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Robert De Niro
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia:
Robert De Niro |
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Gale Encyclopedia of Biography:
Robert De Niro |
One of the greatest American actors of his generation, Robert De Niro (born 1943) is known for his total immersion in roles. Whether driving a cab to prepare for "Taxi Driver" or gaining 60 pounds to play boxer Jake La Motta in "Raging Bull", De Niro studies his characters intensely. The Oscar-winning actor is best known for his roles in gangster-related films such as "The Godfather, Part II".
In a 1976 interview, De Niro explained his approach to preparing for a role. "Actors must expose themselves to the surroundings and keep their minds obsessed with that," he said. " … I always look at everything…. If you don't practice, you don't know your subject and it can't be natural … You've got to physically and mentally become that person you are portraying."
Bobby Milk
De Niro was born in New York City on August 17, 1943. His father, Robert De Niro Sr., was a sculptor, painter and poet. His mother, Virginia Admiral, also sold paintings. His parents had a salon in Greenwich Village that attracted other artists and intellectuals. They divorced when their son was a young child. As he approached adolescence, De Niro was shy and sickly looking. His pale complexion earned him the nickname "Bobby Milk" in the ethnic neighborhood of "Little Italy," where he grew up. His first stage role, at age ten, was as the cowardly lion in a local production of The Wizard of Oz.
At the age of 16, De Niro got his first paying role, in a production of Chekhov's The Bear . He was hooked. Dropping out of high school just a few credits short of graduation, he studied Method acting under Lee Strasberg and Stella Adler. For the next 14 years De Niro performed off-Broadway, in dinner theaters, in touring productions, and occasionally in television commercials and small films.
Director Brian De Palma gave De Niro his start in films.. He cast the young New Yorker in the little-noticed, small-budget films The Wedding Party, Greetings, and Hi, Mom! In Greetings De Niro had the lead role as a draft dodger. Soon, actress Shelley Winters took him under her wing. She helped him land a part in the low-budget Roger Corman film Bloody Mama. He played one of the sons of her character, the legendary killer Ma Barker. De Niro prepared by spending weeks in the Ozark Mountains, perfecting an Arkansas dialect. De Niro next appeared in a string of poorly received films, including Jennifer on My Mind, Born to Win, and The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight. Though the movies were panned, some film critics started to notice his exceptional performances.
"You Talkin' to Me?"
In 1973, De Niro, who was turning 30, finally won widespread acclaim with two remarkable performances. He portrayed a dying baseball pitcher in Bang the Drum Slowly . De Niro had never played baseball and wasn't an athlete but, through constant practice, intense study of ballplayers in person and on film, and reading books about baseball, he made his performance believable. Later that year, De Niro appeared as a nervous, explosive young hoodlum in Mean Streets, the first of many collaborations with director Martin Scorcese, a contemporary who also grew up on New York's Lower East Side. The authenticity of his performance was startling. It "looked as if a rogue had come in off the streets," wrote biographer David Thomson, and the portrayal seemed "an assertion of how out of conventional control he was."
In 1974, De Niro was cast as the young Vito Corleone in Francis Coppola's blockbuster The Godfather, Part II. He prepared by studying the Sicilian dialect for weeks and by striving to capture the accent and mannerisms of Marlon Brando, who had played the older Corleone in the original Godfather. "De Niro is right to be playing the young Brando because he has the physical audacity, the grace and the instinct to become a great actor," wrote critic Pauline Kael. The breakthrough role, in which he speaks only 17 words of English, won De Niro the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
De Niro continued gaining critical acclaim with his role as the cab driver Travis Bickle in Scorcese's Taxi Driver in 1976. His Oscar-nominated portrait of a bigoted, vengeful Vietnam veteran was an iconic performance. To prepare for the role, De Niro lost 35 pounds and listened repeatedly to a taped reading of the diaries of assassin Arthur Bremer, who shot presidential candidate George Wallace in 1972. He also got a provisional cab driver's license and drove around New York for several weeks.
De Niro's gutsy, disturbing performance drove the controversial film. "The genius of the acting consists of De Niro's refusal to simplify," wrote Thomson. "He never opts for sacred monster or shaman. The long, lone sequences establish an hallucinatory confessional with the audience…" Playing with his gun and practicing his bravado in front of a mirror - a scene the actor improvised - De Niro tries out the memorable line: "You talkin' to me?" The phrase became an enduring part of the American lexicon - shorthand for a fed-up, won't-take-it-anymore attitude and a code for white male rage. "It is a picture of a man on the brink of the abyss which is both chilling and comical," wrote biographer Andy Dougan.
Disappeared into Roles
Over the next quarter-century, De Niro would become one of the most prolific and celebrated actors in Hollywood. He was known for immersing himself in his roles - so much so that for many years he often went unrecognized in public. One of De Niro's acclaimed early portrayals came in the controversial, Oscar-winning Vietnam War drama The Deer Hunter, in which he played a redneck steelworker traumatized by his combat experiences. To grow into the role, he entered the world of Ohio Valley steel mills. "I talked with the mill workers, I drank and ate with them, and I played pool with them," De Niro explained. "I tried to come as close to being a steelworker as possible. I wanted to work a shift at the mill, but they wouldn't let me." De Niro's penchant for authenticity nearly cost him his life during the filming. Shooting combat scenes in Thailand, he and co-star John Savage were almost killed while doing their own stunt work, dropping from a flying helicopter's runners into a river.
