A Biography of Robert De Niro
He is noted for his portrayal of conflicted, troubled characters, & for his enduring collaboration with director Martin Scorsese, & early work with director Brian De Palma. He is considered by many to be the greatest actor of his generation & one of the world's greatest living actors.
He is the son of the noted painter Robert De Niro, Sr.
De Niro was born in New York City, to father Robert De Niro, Sr., an abstract expressionist painter & sculptor, who was of Irish & Italian descent; & mother Virginia Admiral, who was of French, Dutch, & German descent. De Niro's Italian great-grandparents, Mario & Sofia Di Niro, had emigrated from Ferrazzano, in the province of Campobasso, Molise in the early 20th century. His parents, who had met at the painting classes of Hans Hofmann in Provincetown, Massachusetts, divorced when he was two years old. De Niro grew up in the "Little Italy" area of New York City. His childhood nickname was "Bobby Milk" due to his pale complexion.
Education
De
Niro first attended the Little Red School House & was then enrolled by his
mother at the High School of Music & Art in New York. He dropped out at the
age of 13 & joined a Little Italy street gang. He then had a falling-out with
his father, though they were eventually reconciled when, at 18, he flew to Paris
to bring home his father, who had been suffering from depression.
De Niro attended the Stella Adler Conservatory, as well as Lee Strasberg's Actor's Studio (though De Niro conflicted with Strasberg's methods, & used his membership there mostly as a professional advantage). At the age of 16 he toured in Chekhov's The Bear.
Early film career
At the age of 20, in 1963, came De Niro's
first film role & collaboration with Brian De Palma, when he appeared in The
Wedding Party; it was not released until 1969, however. He spent much of the 1960s
working in theater workshops & off-Broadway productions. He was an extra in
the French film Three Rooms in Manhattan (1965), & made his official film
debut after he reunited with De Palma in Greetings (1968) & later reprised
his Greetings role in Hi, Mom (1970).
He gained popular attention with his role as a dying Major League baseball player in Bang the Drum Slowly (1973). The same year he began his fruitful collaboration with Scorsese when he played his memorable role as the smalltime Mafia hood "Johnny Boy" alongside Harvey Keitel's "Charlie" in Mean Streets (1973). In 1974, De Niro played a pivotal role in Francis Coppola's The Godfather Part II playing young Don Vito Corleone. His performance earned him his first Academy Award of Best Supporting Actor.
After working with him in Mean Streets he had a very successful working relationship with Scorcese in films such as Taxi Driver (1976), New York, New York (1977), Raging Bull (1980), The King of Comedy (1983), Goodfellas (1990), Cape Fear (1991), & Casino (1995).
In these films, De Niro has primarily played charming sociopaths. Taxi Driver is particularly important to De Niro's career; his iconic performance as Travis Bickle shot him to stardom & forever linked De Niro's name with Bickle's famous "You talkin' to me?" monologue, which De Niro improvised himself.
"You talkin' to me?" Alone in his apartment, De Niro as Travis postures & practices his moves in front of the mirrorIn 1976 De Niro appeared, along with Gerard Depardieu, in Bernardo Bertolucci's epic biographical exploration of life during World War II, Novecento (1900), seen through the eyes of two Italian childhood friends at the opposite sides of society's hierarchy.
In 1978, De Niro played "Michael Vronsky" in the acclaimed Vietnam War film The Deer Hunter, for which he was nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role .
He was offered role of Cowboy in director Walter Hill's The Warriors (1979) but turned it down. The role went instead to Tom McKitterick.
Later film career
Praised for his commitment to roles
(stemming from his background in Method acting), De Niro gained 60 pounds (27
kg) & learned how to box for his portrayal of Jake LaMotta in Raging Bull,
ground his teeth for Cape Fear, lived in Sicily for The Godfather Part II, &
learned to play the saxophone for New York, New York. He also put on weight &
shaved his hairline to play Al Capone in The Untouchables.
De Niro’s brand of Method acting includes employing whatever extreme tactic he feels is necessary to elicit the best performance from those he is acting with. During the filming of The King of Comedy, De Niro directed a slew of anti-Semitic epithets at co-star Jerry Lewis. An enraged Lewis claims he was “going for Bobby’s throat”.
Fearing he had become typecast in mob roles — another of which was Jewish gangster David "Noodles" Aaronson in Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in America (1984) — De Niro from the mid-1980s began expanding into occasional comedic roles, & has had much success there as well with such films as Brazil (1985), in which he had a small role; the hit action-comedy Midnight Run (1988); & the film-and-sequel pairs Analyze This (1999) & Analyze That (2002), & Meet the Parents (2000) & Meet the Fockers (2004).
Other films include Falling in Love (1984), The Mission (1986), The Untouchables (1987), Heat (1995), Wag the Dog (1997) & Ronin (1998).
