.

If you love behind-the-scenes truth, actor craft, and film history that breathes, hit play, subscribe for more conversations like this, and tell us where you land: Godfather or Goodfellas? Share the show, leave a quick review, and join the debate.

Chapters

• 0:01 Origins And First Big Roles
• 0:55 From The Untouchables To Creepshow 2
• 2:00 De Palma’s Influence And Horror Classics
• 3:25 Bruce Willis Era And Hudson Hawk
• 4:55 Writing, Romero’s Desk, And Awards
• 6:15 Vice Stories And Thomas Jane’s Quirks
• 7:02 On Liam Neeson And Forrest Whitaker
• 8:30 Ghost Dog Shoutout And Underrated Gems
• 9:40 A Lifelong Movie Habit
• 10:30 Working With Michael J. Fox And Sean Penn
• 10:31 Closing From Living Dead Weekend

Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 0:01

Sam Fished the Fishbowl Pierre at Living Dead Weekend 2024 with one of my favorite character actors of all time, Don Hart.

SPEAKER_00: 0:11

Wow, Sam, thank you. Absolutely. That's quite a compliment. Especially coming from you because you've seen them all, right? Yeah. I have.

SPEAKER_01: 0:20

I have. Ever since Creep Show 2, I mean, even the Untouchables.

SPEAKER_00: 0:26

Yeah, The Untouchables. I did the The Untouchables before Creep Show 2. That was my first movie, my first time I was ever on a film set, which was just blew my mind because you know there's Robert De Niro and Sean Connery and Kevin Costner, who was not very well known then. Right, right. And me. And I was like, am I supposed to be here really? But a few months after that I did Creep Show 2, and then I started to feel like I belonged. Because I was in two classic movies. Right, right. They weren't classics yet, but they became classics. Exactly. Eventually.

SPEAKER_01: 1:00

I mean, uh, Casualties of War, another epic film. Epic film.

SPEAKER_00: 1:05

Nominated for an Academy Award, Brian De Palma directed. And you know, even then, he was one of my favorite directors. Obviously, uh Scarface. Exactly. It's like an all-time classic. The untouchables, you know, the dress to kill Carrie. Right. I mean, for all the horror people, I'm surprised they don't mention Carrie as much. I know, I know. I mean, because it's not really considered a horror movie, it's considered a legitimate sort of like mainstream film.

SPEAKER_01: 1:33

Right, right.

SPEAKER_00: 1:34

But it is an amazing horror film, right?

SPEAKER_01: 1:36

Right, right, definitely.

SPEAKER_00: 1:38

You know? So that was a big deal for me. And you know, thank you for mentioning it.

SPEAKER_01: 1:44

Absolutely. Another one that I I want to mention is Vice and Vice and Taken Three.

SPEAKER_00: 1:51

And Taken Three. Those are right around the same time. Yeah, Vice with our buddy Thomas Jane. And uh, you know, Bruce Willis. And Bruce Willis. I've done several Bruce Willis movies. The first one was Die Hard 2. Yes, yes. Back in 1990.

SPEAKER_01: 2:06

Right, right.

SPEAKER_00: 2:06

And then right after that, I went right from that directly into Hudson Hawk.

SPEAKER_01: 2:11

Yes, yes. Which is super fun. I mean Stephen E. D'Souza.

SPEAKER_00: 2:16

I love Stephen D'Souza. Yeah, he's he wrote both those scripts, I think.

SPEAKER_01: 2:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 2:20

Do you know him?

SPEAKER_01: 2:20

Have you met him? I have not met him, but he's he's actually one of my biggest inspirations.

SPEAKER_00: 2:27

Are you a writer?

SPEAKER_01: 2:27

I am a writer, yeah. Oh, great. Yeah, I went to school here in Pittsburgh for screenwriting. Right. And oddly enough, right before I started my degree at Point Park, my mom got me actually George Romero's desk. George Romero's desk?

SPEAKER_00: 2:45

That's huge. You think about the energy in that.

SPEAKER_01: 2:48

Every script I've ever written has been on that desk. Wow. I have over 45 different screenwriting awards. Wow. And two scripts published on Amazon.

SPEAKER_00: 2:59

Nice. When are you gonna cast me in one of your movies? That's the goal. I'm waiting. That's the goal. You know where to find me. Yes. You know, just Google Don Harvey, and there'll be several ways to get in touch with me for all of you out there. But yeah, that's exciting stuff. Yeah, I did a couple movies with Bruce and then didn't do another one with him until Vice, and I did another one. I did another one, I can't remember what it was. It was one of those other ones that he does more recently. Yeah, Vice was a trip. Thomas Jane doesn't wear shoes. He likes to go barefoot, which is amazing, especially when he's wearing like a three-piece suit. But but you know, the camera doesn't really show your feet very often. Right, right. So when it when he has to wear, when he has to show his feet, he wears like you know black socks, so you will you won't notice that he doesn't have shoes on. But he's quite an eccentric and a very lovely guy and a joy to work with.

SPEAKER_01: 3:59

What what about Liam Neeson and Forrest Whitaker?

SPEAKER_00: 4:02

Oh my god, now you're talking about two heavy hitters, man. Right, right. Yeah, Liam Neeson, very tall.

SPEAKER_01: 4:07

Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_00: 4:08

I know if you most people might not realize that. He probably gets a lot of tall people that be in movies with him. Right. He was about a foot taller than me, incredibly powerful man, an absolute gentleman, and you know, always tried to make me look good. And you know, I I wish I could have spent more time with him personally. We just really just saw each other on the set. But he was always really great to work with. Brilliant, a lot of great performances, Schindler's List, right? Right, right. One of the greatest movies ever made. Exactly. You know, so I felt really lucky to do it.

