Keating was born in London to Roman Catholic parents who had emigrated from Ireland, Charles James Keating and Margaret Keating, Keating moved to the United States via Canada with his family as a teenager. He was working as a hair dresser in Buffalo, New York, when a customer suggested he try out for a local play, making his stage debut in 1959 with the Buffalo Studio Theatre. Keating found steady work with the Cleveland Play Houserepertory company and was on tour when he met his future wife, actress Mary Chobody. The two were married in 1964 while Keating was serving in the US Army and directing plays for its entertainment division at Fort Sill in Oklahoma. Keating later acted at the Charles Playhouse in Boston before eventually joining the Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis. In 1971, he was asked by Tyrone Guthrie in 1971 to move back to England and open the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield.
He is best known for his role as Carl Hutchins in the Americansoap operaAnother World from 1983–85, and again from 1991-98 with a final appearance in 1999. He played also Charles in the satirical miniseries Fresno in 1986, which parodied the prime-time soaps of the day such as Dynasty and Dallas. After Another World ended its run, he returned to stage acting and to Shakespeare in a two-person show with former Another World co-star Victoria Wyndham. During 2001 Charles played the part of James Richfield on Port Charles see Port Charles - Series Tainted Love. In between stints on Another World, he played Dr. Damon Lazarre on All My Children, and Niles Mason on As the World Turns. He also had a role as a professor at a Caribbean medical school that catered to Americans in the short-lived ABCsitcomGoing to Extremes as well as a guest role on Sex and the City.
Feature films
In 1992, he appeared in The Bodyguard. In 2005, he had a supporting role in .
Theatre
Broadway roles include Loot by Joe Orton, for which he was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play, The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui and The House of Atreus, which comprised three classics: Agamemnon, Choephori, and Eumenides. In 2001, he played the role of Carney/Oscar Wilde in the Lincoln Center performance of A Man of No Importance. In 2007, he played the role of Clement O'Donnell in the Guthrie Theater production of Brian Friel's The Home Place.