Critics were astounded by the intensity of De Niro's tight-lipped character. Thomson wrote: " The Deer Hunter would not have existed without De Niro's fierce generation of pain and honor…" De Niro was nominated for another Academy Award and might have won it were it not for overwhelming public sympathy for Peter Finch, who had starred in Network and then died before the Oscar voting.
In 1980, De Niro finally won a Best Actor award from the Academy voters for his portrayal of boxer Jake La Motta in Scorcese's Raging Bull . Before filming began, he took a year's worth of boxing lessons and spent months at the real Jake La Motta's apartment, absorbing everything he could about the man. After the film's early scenes were shot with a lean, trim De Niro, production stopped while De Niro literally grew into the part of the fighter as an older, obese man. By eating his way across France and Italy, he gained 60 pounds in two months. De Niro explained after the filming: "I just can't fake acting. I know movies are an illusion and the first rule is to fake it, but not for me. I'm too curious. I want to deal with all the facts of the character, thin or fat…. Just by having the weight on, it really made me feel a certain way and behave in a certain way…. It was a little like going to a foreign land."
The result was an intensely personal performance. "He put on not just weight, but the burden of degradation," noted Thomson. "While in the ring, he was a terrifying spectacle, as credible as any movie boxer has ever been…. In the scenes with Cathy Moriarty, and with the 'guys,' there were remarkable insights into sexual insecurity or ambivalence."
Branching Out
Once established as a star, De Niro refused to settle for sure box-office hits. Continually testing his range, he made a number of unusual role choices, including a romantic comedy with Meryl Streep, Falling in Love, which bombed with critics and at the box office. Though he is most closely associated with a gangster persona, De Niro's roles have varied widely. They include a struggling musician in the unsuccessful Scorcese musical New York, New York and an incarnation of Lucifer in Alan Parker's black comedy Angel Heart (for which De Niro grew long hair and a beard and studied the most evil men in history). He also portrayed the Frankenstein creature in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein ;an unfunny would-be comedian in The King of Comedy, a drug-addicted ex-felon in Jackie Brown ; a repressed priest in True Confessions ; and a catatonic patient in Awakenings.
De Niro specialized in difficult, complex characters who represented the dark side of human nature. In 1991, he received another Oscar nomination for his role as a loathsome ex-felon in Cape Fear. Thomson wrote: "His character was so intricately nasty, so repellent, and so clever, that one wondered if the actor hadn't developed too much devil worship." After appearing as gangster Al Capone in De Palma's The Untouchables, De Niro explained: "I prefer the so-called evil because it is more realistic. Good characters or characters who are only positive tend to be unbelievable and boring."
Tedium was unlikely on film sets with De Niro. His intensity was contagious. "When De Niro walks on the set, you can feel his presence, but he never behaves like a movie star, just an actor," said Parker. "And when he acts, his sheer concentration permeates the whole set."
Italian director Sergio Leone cast De Niro as a gangster in his epic Once Upon a Time in America . After the filming was completed Leone said: "I don't consider Bob so much an actor as an incarnation of the character he is playing. Until he feels like that he can't go on the set…. No one is better than De Niro at being studied and spontaneous at the same time."
Appearing in flops and hits, De Niro remained productive and unpredictable. He was nominated for an Academy Award for his performance as a bounty hunter in the lightweight 1989 hit Midnight Run . He returned often to his favorite director Scorcese, playing a mob character in Goodfellas and a gambler in Casino . He played a gangster in Heat and a hit man in Ronin . He spoofed his own persona as a mob boss in the comedy Analyze This and as a hard-nosed ex-intelligence agent in Meet the Parents.
Despite his fame, De Niro has remained extremely protective of his personal life and distrustful of interviewers and photographers. "I liken them to assassins," he once said. In 1976, De Niro married singer-actress Diahnne Abbott. They had a son and a daughter before divorcing. He also had twin sons, born via a surrogate mother, with actress Toukie Smith. De Niro was also romantically linked to model Naomi Campbell, singer Whitney Houston, and actress Uma Thurman. In 1997, he married flight attendant Grace Hightower.
Tribeca Film Center
Seeking new challenges, De Niro founded the Tribeca Film Center in a renovated Manhattan coffee factory in 1989. On the first two floors he opened a restaurant, the Tribeca Grill, in which he displayed his father's paintings. De Niro eventually became part-owner of several upscale New York restaurants.
From his new headquarters De Niro produced his first film, Neil Jordan's remake of We're No Angels, in which he also starred. In 1993, De Niro won critical acclaim for directing and playing opposite Chazz Palminteri in the latter's autobiographical film A Bronx Tale. Also that year, he produced a television series Tribeca, which was cancelled after seven episodes. In 1999, he produced the movie Entropy.
