Robert De Niro

Introduction:

Robert De Niro Jr was born on August 17th, 1943 in New York. De Niro is an American actor, director and producer. De Niro is famous for method acting techniques with his characters by heavily studying their backgrounds and involvement with the roles. He is kown for young Vito Corleone in ‘The Godfather Part II’, Jake LaMotta role in ‘Ragging Bull’, Jimmy Conway in GoodFellas. Robert De Niro has established himself as one of the most respected and iconic screen actors in history. He is acting nearly from 40 years. Robert De Niro, is considered as one of the greatest actors of his time.

Early Life:

Deniro belongs to an artistic family his mother Virginia Admiral and father Robert De Niro Sr both were the painter. His father was of Italian but his mother was English and Dutch. His parents were separated when he was just three years old. De Niro was raised in little Italy. Because of his acting passion his mother sends him to High School of Music and Art for studying but he dropped out after a short while. He began his study in Rhodes Preparatory School but never graduated. Because of his acting passion he starts studying acting in Actor’s studio under acting guru Lee Strasberg's.

Acting Career:

In early 60’s De Niro met Brian De Palma; Brian De Palma was the one who gave him breakthrough in ‘The Wedding Party’. He then appeared in ‘Bloody Mama’ a film of Roger Corman's.

In 1973, De Niro played Bruce Pearson, a major league baseball catcher with a rare blood disease in ‘Bang the Drum Slowly’ (1973). In preparation for his role, De Niro watched thousands of hours of baseball on TV. De Niro role was acclaimed by critics. In the same year Brian De Palma introduced De Niro to his fellow Martin Scorsese.

In 1973 De Niro starred in ‘Mean streets’ his careers first collaboration with Scorsese. In 1974 his Italian looks and his accent earned him a role of young Vito Corleone in Francis Ford Coppolla’s ‘The Godfather: Part II’. His brilliant performance earned him Academy Award in a supporting role. He and Marlon Brando are the only actors to have both won Oscars for playing the same character.

In 1976 De Niro once again teamed up with Scorsese for ‘Taxi Driver’ His acting in this film is one of the most memorable of De Niro’s entire career, He also got a chauffeur’s license and drove cabs around New York for a while to understand the cab driver psyche. He also nominated for Academy Award in a leading role for his role.  

De Niro as Young Vito Corleone

De Niro entered his most extraordinary period of work, landing roles in ‘The Last Tycoon’ (1975, earning an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor); ‘The Deer Hunter’ (1978, which grossed $27.4 million and was the winner of five Academy Awards including Best Picture); and ‘Raging Bull’ (1980), for which he would famously put on sixty pounds to play real-life retired boxer Jake La Motta. The idea for the movie came to De Niro after reading La Motta’s chilling autobiography a few years earlier. After some persuasion, Scorsese convinced to direct the film. He gained sixty pounds of muscles to compete the demand of the character. De Niro was rewarded for his dedication with the Academy Award for Best Actor.

In 1990s De Niro starred in Goodfellas, another gangster film of Martin Scorsese Critics acclaimed highly his role as a Jimmy Conway and his partner in the film Tommy DeVito (Joe Pesci) won Academy Award in a supporting role.

De Niro then founded his own production company, ‘Tribeca’ and made his directorial debut in ‘A Bronx Tale’ (1993).

In 1995, the public got a rare opportunity to see De Niro and Al Pacino appear in the same film. ‘Heat’ is an LA crime saga, which focuses on the lives of two men on opposite sides of the law - one a detective (Pacino); the other a thief (De Niro).

He has also been successful in acting in and producing comedy films, such as ‘Meet the Parents’ (2000) and the sequel, ‘Meet the Fockers’ (2004).

In 2007 he and Al Pacino Once again share screen in ‘Righteous Kill’. 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. After all these years of playing so many roles and proving himself he still working on films his upcoming films are The Big Wedding, Last Vegas, The Comedian.

Deniro once said that how he feels about being popular:

The hardest thing about being famous is that people are always nice to you. You're in a conversation and everybody's agreeing with what you're saying -- even if you say something totally crazy. You need people who can tell you what you don't want to hear.

Awards and Nominations:

Robert de Niro earns about Seven Oscar nominations in different categories. He also won two Academy Awards in his film Career. De Niro is also nominated and won almost every major Award. Robert De Niro has also received AFI lifetime achievement Award on June 12, 2003.

Robert de Niro is living legend and these rewards seem proof enough that De Niro is a legend of his generation and deserves them.

List of Robert de Niro Movies:

·         The Big Wedding

·         Silver Linings Playbook

·         Freelancers

·         Being Flynn

·         Corman's World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel

·         New Year's Eve

·         Killer Elite

·         Limitless

·         Little Fockers

·         Stone

·         Machete

·         Everybody's Fine

·         What Just Happened

·         Righteous Kill

·         Stardust

·         The Good Shepherd

·         Arthur and the Invisibles

·         The Bridge Of San Luis Rey

·         Hide & Seek

·         Meet the Fockers

·         Godsend

·         Analyze That

·         City by the Sea

·         Showtime

·         The Score

·         15 Minutes

·         Men of Honor

·         Meet the Parents

·         The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle

·         The Book That Wrote Itself

·         Flawless

·         One Hundred and One Nights

·         Analyze This

·         Lenny Bruce: Swear to Tell the Truth

·         Ronin

·         Great Expectations

·         Jackie Brown

·         Wag the Dog

·         Cop Land

·         Marvin s Room

·         Sleepers

·         The Fan

·         Heat

·         Casino

·         Mary Shelley s Frankenstein

·         A Bronx Tale

·         This Boy's Life

·         Mad Dog and Glory

·         Night and the City

·         Mistress

·         Cape Fear

·         Backdraft

·         Guilty By Suspicion

·         Awakenings

·         Goodfellas

·         Hollywood Mavericks

·         Stanley and Iris

·         We’re No Angels

·         Jackknife

·         Hello Actors Studio

·         Dear America: Letters Homes From Vietnam

·         Midnight Run

·         The Untouchables

·         Angel Heart

·         The Mission

·         Brazil

·         Falling in Love

·         Once Upon A Time In America

·         The King of Comedy

·         Acting: Lee Strasberg and The Actors Studio

·         True Confessions

·         Raging Bull

·         Line of Fire

·         The Deer Hunter

·         1900

·         New York, New York

·         The Last Tycoon

·         Taxi Driver

·         The Godfather, Part II

·         Bang the Drum Slowly

·         Mean Streets

·         Addict

·         The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight

·         Born to Win

·         Hi, Mom!

·         Bloody Mama

·         The Sam's Song

·         Greetings

·         The Wedding Party

·         Trois Chambres a Manhattan

·         Killing Season

·         Manuale D Amore 3

·         Rent

·         Stage Beauty

·         About a Boy

·         Prison Song

·         Entropy

·         Faithful

·         Thunder heart

By: Haroon Anwar