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Robert Anthony De Niro (/ də ˈnɪəroʊ / də NEER-roh, Italian: [de ˈniːro]; born August 17, 1943) is an American actor and film producer. He is considered to be one of the greatest and most influential actors of his generation.
Robert De Niro. Actor: Cape Fear. One of the greatest actors of all time, Robert De Niro was born on August 17, 1943 in Manhattan, New York City, to artists Virginia (Admiral) and Robert De Niro Sr.
- January 1, 1
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- New York City, New York, USA
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- 'The Irishman' (2019) The longest of all the collaborations between Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro, The Irishman is an epic that shows both still have it in them to make excellent crime movies.
- 'Heat' (1995) Two actors as beloved as Robert De Niro and Al Pacino appearing in the same movie is always going to be an exciting prospect, which leads to high expectations.
- 'Jackie Brown' (1997) Jackie Brown marks the only time Quentin Tarantino and Robert De Niro worked together, but at least it proved to be a memorable collaboration.
- 'The Deer Hunter' (1978) When it comes to ranking the greatest and most acclaimed war movies of all time, The Deer Hunter will frequently be considered up there among the very best.
Feb 7, 2024 · In PEOPLE's cover story, Robert De Niro, 80, opens up about his iconic career, the 'great joy' of fatherhood and his future: 'I'm ready to take whatever life gives me.”
- 2 min
- Eric Andersson
- Overview
- Early life and rise to stardom
- Films with Scorsese: Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, and GoodFellas
- Comedies and later work
- Directing and awards
Robert De Niro is an American actor famous for his uncompromising portrayals of violent and abrasive characters and, later in his career, for his comic depictions of cranky old men.
What was Robert De Niro's first film?
Robert De Niro's first film was Brian De Palma's The Wedding Party, filmed in 1963 and released in 1969.
How many Oscars has Robert De Niro won for best actor?
Robert De Niro won two Oscars, one for best supporting actor in The Godfather, Part II and one for best actor for his portrayal of boxer Jake La Motta in Raging Bull (1980).
What was Robert De Niro's first film as a director?
The son of two Greenwich Village artists, De Niro dropped out of school at age 16 to study at the Stella Adler Conservatory of Acting. After working in a few Off-Off-Broadway plays, he appeared in his first film, Brian De Palma’s The Wedding Party (filmed 1963, released 1969). Thereafter he appeared in several minor films, the most notable being The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight (1971). It was not until his performance in Bang the Drum Slowly (1973) that he was widely recognized as an excellent actor. Mean Streets (1973) marked De Niro’s first association with director Martin Scorsese, with whom he would do some of his most celebrated work.
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Director Francis Ford Coppola, whose massively popular The Godfather (1972) had won the Academy Award for best picture, was so impressed by De Niro in Mean Streets that he offered the actor the part of young Vito Corleone in The Godfather, Part II (1974), forgoing even a screen test. De Niro’s brilliant take on the part that was created by Marlon Brando in the first Godfather film earned him a best supporting actor Oscar and made him an international star.
Following The Godfather, Part II, De Niro worked with some of cinema’s most noted directors in such films as Bernardo Bertolucci’s 1900 (1976), Elia Kazan’s The Last Tycoon (1976), and Michael Cimino’s The Deer Hunter (1978), the last one receiving the Oscar for best picture. But it was his films with Scorsese for which De Niro acquired a reputation for masterfully portraying extremely dark and unappealing figures. He received an Oscar nomination for his role as the isolated and violent Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver (1976) and won the best actor Oscar for his portrayal of boxer Jake La Motta in Raging Bull (1980). Known for his intense role preparation, De Niro spent weeks driving a taxi in New York City before filming Taxi Driver, and he gained more than 50 pounds (about 23 kg) to portray La Motta. By the end of the 1970s, he was widely considered one of the best actors of his generation.