Throughout his career, De Niro has tested his own limits-often going to extreme limits in order to be true to his character. To De Niro, acting has always been a way of expanding horizons. More than 60 film roles in 37 years attest to his willingness to take risks. "Acting is a cheap way to do things that you would not dare to do yourself," he once explained.
Books
Dougan, Andy, Untouchable: A Biography of Robert De Niro, Thunder's Mouth Press, 1996.
Thomson, David, A Biographical Dictionary of Film, Knopf, 1994.
Periodicals
Entertainment Weekly, November 1, 1999.
Esquire, December 1997.
Newsweek, May 17, 1999.
Online
"The Robert De Niro Page," http://deniro.jvlnet.com.
"Robert De Niro," All Movie Guide,http://allmovie.com.
"Robert De Niro," http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Set/9401/.
Columbia Encyclopedia:
Robert De Niro |
De Niro, Robert (də nĭr'ō), 1943-, American film actor, b. New York City. After studying for the stage, he acted in films directed by Brian De Palma. In 1973 he made his first major movies, Bang the Drum Slowly and Mean Streets. In these and other motion pictures he has shown an impressive dramatic range and expressiveness. His other films include The Godfather Part II (1974; Academy Award), Taxi Driver (1976), The Deer Hunter (1979), Raging Bull (1980; Academy Award), Goodfellas (1990), Cape Fear (1991), Casino (1995), Wag the Dog (1997), and The Good Shepherd (2006), a finely crafted espionage drama that De Niro also directed.
Quotes By:
Robert De Niro |
Quotes:
"There is a certain combination of anarchy and discipline in the way I work."
AMG AllMovie Guide:
Robert De Niro |
Biography
Considered one of the best actors of his generation, Robert De Niro built a durable star career out of his formidable ability to disappear into a character. The son of artists, De Niro was raised in New York's Greenwich Village. The young man made his stage debut at age 10, playing the Cowardly Lion in his school's production of The Wizard of Oz. Along with finding relief from shyness through performing, De Niro was also entranced by the movies, and he quit high school at age 16 to pursue acting. Studying under Stella Adler and Lee Strasberg, De Niro learned how to immerse himself in a character emotionally and physically. After laboring in off-off-Broadway productions in the early '60s, De Niro was cast alongside fellow novice Jill Clayburgh in film-school graduate Brian De Palma's The Wedding Party (1969). He followed this with small movies like Greetings, Hi, Mom!, Sam's Song, and Bloody Mama.De Niro's professional life took an auspicious turn, however, when he was re-introduced to former Little Italy acquaintance Martin Scorsese at a party in 1972. Sharing a love of movies as well as their neighborhood background, De Niro and Scorsese hit it off. De Niro was immediately interested when Scorsese asked him about appearing in his new film, Mean Streets, conceived as a grittier, more authentic portrait of the Mafia than The Godfather. De Niro's appearance in the film made waves with critics, as did his completely different performance as a dying simple-minded catcher in the quiet baseball drama Bang the Drum Slowly (1973). Francis Ford Coppola was impressed enough by Mean Streets to cast De Niro as the young Vito Corleone in the early 1900s portion of The Godfather Part II. Closely studying Brando's Oscar-winning performance as Don Corleone in The Godfather, and perfecting his accent for speaking his lines in subtitled Sicilian, De Niro was so effective as the lethally ambitious and lovingly paternal Corleone that he took home a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for the role.
De Niro next headed to Europe to star in Bernardo Bertolucci's opus, 1900 (1976) before returning to the U.S. to collaborate with Scorsese on the far leaner (and meaner) production, Taxi Driver. After working for two weeks as a Manhattan cabbie and losing weight, De Niro transformed himself into disturbed "God's lonely man" Travis Bickle. One of the definitive films of the decade, Taxi Driver earned the Cannes Film Festival's top prize and several Oscar nominations, including Best Picture and De Niro's first nod for Best Actor. Controversy erupted about the film's violence, however, when would-be presidential assassin John W. Hinckley cited Taxi Driver as a formative influence in 1981.
De Niro and Scorsese would reteam for the lavish musical New York, New York (1977), and though the film was a complete flop, De Niro quickly recovered with another risky and ambitious project, Michael Cimino's The Deer Hunter (1978). One of the first wave of Vietnam movies, The Deer Hunter starred De Niro as one of three Pennsylvania steel-town friends thrown into the war's inferno who emerged as profoundly changed men. Though the film provoked an uproar over its portrayal of Viet Cong violence as (literally) Russian roulette, The Deer Hunter won several Oscars.
Returning to the realm of more personal violence, De Niro followed The Deer Hunter with his and Scorsese's masterpiece, Raging Bull, a tragic portrait of boxer [%Ray La Motta]. Along with his notorious 60-pound weight gain that rendered him unrecognizable as the middle-aged Jake, De Niro also trained so intensely for the outstanding fight scenes that La Motta himself stated that De Niro could have boxed professionally. Along with his physical dedication, De Niro won over critics with his ability to humanize La Motta without softening him. Raging Bull received eight Oscar nominations, including Best Picture.
