A post about Robert De Niro’s life and artistry.
Robert De Niro is a celebrated American actor, producer, and director. He has earned two Academy Awards for his roles in Raging Bull (1980) and The Godfather: Part II (1974). He was born in New York City but raised in the Little Italy section of Manhattan. His father was an underground painter and poet while his mother was an actress and painter.
De Niro began studying acting with Stella Adler at age 10. As a teen, he dropped out of high school to pursue acting full time. In 1963, he made his stage debut in The Silver Tassie with the First American Artists Group and later that year, he made his film debut in Greetings (1968). He performed on stage numerous times before making his big break as a young Vito Corleone in Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather: Part II (1974).
De Niro went on to establish himself as one of America’s greatest actors through performances in films such as Taxi Driver (1976), The Deer Hunter (1978), Raging Bull (1980), The King of Comedy (1983), and Goodfellas (1990). Throughout the ’80s and’ 90s, he continued
Robert De Niro was born in New York City, on August 17, 1943. His mother Virginia Admiral was a painter and his father Robert De Niro Sr. was an abstract expressionist painter and sculptor. He also had an older half sister named Dierdre (Deedee) from his father’s first marriage.
He attended high school at the famed High School of Music and Art in New York and later attended the Stella Adler Conservatory and the American Workshop. It was during this time that he studied under Lee Strasberg and became friends with actors John Cazale and Harvey Keitel.
In 1963 he made his debut in a low-budget film called “Three Rooms in Manhattan”. That film led to other roles on stage productions such as “The Indian Wants the Bronx” for which he won an Obie Award, “The Weasel” (for which he received a Theatre World Award), “The Happy Time”, and “The Sargeant”. After being spotted by director Brian DePalma, De Niro got his first break in a major motion picture playing Jon Rubin in The Wedding Party (1969).
De Niro began to get noticed more after that role, but it wasn’t until after he landed a role as
Robert De Niro is a legend, an American treasure, and one of the most prolific actors in history. He is also a successful producer, director, and musician. He has been nominated for 7 Golden Globes and 2 Academy Awards. He is best known for his roles in The Godfather II, Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, The Deer Hunter, Awakenings, and Goodfellas.
Actors are born with a permanent gift: the ability to see things through others’ eyes. In other professions you can learn new skills; but if you are stuck with one personality at birth, that’s what you’ve got. A few actors have been able to play against their natural personalities; among them Robert De Niro was one of the greatest. The range of his work–from Vito Corleone to Travis Bickle to Jake La Motta–is impressive even by Hollywood standards.
De Niro was born in 1943 in New York City to Italian parents who were both artists (his mother was an abstract expressionist painter and his father was an underground filmmaker). His parents divorced when he was two years old so he rarely saw his father growing up (they reconnected later in life). There are conflicting reports about whether De Niro attended high school or
Robert De Niro, who has won two Oscars for Best Actor, is one of the most highly regarded and influential actors of his generation. He is an American actor and producer who is known for his portrayal of violent and abrasive characters in his movies. His movies include Taxi Driver, The Godfather II, Raging Bull, Goodfellas, Casino and many more.
Robert De Niro was born on August 17, 1943 in New York City to Italian-American parents Virginia Admiral and Robert De Niro Sr. He attended the High School for the Performing Arts until dropping out to study acting under Stella Adler in 1964.
He went on to make his debut with a small role in “Three Rooms in Manhattan” (1965), followed by “Greetings” (1968). He got his big break when he was cast by Martin Scorsese as “Johnny Boy” in “Mean Streets” (1973). The same year he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Vito Corleone alongside Al Pacino in “The Godfather: Part II”. His other notable roles include playing Travis Bickle in “Taxi Driver” (1976), Jake LaMotta in the biopic “Raging Bull” (1980) and
Robert De Niro, Jr. was born on August 17, 1943, in the Manhattan borough of New York City, the only child of painters Virginia Admiral and Robert De Niro Sr. He is of Irish and Italian descent on his father’s side, while his mother had Dutch, English, French, and German ancestry. His father was of Sicilian descent, while his mother had Dutch/Walloon origin.
He was raised by his mother in the Greenwich Village and Little Italy areas of Manhattan. His father lived within walking distance and De Niro spent much time with him as he grew up. His mother was raised Presbyterian but became an atheist as an adult, while his father was a lapsed Catholic since the age of 12. Against his parents’ wishes, his grandparents had him secretly baptized into the Catholic Church while he was staying with them during his parents’ divorce.
De Niro attended PS 41, a public elementary school in Manhattan, through the sixth grade. When he was 12 years old, he began attending Elisabeth Irwin High School (also known as Little Red School House), the private middle school of which his mother was a part-time drama teacher; De Niro performed at school plays during this time but was not highly motivated academically.
Robert De Niro is one of the greatest actors of all time, plain and simple. When he’s good, there’s no one better.
De Niro is a movie star but also a chameleon who disappears into his roles in a way few others can manage. He can be funny and he can be frightening; he can play lovable or despicable; he can be a quiet man or someone who explodes with anger; he can be suave or rough, gentle or mean. And while De Niro has never been nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor (he won two Oscars as Best Supporting Actor, for The Godfather: Part II and Raging Bull), he has been nominated every decade since the 1970s (except the 1980s) in either Best Actor or Best Supporting Actor categories. And that’s not even counting his Oscar nomination that came this year for Best Picture as producer of The Irishman. That fact alone tells you what kind of career I’m talking about here.
But where to start? Well, how about with his best films? Though my list may differ from other critics’ lists, here are my choices (including some commentary):
The next morning, my mother is still sleeping. I lie on her bed and read a book about the oldest actor in the world.
The book is not very good. It talks about the oldest actor in the world as if he were a person, with a name and a biography and a role in history. But he’s not. He’s just an actor who has been lucky enough to outlive all his contemporaries. And that means that every time he appears on movie screens or television sets, there is no other actor alive who has been seen by more people. It means that at one time or another everyone who ever became an actor must have seen him act, whether they liked it or not, because he was always there, always working, always appearing somewhere in the world.
It means that for a few weeks I can pretend to be the oldest actor in the world and say things like “I’ve done it all.” It means I can think of myself as having done everything I ever wanted to do, everything I ever dreamed about doing but never got around to doing. Like falling in love with someone who doesn’t love me back, or writing a novel when I’m too old to write novels anymore. Or traveling to Japan, or India, or Africa. Or