In the 1980s De Niro appeared in a series of box office failures that have nevertheless become cult favourites. Scorsese’s The King of Comedy (1983), which offered a desolate look at the hazards of celebrity, won critical praise but little public interest, whereas Sergio Leone’s epic Once upon a Time in America (1984) suffered from postproduction studio interference, as did Terry Gilliam’s futuristic satire Brazil (1985). De Niro also performed in more conventional films during that era, including True Confessions (1981), Falling in Love (1984), The Mission (1986), and De Palma’s The Untouchables (1987).
De Niro revealed a talent for comedy in Midnight Run (1988) and won some of the best notices of his career for his depiction of a catatonic patient in Awakenings (1990). GoodFellas (1990) reunited De Niro with Scorsese for a brutal look at organized crime. Most critics agreed that Scorsese and De Niro had returned to form, but two further collaborations, Cape Fear (1991) and Casino (1995), were met with mixed reviews. In 1993 the actor starred opposite Leonardo DiCaprio in This Boy’s Life, a 1950s drama about a difficult teenager and his abusive stepfather.
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De Niro later appeared in Michael Mann’s crime thriller Heat (1995), which pitted him against actor Al Pacino. He continued to explore his comedic side in such films as the satirical Wag the Dog (1997); Analyze This (1999) and its sequel, Analyze That (2002); and Meet the Parents (2000) and its sequels, Meet the Fockers (2004) and Little Fockers (2010). In 2008 De Niro reteamed with Pacino in the police drama Righteous Kill, and the following year he starred in Everybody’s Fine, portraying a widower who discovers various truths about his adult children. He later took supporting roles in the thrillers Machete (2010) and Limitless (2011), the action drama Killer Elite (2011), and the ensemble romantic comedy New Year’s Eve (2011).
In 2012 De Niro starred as a destitute writer reconnecting with his estranged son in the drama Being Flynn and played another paternal role in the seriocomic Silver Linings Playbook. The latter film earned him his first Oscar nomination in more than two decades. In The Family (2013) De Niro starred as a mobster turned informant whose family moves to France in the witness protection program. He then teamed with Morgan Freeman, Michael Douglas, and Kevin Kline in the buddy comedy Last Vegas (2013).
De Niro’s later credits included Grudge Match (2013), in which he and Sylvester Stallone played superannuated boxers who reunite for one last fight, and the workplace comedy The Intern (2015), in which he was featured as the title character opposite Anne Hathaway. He took a supporting role as the embittered father of an entrepreneur (Jennifer Lawrence) in Joy (2015) and had the title role in Dirty Grandpa (2016). His other credits from 2016 included Hands of Stone, in which he portrayed the trainer of boxer Roberto Durán. The following year he starred in the HBO TV movie The Wizard of Lies, playing Bernie Madoff, a hedge-fund investor who operated the largest Ponzi scheme in history.
Beginning in 2018, De Niro frequently guest starred on Saturday Night Live, playing special counsel Robert Mueller. Movies from 2019 included Joker, a gritty origin story about the iconic Batman villain, and Scorsese’s The Irishman, a mob drama about a hit man who allegedly murdered Jimmy Hoffa (Pacino); the latter film received a theatrical release before airing on Netflix. In 2020 De Niro starred in the family dramedy The War with Grandpa. Two years later he had a supporting role in David O. Russell’s Amsterdam, a satire about a fascist plot to overthrow the U.S. government in the 1930s.
In addition to acting, De Niro also directed several films. In 1993 he made his directorial debut with A Bronx Tale, a movie about the Mafia set in the 1960s. He later directed the highly acclaimed The Good Shepherd (2006), which centres on the origins of the CIA and the compromises made by an agent over the span of his career.
In 2009 De Niro was named a Kennedy Center honoree, and two years later he received the Cecil B. DeMille Award (a Golden Globe for lifetime achievement). In 2016 he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Robert De Niro. Actor: Cape Fear. One of the greatest actors of all time, Robert De Niro was born on August 17, 1943 in Manhattan, New York City, to artists Virginia (Admiral) and Robert De Niro Sr.
Mar 8, 2024 · Actor Robert De Niro has enjoyed one of the most celebrated and enduring careers in Hollywood. If his dozens of roles aren’t proof enough, consider that his 2024 Oscar nomination comes 49 years...
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