Though he was well suited to star in Sergio Leone's epic homage to gangster films, Once Upon a Time in America (1984), Leone's tough, transcendent vision couldn't survive the studio's decision to hack 88 minutes out of the American release version. De Niro next took a breather from films to return to the stage, playing a drug dealer in the New York Public Theater production Cuba and His Teddy Bear. During his theater stint, De Palma made De Niro a movie offer he couldn't refuse when he asked him to play a small role in his film version of The Untouchables (1987). As the rotund, charismatic, bat-wielding Al Capone, De Niro was a memorable adversary for Kevin Costner's upstanding Elliot Ness, and The Untouchables became De Niro's first hit in almost a decade. De Niro followed The Untouchables with his first comedy success, Midnight Run (1988), costarring as a bounty hunter opposite Charles Grodin's bail-jumping accountant.
Though he earned an Oscar nomination for his touching performance as a patient in Penny Marshall's popular drama Awakenings (1990), movie fans were perhaps more thrilled by De Niro's return to the Scorsese fold, playing cruelly duplicitous Irish mobster Jimmy "The Gent" opposite Ray Liotta's turncoat Henry Hill in the critically lauded Mafia film Goodfellas (1990). De Niro worked with Scorsese again in the thriller remake Cape Fear (1991), sporting a hillbilly accent and pumped-up physique. It was Scorsese and De Niro's biggest hit together and earned another Oscar nod for the star. De Niro subsequently costarred as a geeky cop in the Scorsese-produced Mad Dog and Glory (1993).
De Niro also revealed that he had learned a great deal from his work with Scorsese with his own directorial debut, A Bronx Tale (1993). A well-observed story of a boy torn between his father and the local mob, A Bronx Tale earned praise, but De Niro was soon back to working with Scorsese, starring as Vegas kingpin Sam Rothstein in Casino (1995) -- based on the story of real-life handicapper Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal -- staged with Scorsese's customary visual brilliance and pairing De Niro with his Raging Bull brother and Goodfellas associate Joe Pesci.
Appearing in as many as three films a year after 1990, De Niro was particularly praised for his polished reserve in Michael Mann's glossy policer Heat (1995), which offered the rare spectacle of De Niro and Pacino sharing the screen, if only in two scenes. After indifferently received turns in The Fan (1996), Sleepers (1996), and Cop Land (1997), De Niro stepped outside his comfort zone to play an amoral political strategist in Barry Levinson's sharp satire Wag the Dog (1997) and a dangerously dimwitted crook in Quentin Tarantino's laid-back crime story Jackie Brown (1997).
De Niro was front and center -- and knee deep in self-parody -- in the comedy Analyze This (1999), aided and abetted by a nicely low-key Billy Crystal as his reluctant psychiatrist. De Niro would continue to lampoon his own tough-guy image in the sequel Analyze That, as well as the popular Meet the Parents franchise. As the decade wore on, De Niro took on roles that failed to live up to his acclaimed earlier work, such as with lukewarm thrillers like The Score, Godsend, Righteous Kill, and Hide and Seek. However, De Niro continued to work on his ambitious and long-planned next foray behind the camera, the acclaimed CIA drama The Good Shepherd. ~ Lucia Bozzola, Rovi
Filmography:
Robert De Niro |
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Wikipedia on Answers.com:
Robert De Niro |
This article is about the actor. For his father, see Robert De Niro, Sr..
| Robert De Niro | |
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 De Niro at the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival premiere of The Bang Bang Club |
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| Born | August 17, 1943 New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Residence | TriBeCa, Lower Manhattan |
| Nationality | American |
| Citizenship | United States and Italy |
| Education | High School of Music Art |
| Alma mater | Stella Adler Studio of Acting |
| Occupation | Actor, director and producer |
| Years active | 1959–present |
| Home town | Manhattan, New York |
| Spouse |
Diahnne Abbott (m. 1976–1988) |
| Children | 6 (including Drena De Niro) |
| Parents | Robert De Niro, Sr. Virginia Admiral |
Robert De Niro (pronounced /dəˈnɪəroʊ/; born August 17, 1943) is an American actor, director and producer. His first major film roles were in Bang the Drum Slowly and Mean Streets, both in 1973. In 1974, he played the young Vito Corleone in The Godfather Part II, a role that won him the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
His critically acclaimed, longtime collaborations with Martin Scorsese began with 1973's Mean Streets, and earned De Niro an Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of Jake LaMotta in the 1980 film Raging Bull. He was also nominated for an Academy Award for his roles in Scorsese's Taxi Driver (1976) and Cape Fear (1991). In addition, he received nominations for his acting in Michael Cimino's The Deer Hunter (1978) and Penny Marshall's Awakenings (1990). Also in 1990, his portrayal as Jimmy Conway in Martin Scorsese's Goodfellas earned him a BAFTA nomination.[1]
He has earned four nominations for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy: New York, New York (1977), Midnight Run (1988), Analyze This (1999) and Meet the Parents (2000). De Niro directed A Bronx Tale (1993) and The Good Shepherd (2006). He has received accolades for his esteemed career, including the AFI Life Achievement Award and the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award.