SPEAKER_01: 4:40

I'll even go back to the 80s to one of his first films, Crawl.

SPEAKER_00: 4:44

Crawl. What about Dark Man? Didn't he do Darkman? Dark Man, yeah, great movie. There's a movie called Bounty, yeah, with Anthony Hopkins and Melvin, yeah. That was a remote. Based on Mutiny on the Bounty on the Bounty. Which is actually made like three times. The first one was with uh Charles Watton. Right. And then Marlon Brando did it. Yeah, yeah. I think Trevor Howard, I think is his name. Yeah. A great English actor. But yeah, Liam Neeson is awesome in that, is everything. And then uh Forrest Whitaker. Force Whitaker, yeah. Woo wee! That guy's method actor, you know. Great in platoon. Yes, you know, but uh yeah, absolute uh inspiration to work with. And a very sweet man.

SPEAKER_01: 5:30

One of my favorite films of his that definitely does not get enough recognition because it's more of an indie film, Ghost Dog, Way of the Warrior. Wow, Ghost Dog Way of the Warrior. Is that like a horror movie or not? No, no, he plays like Hitman that works for the mafia, right? And he follows like the code of the samurai. Wow. And Rizza, sorry, I haven't seen that. Rizza, who was part of the Wu Tang clan, uh, does this the score to the film and uh makes a cameo in it? I gotta check that out. It's it's really underrated. It's like it's from the like I want to say mid-late 90s, and really awesome, such a low budget for what they're able to do. But he gives a great performance. Great performance, great performance.

SPEAKER_00: 6:20

He's great in everything, he's one of those people that is incapable of doing anything other than great. Right. But now I I would let me ask you a question. Sure. Of all the movies ever made, sure, what percentage do you think you've actually seen? Because you've probably seen probably more than the average person. I have. How many movies do you see like a week or a month or a year?

SPEAKER_01: 6:44

Uh I I I watch at least one movie a day. Wow.

SPEAKER_00: 6:48

There you have it, one movie a day. At least, at least. At least. Yeah. Probably some days you watch three or four, right? If you get a if you get on a chance, you know. When did you become so passionate about movies?

SPEAKER_01: 7:00

Honestly, my first legit memory is at age three, being in a movie theater, watching Back to the Future Part Three. Oh. Oh. And what do you remember about that movie? I the I only have like kind of like flashes of it because I was so young. But I remember being in the movie theater, kind of crawling over the seats, and my both my parents, who are now divorced, were were in the theater, and I remember just like the train part at the end. You know, where where they're Marty's trying to get and Doc are trying to get back to 1985 and on the train, and I forget her name, Mary Mary Stern Sternburn. Mary Steam Steamburgen. Steinburn, right, right. She she's trying to like you know go after Doc because they're in love, and and honestly, like Back to the Future, the whole trilogy became like one of my top favorite film franchises of all time.

SPEAKER_00: 8:10

Well, it's brilliant, obviously, Michael J. Fox. Right, who uh we have a picture of Michael on the table here today. Right. Yeah, no, yeah, we because this is from uh Casualties of War, which is a film I did with Michael in 1988, came out in 89, and also Sean Penn.

SPEAKER_01: 8:27

Right, right. Right. So speaking of those two, what was it like working with Michael and Sean?

SPEAKER_00: 8:33

Well, they're very different, obviously. You know, Sean is a method actor, he's a very, very serious actor and very serious about his work. I mean, a lot of times I just talk to him in character. And you know, but Michael's pretty much the opposite. He's just totally himself all the time on and off screen. I mean, there are certain actors that just really go a long way with just playing themselves. Right, right. And they're very interesting and very charming, and so you know, it it pays off. You really want to keep watching them. And other actors like Sean, it just never really are themselves. They're always so deeply into the character that you don't even recognize that it's the same person. So it was really rewarding just to be around them. I learned a lot from each one in their own way. Of course, there's an old story about when Sean started working with me and and Steve Baldwin and several other guys in the movie said don't be friendly to Michael J. Fox. Let's let's all just kind of be a little bit mean to him and not not not get very close because we want them to be uncomfortable during the shooting. Right, right. And I and I tried to do that, I did it for a while, but it it was very clear after a few weeks that Michael J. Fox was just the coolest guy in the world, and everybody in the movie wanted to hang out with him, and we'd all play cards at his place. And so it was very hard not to become involved with him because he was just uh magnetic, you know. Right. But I I tried not to do it in front of Sean so he wouldn't see me. But anyway, what were we talking about? Oh, I was asking you what is what what is your favorite movie?

SPEAKER_01: 10:09

Oh too many tonight. I have to break them down and now what about The Godfather? The Godfather is a great film. I actually like Goodfellas more.

SPEAKER_00: 10:19

Wow. So there we go. Godfather, great film, good fella, goodfellas, even better. Well, yeah, De Niro and Joe Pesce, you can't go wrong. And of course, you know, Ray Leota. Uh, we have to oh, we're gonna have to break it off here. But uh, this is only the first of many interviews we're gonna do over the years because I'm gonna be following your career. I'm sure you're going places, but I really appreciate you taking the time.

SPEAKER_01: 10:45

Absolutely. I I love to keep in touch.

SPEAKER_00: 10:47

All right, man. Well, you know where to find me. Just Google Don Harvey. Definitely friend me on Facebook, you know, whatever.

SPEAKER_01: 10:54

Definitely.

SPEAKER_00: 10:55

But um well, all right, here we are.

SPEAKER_01: 10:58

We're at we're at the uh Living Dead weekend 2024 with Don Harvey. Don, thank you so much for taking the time to swim in the bowl with me.

SPEAKER_00: 11:08

Yeah, baby. Thank you. Thank you.