In 1997, he reteamed with Harvey Keitel & Ray Liotta, along with Sylvester Stallone, in the noir-crime drama Cop Land. De Niro proved he was able to play a supporting role taking a back seat to Stallone, Keitel & Liotta.
De Niro is considered a skilled observer of physical & trivial details, from the way a cigarette is held by a mobster in GoodFellas to the kind of shirt-jacket the character needed to wear in Raging Bull. In 1995 De Niro starred in Michael Mann's Heat, along with fellow actor Al Pacino. The duo drew much attention from fans as both have generally been compared throughout their careers. Though both Pacino & De Niro starred in The Godfather Part II, they shared no screen time. On 18 May 2007 Variety.com brought the news that De Niro & Pacino will pair up again. The stars have signed up to play police investigators hunting a serial killer in thriller Righteous Kill.
De Niro had to turn down a role in The Departed (Jack Nicholson taking the role instead) due to commitments preparing The Good Shepherd. He said "I wanted to. I wish I could've been able to, but I was preparing The Good Shepherd so much that I couldn't take the time to. I was trying to figure a way to do it while I was preparing. It just didn't seem possible."
De Niro directed Angelina Jolie & Matt Damon on the set of The Good ShepherdIn De Niro's next project, he directed & co-starred in The Good Shepherd (2006), also starring Matt Damon & Angelina Jolie. The movie also reunited him onscreen with Joe Pesci, with whom De Niro had starred in Raging Bull, GoodFellas & Casino.
On June 7, 2006, it was announced that De Niro donated his film archive, including scripts, costumes, & props, to the Harry Ransom Center at The University of Texas at Austin.
De Niro has said that he is working with Martin Scorsese on a new project. "I'm trying to actually work..Eric Roth (screenwriter) & myself & Marty are working on a script now, trying to get it done."
De Niro has won two Academy Awards: Best Actor for his role in Raging Bull; & Best Supporting Actor for The Godfather Part II.
De Niro & Pacino never shared any screen time together during the film.De Niro & Marlon Brando are the only actors who won Academy Awards for portraying the same character: Brando won for playing the elderly Don Vito Corleone (though he declined the award) in The Godfather while De Niro later won the award for playing the young Vito in The Godfather Part II. Brando & De Niro did not work together on screen until The Score (2001). De Niro actually auditioned for the role of Sonny in the first Godfather but the role was given to James Caan. When The Godfather Part II was in preproduction, the director, Francis Ford Coppola, remembered De Niro's audition, & cast him to play the young Vito Corleone. De Niro's performance is one of only four to win an Academy Award for working in a foreign language, as he primarily spoke Italian, with very few phrases in English ("I didn't come here to fight with you" & "I make him an offer he can't refuse").
Personal
life
De Niro has been married twice. He has a stepdaughter, Drena & son
Raphael with first wife Dianne Abbott, as well as twin sons Julian Henry &
Aaron Kendrick (conceived by in vitro fertilization) from a long-term live-in
relationship with former model Toukie Smith. Raphael, a former actor, now works
in New York real estate. .
Since 1989, De Niro has been investing in the TriBeCa neighborhood in lower Manhattan. His capital ventures have included co-founding the film studio TriBeCa Productions, the hugely popular TriBeCa Film Festival, & finally the TriBeCa Grill, Nobu, & Layla restaurants that usually need advance reservations.
In February 1998, during a film shoot in France, he was taken in for questioning for nine hours by French police & questioned by a magistrate, over a prostitution ring. De Niro denied any involvement saying that he had never paid for sex, "and even if I had, it wouldn't have been a crime". The magistrate wanted to speak to him after his name was mentioned by one of the call girls. In an interview with the French newspaper Le Monde, he said, "I will never return to France. I will advise my friends against going to France", & he would "send your Legion of Honour back to the ambassador, as soon as possible". French judicial sources say that the actor is regarded as a potential witness, not a suspect. In 2003, Robert De Niro, with film director Woody Allen, jazz musician Wynton Marsalis & writer George Plimpton joined a pro-French tourism campaign as a direct response to anti-French sentiment in the US related to the Iraq invasion.
In 2003, De Niro was diagnosed with prostate cancer. The prognosis for De Niro, who was 60 at the time, was good, according to his publicist, Stan Rosenfield.
"Doctors say the condition was detected at an early stage because of regular checkups," Rosenfield says. "Because of the early detection & his excellent physical condition, doctors project a full recovery." Rosenfield declined to give further details about the actor's condition or course of treatment. De Niro's father, painter Robert De Niro Sr., died of cancer in 1993 at age 71.
De Niro is among a number of celebrities who have been diagnosed with prostate cancer. They include Yankees manager Joe Torre, former New York mayor Rudy Guiliani, comedian Jerry Lewis, former senator Bob Dole & retired general Norman Schwarzkopf. Rosenfield credited the early discovery of De Niro's cancer to the actor's "proactive personal health-care program."