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Early life
Robert De Niro was born in Greenwich Village,[2] New York City, New York, the son of Virginia Holton Admiral, a painter and poet, and Robert De Niro, Sr., an abstract expressionist painter and sculptor.[3] His father was of Italian and Irish descent, and his mother was of English, German, French, and Dutch ancestry.[4][5] His Italian great-grandparents, Giovanni De Niro and Angelina Mercurio, emigrated from Ferrazzano, in the province of Campobasso, Molise, and his paternal grandmother, Helen O'Reilly, was the granddaughter of Edward O'Reilly, an immigrant from Ireland.
De Niro's parents, who had met at the painting classes of Hans Hofmann in Provincetown (Cape Cod), Massachusetts, divorced when he was three years old. De Niro was raised by his mother in the Little Italy neighborhood of Manhattan, and in Greenwich Village. His father lived within walking distance and Robert spent much time with him as he was growing up.[6] De Niro attended PS 41, a public elementary school in Manhattan, through the sixth grade, and then went to the private Elisabeth Irwin High School, the upper school of the Little Red School House, for the seventh and eighth grades.[7] He was accepted at the High School of Music and Art for the ninth grade, but only attended for a short time, transferring instead to a public junior high school.[8] He began high school at the private McBurney School,[9] attended the private Rhodes Preparatory School,[10] but never graduated.[11] Nicknamed "Bobby Milk" for his pallor, the youthful De Niro hung out with a group of street kids in Little Italy, some of whom have remained lifelong friends of his.[12] But the direction of his future had already been determined by his stage debut at age ten, playing the Cowardly Lion in his school's production of The Wizard of Oz.[2][13] Along with finding relief from shyness through performing, De Niro was also entranced by the movies, and he dropped out of high school at age sixteen to pursue acting.[12] De Niro studied acting at the Stella Adler Conservatory, as well as Lee Strasberg's Actors Studio.[11]
Career
Acting
De Niro's first movie role, in collaboration with Brian De Palma, was in 1963, at the age of 20, when he appeared opposite his friend Jill Clayburgh in The Wedding Party; however, the film was not released until 1969. He then played in Roger Corman's 1970 Bloody Mama, which starred Shelly Winters as Ma Barker. He gained popular attention with his role as a dying Major League Baseball player in Bang the Drum Slowly (1973).[2] That same year, he began his collaboration with Martin Scorsese, when he played the smalltime crook Johnny Boy, alongside Harvey Keitel's Charlie, in Mean Streets (1973).[2]
In 1974, De Niro had a pivotal role in Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather Part II, playing the young Vito Corleone – the director having remembered his previous auditions for the roles of Sonny Corleone, Michael Corleone, Carlo Rizzi and Paulie Gatto, in The Godfather. His performance earned him his first Academy Award, for Best Supporting Actor,[2] although Coppola accepted the award, as De Niro was not present at the Oscar ceremony. He became the first actor to win an Academy Award speaking mainly a foreign language, in this case, multiple Sicilian dialects[2] (although he delivered a few lines in English). De Niro and Marlon Brando, who played the older Vito Corleone in the first film, are the only actors to have won Oscars portraying the same fictional character. Brando and De Niro came together onscreen for the only time in The Score (2001).
After working with Scorsese in Mean Streets, he had a successful working relationship with the director 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), and Casino (1995). They also acted together in Guilty by Suspicion and provided their voices for the animated feature Shark Tale.
Taxi Driver was particularly important to De Niro's career: his iconic performance as Travis Bickle shot him to stardom and forever linked De Niro's name with Bickle's famous "You talkin' to me?" monologue, which De Niro largely improvised.[14] The role of Travis Bickle earned him his first Academy Award Nomination for Best Actor.
In 1976, De Niro appeared, along with Gérard Depardieu and Donald Sutherland, in Bernardo Bertolucci's epic biographical exploration of life in Italy before 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.
Fearing he had become typecast in mob roles, De Niro began expanding into occasional comedic roles in the mid-1980s and has had much success there as well, with such films as Brazil (1985), the hit action-comedy Midnight Run (1988), Analyze This (1999), opposite actor/comedian Billy Crystal, Meet the Parents (2000) and Meet the Fockers (2004), both opposite Ben Stiller.
Other films include Falling in Love (1984), Once Upon a Time in America (1984), The Mission (1986), Angel Heart (1987), The Untouchables (1987), Goodfellas (1990), Awakenings (1990), Heat (1995), The Fan (1996), Sleepers (1996), Wag the Dog (1997), Jackie Brown and Ronin (1998). In 1997, he re-teamed with Harvey Keitel and Ray Liotta along with Sylvester Stallone in the crime drama Cop Land. De Niro played a supporting role, taking a back seat to Stallone, Keitel, and Liotta.
In 1993, he also starred in This Boy's Life, featuring then-rising child actors Leonardo DiCaprio and Tobey Maguire. Around this time, he was offered the role of Mitch Leary in In the Line of Fire, opposite Clint Eastwood. However, due to scheduling conflicts with A Bronx Tale, he turned the role down in favor of John Malkovich, who, himself, received an Academy Award nomination for the role. De Niro would later reference In the Line of Fire, along with Dirty Harry and Magnum Force, two more of Eastwood's films, in Righteous Kill.
