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

Martin Charles Scorsese

Introduction:

Martin Charles Scorsese known as Martin Scorsese was born on November 17, 1942 in New York City. Scorsese is an American film director, screenwriter, producer and actor. Martin Scorsese is one of the most prominent and influential directors in movie history. Scorsese is known for his critically acclaimed classics including Taxi Driver, GoodFellas, Ragging Bull, Casino, Gangs of New York and The Departed. Scorsese has influenced of Italian neorealism. He also acknowledges French New Wave and he is inspired by Elia Kazan, Michael Powell &Emeric Pressburger and Satyajit Ray.

Early Life:

Martin Scorsese grew up in New York City. He belongs to a Sicilian family. Scorsese is a Son of Charles Scorsese and Catherine Scorsese. Scorsese was raised in a catholic environment. As a boy, he had asthma so he couldn’t play sports with other kids instead of playing hi s parents took him to the cinema it that was the time when his interest developed into cinema. Initially he wants to be a priest before adopting direction as a profession.  Scorsese enrolled in NYU's University College of Arts and Science from where he graduated as a film major in 1964.During the studying years Scorsese direct couple of short films including it’s Not Just You, Murray! (1964), the Big Shave (1967).

Filmmaking:

Scorsese’s student films caught the eye of director Roger Corman that was the turning point of his life. In 1967, Scorsese made his first feature-length film ‘Who's That Knocking at My Door’ with theater actor Harvey Keitel. Brian De Palma was the one who introduced Robert de Niro to Scorsese with whom he later worked in many films. In 1973, Scorsese directed ‘Mean Streets’ starred Robert de Niro and Harvey Keitel, an autobiographical tale of a group of young Italian-Americans living and dying in NYC. It was his first film to be widely acknowledged as a masterpiece and a time when the legend step into cinema. From there to onwards Scorssese and Robert de Niro both become partners and their team is considered as one of the one of the most dynamic filmmaking partnerships of cinematic history. Scorsese next film was ‘Alice Doesn't Live Here Any More', a portrayal of a woman's struggle starred Ellen Burstyn for which she earn best actress Oscar.

His next masterpiece was 1976 film ‘Taxi Driver’ starred De Niro as Travis Bickle, a disturbed Vietnam veteran and taxi driver. Film won the Palme d'Or at the 1976 Cannes Film Festival, also received four Oscar nominations, including Best Picture unfortunately didn’t won any.

In 1980 once again Scorsese cast Deniro for his film Ragging Bull a biographical film based on a true story of middleweight boxing champion Jake LaMotta, this film was such a huge success and nominate for eight Oscars in all major categories including best director, best editor, best picture and best actor. It was the first nomination for Scorsese. Raging Bull is a masterpiece of modern cinema. The American Film Institute chose Raging Bull as the #1 American sports film on their list of the top 10 sports films. Raging Bull is now widely considered to be one of the greatest movies of all time.

In 1990 after a decade Gangster epic Goodfellas (1990) was a return to form for Scorsese and his most confident and fully realized film since Raging Bull. The film was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director; Scorsese earned his third Best Director nomination for Goodfellas but again lost. But Joe Pesci earned the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Goodfellas.

In 1995 Scorsese direct another American Gangster film Casino, starred Deniro, Joe Pesci, Sharon stone. Film gets mixed reviews but Sharon stone won Oscar for her performance in the film.

In 2002 Scorsese direct Gangs of New York starred Leonardo De Caprio, Daniel Day-Lewis and Cameron Diaz. This film was nominated in ten categories of Oscars including all major categories; however it did not win in any category. It was first collaboration of Martin Scorsese with Daniel Day-Lewis. This film was also the first collaboration of Leonardo De caprio with Scorsese but Leonardo stick with him for further projects.

DiCaprio starred again in 'The Departed', an Irish-American crime story. The Departed was Scorsese first collaboration with Mark Wahlberg, Jack Nicholson and Martin Sheen. This movie once again brought a huge success for Scorsese since Goodgfellas . It was for The Departed that Scorsese finally won a best director Oscar. He had been nominated for the Academy Award on five previous occasions, and twice for best screenplay. As he received his first Oscar, Scorsese, who attended the ceremony with his wife Helen, joked: "Could you double-check the envelope?" Film also won best editing; best picture and best adapted Screenplay. However People always thought that he also deserve Oscar for his previous films.

His most recent hit was Hugo based on a novel ‘The Invention of Hugo Cabret’ though it was his first family movie; this film was highly acclaimed by critics and once again nominated in eleven categories of Academy Awards.

Personal life:

Scorsese has been married five times. His first wife was Laraine Marie Brennan; they have a daughter, Catherine.

He married the writer Julia Cameron in 1976; they have a daughter, Domenica Cameron-Scorsese.

He was married to actress Isabella Rossellini from 1979 to their divorce in 1983.

 He then married producer Barbara De Fina in 1985; their marriage ended in divorce as well, in 1991.

 He has been married to Helen Morris since 1999; they have a daughter, Francesca.

Awards and Nominations:

Scorsese almost nominated for every award and won many of them. Scorsese received the AFI Life Achievement Award in 1997. He has been nominated eight times for Academy Awards but only won for once for ‘The Departed’. Scorsese also nominated for several other awards and won many others, No doubt he is considered one of the best directors of all time.

Filmography:

2011       2008		Hugo Shutter Island
2008		Shine A Light
2006		The Departed
2004		The Aviator
2002		Gangs of New York
1999		Bringing Out the Dead
1997		Kundun
1995		Casino
1993		The Age of Innocence
1991		Cape Fear
1990		Goodfellas
1989		New York Stories
1988		The Last Temptation of Christ
1986		The Color of Money
1985		After Hours
1983		The King of Comedy
1980		Raging Bull
1978		The Last Waltz
1977		New York, New York
1976		Taxi Driver
1974		Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore
1973		Mean Streets
1972		Boxcar Bertha
1968		Who's That Knocking at My Door?
1967		The Big Shave
1964		It's Not Just You, Murray!
1963		What's a Nice Girl Like You Doing in a Place Like This?

In 2007, Scorsese was listed among Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People in The World.

By: Haroon Anwar