In 2004, De Niro re-married his second wife, Grace Hightower, a former flight attendant, at their estate near Marbletown in upstate New York (De Niro also has residences on the east & west sides of Manhattan). Their son Elliot was born in 1998 & the couple filed for divorce shortly after his birth, although the action was never officially finalized.
De Niro, whose paternal great-grandparents emigrated from Ferrazzano, in the region of Molise, Italy, was due to be bestowed with honorary Italian citizenship at the Venice Film Festival in September 2004. However, the Sons of Italy lodged a protest with Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, claiming De Niro had damaged the image of Italians & Italian-Americans by frequently portraying them in criminal roles. Culture Minister Giuliano Urbani dismissed the objections & the ceremony was rescheduled to go forward in Rome in October. Controversy flared again when De Niro failed to show for two media appearances in Italy that month, which De Niro blamed on "serious communication problems" that weren't "handled properly" on his end, & stating, "The last thing I would want to do is offend anyone. I love Italy." The citizenship was conferred to De Niro on October 21, 2006, during the Rome Film Festival finale.
De Niro is a staunch supporter of the Democratic Party, & vocally supported Al Gore in the 2000 presidential election. Filmmaker Michael Moore's documentary Fahrenheit 9/11 includes a clip of De Niro standing next to Gore at a rally; Moore identifies him as "that Taxi Driver guy". De Niro publicly supported John Kerry in the 2004 presidential election. In 1998, he lobbied Congress against impeaching President Bill Clinton, & in August 2004 announced he would not collect his honorary Italian citizenship in person so as to avoid discouraging Italians living in America from voting for Kerry, following controversy over the earlier citizenship protest. (See above.) De Niro also narrated a documentary about the September 11, 2001 attacks, shown on CBS & centering on video footage made by Jules Naudet & Gedeon Naudet, which focused on the role of firefighters following the attacks. De Niro was a supporter of the 2003 invasion of Iraq but hasn't made any comments about it since then. While promoting his movie The Good Shepherd with co-star Matt Damon on the December 8, 2006 episode of Hardball with Chris Matthews, De Niro was asked who he would like to see as president of the United States. De Niro responded, "Well, I think of two people: Hillary Clinton & Obama".
Selected filmography
Bang the Drum Slowly (1973)
• Mean Streets (1973) • The Godfather Part II (1974) • Taxi Driver
(1976)• 1900 (1976) • The Last Tycoon (1976) • New York, New York
(1977) • The Deer Hunter (1978) • Raging Bull (1980) • King of
Comedy (1983) • Once Upon a Time in America (1984) • The Mission (1986)
• Angel Heart (1987) • The Untouchables (1987) • Midnight Run (1988)
• Goodfellas (1990) • Stanley & Iris (1990) • Awakenings (1990)
• Cape Fear (1991) • This Boy's Life (1993) • A Bronx Tale (1993)
• Mad Dog & Glory(1993). Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1994) • Casino
(1995) • Heat (1995) • Sleepers (1996) • Cop Land (1997) •
Jackie Brown (1997) • Ronin (1998) • Analyze This (1999) • Meet
the Parents (2000) • Men of Honor (2000) • The Score (2001) • Analyze
That (2002) • Showtime (2002) • Meet the Fockers (2004) • The Good
Shepherd (2006) • Stardust (2007)
In 2006 he was in an episode of British sitcom the office, right at then end a big suprise.
Academy
Award
Robert De Niro in Raging Bull.Won: Best Supporting Actor, The Godfather,
Part II (1974)
Nominated: Best Actor, Taxi Driver (1976)
Nominated: Best
Actor, The Deer Hunter (1978)
Won: Best Actor, Raging Bull (1980)
Nominated:
Best Actor, Awakenings (1990)
Nominated: Best Actor, Cape Fear (1991)
BAFTA
Award
Nominated: Best Newcomer, The Godfather, Part II (1976)
Nominated:
Best Actor, Taxi Driver (1977)
Nominated: Best Actor, The Deer Hunter (1980)
Nominated: Best Actor, Raging Bull (1982)
Nominated: Best Actor, The King
of Comedy (1984)
Nominated: Best Actor, Goodfellas (1991)
Golden Globe
Award
Nominated: Best Actor - Motion Picure Drama, Taxi Driver (1977)
Nominated:
Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical/Comedy, New York, New York (1978)
Nominated:
Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama, The Deer Hunter (1979)
Won: Best Actor
- Motion Picture Drama, Raging Bull (1981)
Nominated: Best Actor - Motion
Picture Musical/Comedy, Midnight Run (1989)
Nominated: Best Actor - Motion
Picture Drama, Cape Fear (1992)
Nominated: Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical/Comedy,
Analyze This (2000)
Nominated: Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical/Comedy,
Meet the Parents (2001)
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