In 1995, De Niro starred in Michael Mann's police action-thriller Heat, along with fellow actor and long-time friend, Al Pacino. The duo drew much attention from fans, as both have generally been compared throughout their careers. Though Pacino and De Niro both starred in The Godfather Part II, they shared no screen time. De Niro and Pacino once again appeared together, in the crime thriller Righteous Kill.[15]
In 2004, De Niro provided the voice of Don Lino, the antagonist in the animated film Shark Tale, opposite Will Smith. He also reprised his role as Jack Byrnes in Meet the Fockers, and was featured in Stardust. All of the films were successful at the box office, but they received mixed reviews. When promoting Shark Tale, De Niro said that was his first experience with voice acting, which he commented, was an enjoyable time.
De Niro had to turn down a role in The Departed (Martin Sheen taking the role instead) due to commitments with 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."[16]
In 2006, De Niro costarred with Matt Damon and Angelina Jolie in The Good Shepherd (which he also directed). The movie also reunited him onscreen with Joe Pesci, with whom De Niro had starred in Raging Bull, Goodfellas, A Bronx Tale, Once Upon a Time in America and Casino.
De Niro announced that he would appear in Martin Campbell's film version of the classic BBC crime series Edge of Darkness in 2010, alongside Mel Gibson; however, just after he arrived to begin shooting, De Niro walked from the set due to creative differences.[17] He was then replaced by Ray Winstone.[18][19] He appeared as Senator John McLaughlin in the action film Machete, directed by Robert Rodriguez and Ethan Maniquis. De Niro starred in the thriller Stone (2010), along with Edward Norton and Milla Jovovich. The sequel to Meet the Parents (2000) and Meet the Fockers (2004), Little Fockers, starring De Niro, Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson, Blythe Danner, Teri Polo, Dustin Hoffman and Barbra Streisand, was released on December 22, 2010.
In 2011, De Niro appeared in the action film Killer Elite with Jason Statham and Clive Owen, in the film adaptation of the novel The Dark Fields, Limitless, with Bradley Cooper, directed by Neil Burger, and in New Year's Eve, the romantic comedy film directed by Garry Marshall.[20][21][21]
Thirty-four years after Bernardo Bertolucci's 1900, De Niro stars in one of three episodes of the film Manuale d'amore 3, with Monica Bellucci, directed by Italian director Giovanni Veronesi.[22][23]
In January 2011, CBS picked up De Niro's crime pilot, Rookies.[24] In 2011, he was the President of the Jury for the 64th Cannes Film Festival.[25]
In 2012, he will star in the movies The Silver Linings Playbook, Freelancers, Red Lights and in Being Flynn.
Film director
In 1993, De Niro made his directorial debut with A Bronx Tale. The film, written by Chazz Palminteri, was about Palminteri's turbulent childhood in the Bronx. De Niro agreed to direct the film after seeing Palminteri's one-man off-Broadway play. De Niro also played Lorenzo, the bus driver who struggles to keep his son away from local mobster Sonny, played by Palminteri.
De Niro did not direct another film until 2006's The Good Shepherd, which starred Matt Damon and Angelina Jolie. The Good Shepherd depicts the origins of the CIA, with Damon portraying one of the top counter-intelligence agents during World War II and the Cold War. De Niro has a small role as General Bill Sullivan, who recruits Damon's character into the world of counter-intelligence.
Restaurants
His capital ventures have included: cofounding the film studio TriBeCa Productions; the popular Tribeca Film Festival; Nobu and TriBeCa Grill, which he co-owns with a developer Paul Wallace and Broadway producer Stewart F. Lane,[26] The Greenwich Hotel,[27] located in Tribeca, and the restaurant inside the hotel, Locanda Verde, formally known as Ago, which is run by executive chef and co-owner, Andrew Carmellini.[28]
According to the July 2010 issue of Gourmet magazine, De Niro is in negotiations with an internationally renowned chef, Natalia Jibladze, to launch a yet unnamed restaurant in Manhattan under his Tribeca trademark. He was in Malaysia recently, and while having lunch with the Malaysian Prime Minister's wife, was asked to open a Malay restaurant in Alor Setar, Kedah, Malaysia.[29]
Other work
In June 2006, it was announced that De Niro had donated his film archive — including scripts, costumes, and props — to the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin. On April 27, 2009, it was announced that the De Niro collection at the Ransom Center was open to researchers and the public. De Niro has said that he is working with Martin Scorsese on a new project. "I'm trying to actually work... [screenwriter] Eric Roth and myself and Marty are working on a script now, trying to get it done."[16]
Acting style
Praised for his commitment to roles, stemming from his background in method acting, De Niro gained 60 pounds (27 kg) and learned how to box for his portrayal of Jake LaMotta in Raging Bull;[2] ground his teeth for Cape Fear; lived in Sicily for The Godfather Part II; worked as a cab driver for a few weeks for Taxi Driver;[30] and learned to play the saxophone for New York, New York. He again put on weight for his performance as Al Capone in The Untouchables (1987).[31]
De Niro's brand of method acting includes employing whatever extreme tactic he feels is necessary to elicit the best performance from those with whom he is working. During the filming of The King of Comedy, for example, he directed a slew of anti-Semitic epithets at co-star Jerry Lewis in order to enhance and authenticate the anger demonstrated by his onscreen character. According to People magazine, the technique was successful. Lewis recalled, "I forgot the cameras were there... I was going for Bobby's throat."[32]
Personal life
Family
De Niro and his first wife Diahnne Abbott have a son, Raphael, a former actor who works in New York real estate.[33] De Niro also adopted Abbott's daughter from a previous relationship, Drena.
De Niro has twin sons, Julian Henry and Aaron Kendrik, conceived by in vitro fertilization and delivered by a surrogate mother in 1995, from a long-term live-in relationship with former model Toukie Smith.[34]
In 1997, De Niro married his second wife, actress Grace Hightower, at their Marbletown home.[35] Their son Elliot was born in 1998 and the couple split in 1999. The divorce was never finalized and in 2004 they renewed their vows.[35] In December 2011, Hightower and De Niro welcomed a daughter, Helen Grace, born via surrogate.[36][37]
In addition to his six children De Niro has three grandchildren – one from his eldest daughter Drena and two from his son Raphael.[38] [39] [40]
Properties
De Niro, who has long resided in New York City, has been investing in the TriBeCa neighborhood in lower Manhattan since 1989. He has residences on the east and west sides of Manhattan. He also has an estate in Marbletown in upstate New York which acts as his primary residence.
Legal issues
In February 1998, during a film shoot in France, he was taken in for questioning by French police for nine hours and was then 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."[41] 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," and he would "send your Legion of Honor back to the ambassador, as soon as possible." French judicial sources say the actor is regarded as a potential witness, not a suspect.
Prostate cancer
In 2003, it was announced that De Niro had been diagnosed with prostate cancer, although he went on to make a full recovery.[42]
Italian citizenship
De Niro was due to be granted 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 and Italian Americans by frequently portraying them in criminal roles. Culture Minister Giuliano Urbani dismissed the objections, and 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 on De Niro on October 21, 2006, during the finale of the Rome Film Festival. De Niro is registered in the electoral district of Molise, the Italian homeland of his great-grandparents.
Activism
Politics
De Niro is a staunch supporter of the Democratic Party, and vocally supported Al Gore in the 2000 presidential election. De Niro publicly supported John Kerry in the 2004 presidential election. In 1998, he lobbied Congress against impeaching President Bill Clinton.[43]
While promoting his movie The Good Shepherd with co-star Matt Damon on the December 8, 2006 episode of Hardball with Chris Matthews at George Mason University, De Niro was asked whom he would like to see as President of the United States. De Niro responded, "Well, I think of two people: Hillary Clinton and Obama."
On February 4, 2008, De Niro supported Obama at a rally at the Izod Center in New Jersey before Super Tuesday.[44]
On March 19, 2012, De Niro and his wife held a fundraiser for President Obama's re-election campaign. At the event, De Niro made a comment, viewed by conservative columnist John Hayward and Steven Kurlander of the Sun-Sentinel as racist,[45][46] joking "Callista Gingrich. Karen Santorum. Ann Romney. Now do you really think our country is ready for a white first lady?" [47][48]
9/11 attacks
De Niro also hosted 9/11, a documentary about the September 11, 2001 attacks, shown on CBS and centering on video footage made by Jules and Gedeon Naudet, that focused on the role of firefighters following the attacks.
Filmography
Main article: Robert De Niro filmography
Awards and nominations
For more details on this topic, see List of Robert De Niro awards.
Academy Award
- 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 (1979)
- Nominated: Best Actor, Raging Bull (1982)
- Nominated: Best Actor, The King of Comedy (1984)
- Nominated: Best Actor, Goodfellas (1990)
Sources
- Baxter, John (2002). De Niro: A Biography. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-00-257196-8.
- Dougan, Andy (2003). Untouchable: a biography of Robert De Niro. Da Capo Press. ISBN 1-56025-469-6.
References
- ^ BAFTA Film Awards: 1990
- ^ a b c d e f g Stated on Inside the Actors Studio, 1998
- ^ "Robert De Niro Biography (1943–)". filmreference.com. http://www.filmreference.com/film/88/Robert-DE-Niro.html. Retrieved August 20, 2007.
- ^ "Robert De Niro Biography". contactmusic.com. http://www.contactmusic.com/info/robert_de_niro. Retrieved December 7, 2010.
- ^ Dougan, Andy (2003). Untouchable: a biography of Robert De Niro. Da Capo Press. p. 145. ISBN 1-56025-469-6. http://books.google.com/books?id=vMoLAVV4yTQC.
- ^ Dougan,p. 10.
- ^ Dougan, pp. 12–13.
- ^ Dougan, pp. 13–14.
- ^ Baxter, John (2002). De Niro: A Biography. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-00-257196-8. pp. 37–38.
- ^ Baxter, p. 37.
- ^ a b Dougan, pp. 17–18.
- ^ a b Dougan, p. 17.
- ^ Dougan, p.15.
- ^ "'There was a sense of exhilaration about what we had done'". The Guardian (UK). October 16, 2004. http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2004/sep/01/features.extract.
- ^ Hayes, Dade (May 17, 2007). "De Niro, Pacino reunite for 'Kill'". Variety. http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=Cannes2007&jump=story&id=1061&articleid=VR1117965130&cs=1. Retrieved August 20, 2008.
- ^ a b Graham, Jamie (March 2007). "The Total Film Interview". Total Film (125): 105.
- ^ Michael Fleming (September 4, 2008). "De Niro exits 'Edge of Darkness'". Variety. http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117991604.html?categoryid=13&cs=1. Retrieved September 4, 2008.
- ^ Michael Fleming (September 12, 2008). "Winstone replaces De Niro in 'Edge'". Variety. http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117992081.html. Retrieved September 12, 2008.
- ^ Jessica Satherley (October 7, 2010). "Monica Bellucci shows off her hourglass figure as she films with Robert De Niro in Rome". Daily Mail (UK). http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1318227/Robert-De-Niro-seduced-Monica-Bellucci-shooting-Italian-love-story.html.
- ^ Robert De Niro at the Internet Movie Database
- ^ a b http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1598822/
- ^ Vivarelli, Nick (August 31, 2010). "De Laurentiis: Serials killer at box office". Variety. http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118023501.html?categoryid=4109&cs=1. Retrieved January 9, 2011.
- ^ Jessica Satherley (October 7, 2010). "Monica Bellucci shows off her hourglass figure as she films with Robert De Niro in Rome". Daily Mail (UK). http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1318227/Robert-De-Niro-seduced-Monica-Bellucci-shooting-Italian-love-story.html. Retrieved January 9, 2011.
- ^ "CBS Orders Robert De Niro Crime Pilot". TVGuide.com. http://www.tvguide.com/News/CBS-Robert-DeNiro-1028175.aspx. Retrieved January 21, 2011.
- ^ Cannes Film Festival
- ^ Honan, William H. (August 23, 1989). "De Niro Is Trying Life Behind the Camera". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/1989/08/23/movies/de-niro-is-trying-life-behind-the-camera.html?pagewanted=print.
- ^ Greenwich Hotel. Greenwich Hotel. Retrieved on August 14, 2010.
- ^ "Locanda Verde Is A-Go". Zagat.com. May 12, 2009. http://www.zagat.com/Blog/Detail.aspx?SNP=NNYC&SCID=40&BLGID=20686.
- ^ De Niro teams up with his favorite chef for a new gem in Manhattan. Gourmet Magazine. Retrieved on August 15, 2010.
- ^ Dougan, p. 75.
- ^ First Page Fitness: Top 6 Actors Who have Gained or Lost Massive Weight for Movie Roles
- ^ "People Magazine". Google. http://docs.google.com/View?docid=dg6n6657_55cffn74. Retrieved August 20, 2007.
- ^ "New York Real Estate – Prudential Douglas Elliman". Elliman.com. http://www.elliman.com/rad. Retrieved January 9, 2011.
- ^ "Toukie Smith and actor Robert De Niro become parents of twins". Jet. October 20, 1995. p. 36.
- ^ a b "Drug allegations hit De Niro custody battle" July, 26 2001. The Guardian
- ^ "Robert De Niro & Wife Welcome Baby Girl". People. December 23, 2011. http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20556674,00.html. Retrieved December 23, 2011.
- ^ "Robert De Niro and wife welcome a child via surrogate". Daily Mail (London). December 24, 2011. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2078244/Robert-De-Niro-68-wife-56-welcome-child-surrogate.html. Retrieved December 24, 2011.
- ^ De Niro welcomes another grandchild
- ^ Drena De Niro expecting child 2003
- ^ De Niro's daughter on him as a father and grandfather
- ^ "De Niro furious over French grilling". BBC News. February 24, 1998. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/59817.stm. Retrieved August 20, 2007.
- ^ "De Niro has prostate cancer". BBC News. October 21, 2003. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/3209434.stm. Retrieved January 9, 2011.
- ^ "Scepticism and support swirl around Clinton". BBC News. December 17, 1998. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/events/crisis_in_the_gulf/latest_news/236582.stm. Retrieved August 20, 2007.
- ^ "De Niro, Damon: Spies, patriotism and politics". MSNBC. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16269379/page/4/. Retrieved August 20, 2007.
- ^ Hayward, John (March 20, 2012). "Liberal racism". Human Events. http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=50342. Retrieved March 23, 2012.
- ^ Kurlander, Steven (March 22, 2012). "Obama should apologize for De Niro racial joke". South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, FL). http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2012-03-22/news/fl-skcol-obama-de-niro-joke-kurlander-0322-20120322_1_racial-joke-president-obama-first-lady-michelle-obama. Retrieved March 23, 2012.
- ^ Ward, Caroline (March 22, 2012). "Robert De Niro apologizes for 'white First Lady' comments". http://blog.chron.com/txpotomac/2012/03/robert-de-niro-apologizes-for-white-first-lady-comments//.
- ^ Bendery, Jennifer (March 22, 2012). "Ann Romney: 'I Laughed' At Robert DeNiro's 'White First Lady' Joke". The Huffington Post. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/22/ann-romney-robert-deniro_n_1373638.html.
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