Robert Anthony De Niro Jr. was born on August 17, 1943. He is an actor, producer, and director from the United States. He earned two Academy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, the Cecil B. DeMille Award.
A Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award for his nine collaborations with filmmaker Martin Scorsese. De Niro received the Kennedy Center Honor in 2009, and US President Barack Obama gave him the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2016.
De Niro studied acting at HB Studio, Stella Adler Conservatory, and Lee Strasberg’s Actors Studio in New York City, where he was born. His first major appearance was in Greetings (1968), and he emerged in the sports drama Bang the Drum Slowly as a baseball player (1973).
Mean Streets (1973), in which he played small-time crook “Johnny Boy,” was his first work with Scorsese.
De Niro’s appearance as young Vito Corleone in Francis Ford Coppola’s crime epic The Godfather Part II (1974), which earned him an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, catapulted him to stardom. He received two Academy Award nods for Best Actor for his roles as Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver (1976) and as a soldier in the Vietnam War film The Deer Hunter (1978).
De Niro earned his first Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of Jake LaMotta in Martin Scorsese’s biographical movie Raging Bull (1980). He expanded his acting career by portraying a stand-up comedian in The King of Comedy (1982).
Hewent on to star in Bernardo Bertolucci’s epic 1900 (1976), Sergio Leone’s crime epics include Once Upon a Time in America (1984), Terry Gilliam’s dystopian satire Brazil (1985), the religious epic The Mission (1986), and the comedy Midnight Run (1988).
In the 1990 films Goodfellas and Awakenings, De Niro played gangster Jimmy Conway and a catatonic patient, respectively, and a criminal in the psychological thriller Cape Fear (1991). De Niro’s performances were praised in all three films.
Following that, he acted in This Boy’s Life (1993) and directed his first feature film, A Bronx Tale, in 1993. Heat and Casino, both crime flicks, are among his other critical hits (both 1995).
He’s also renowned for his parts in the comedies Wag the Dog (1997), Analyze This (1999), and Meet the Parents (2000). He received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal in David O. Russell’s 2012 romantic comedy Silver Linings Playbook, after acting in several critically derided and commercially failed films.
De Niro was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for his role as Bernie Madoff in The Wizard of Lies in 2017. After that, he appeared in the psychological thriller Joker and the criminal epic The Irishman, both directed by Martin Scorsese (both 2019).
In 1989, De Niro and producer Jane Rosenthal created TriBeCa Productions, a film and television production firm that has produced various projects in addition to his own. In 2002, he co-founded the Tribeca Film Festival with Rosenthal. The Library of Congress has entered six of De Niro’s films into the United States National Film Registry as “culturally, historically, or aesthetically important.”
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Robert De Niro – Early life and Education
Robert Anthony De Niro Jr. was born to painters Virginia Admiral and Robert De Niro Sr. in Manhattan, New York City, on August 17, 1943. His father was of Irish and Italian ancestry, and his mother was of Dutch, English, French, and German lineage. His parents, who met at Hans Hofmann’s painting workshops in Provincetown, Massachusetts, divorced when he was two years old after his father came out as gay.
His mother reared him in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village and Little Italy neighborhoods. De Niro’s father grew up in the neighborhood and was close to him throughout his childhood. Because of his light complexion, De Niro was nicknamed “Bobby Milk,” and he befriended many street youngsters in Little Italy, much to his father’s displeasure. Others, on the other hand, have remained lifelong friends.
His mother was raised as a Presbyterian but later converted to atheism, while his father had been a lapsed Catholic since he was 12 years old. De Niro was secretly baptized into the Catholic Church while staying with his grandparents following his parents’ divorce, despite his parents’ wishes.
De Niro attended PS 41, a public elementary school in Manhattan, as a sixth-grader. He began acting studies at the Dramatic Workshop at the age of ten and made his theatrical debut at the age of ten in The Wizard of Oz as the Cowardly Lion.
For the seventh and eighth grades, he attended Elisabeth Irwin High School, the Little Red School House’s upper school. He was then accepted into the High School of Music and Art for the ninth grade but only stayed for a few months before transferring to IS 71, Charles Evans Hughes Junior High School, a public junior high school.
De Niro went to McBurney School and then Rhodes Preparatory School for high school. He discovered that acting helped him overcome his shyness, and he became attracted by movies, so he walked out of high school at the age of 16 to go after acting.
When I was about 18 years old, I was watching a TV drama and thinking to myself, ‘If these actors are making a living at it, and they aren’t very talented,’, I can’t do any worse than them,'” he later explained.
He went to HB Studio and Lee Strasberg’s Actors Studio to study acting. De Niro also trained with Stella Adler of the Stella Adler Conservatory, where he was introduced to the Stanislavski system’s principles. De Niro was influenced by the work of Marlon Brando, Montgomery Clift, James Dean, Greta Garbo, Geraldine Page, and Kim Stanley when he was a young actor.
Robert De Niro – Personal life
1.Relationships with others
In 1976, De Niro married actress, Diahnne Abbott. Raphael, a former actor who works in real estate in New York, is their son. Drena De Niro, Abbott’s daughter from a previous relationship, was also adopted by De Niro.
In 1988, he and Abbott divorced. Between 1988 to 1996, he was in a relationship with model Toukie Smith. Julian and Aaron, De Niro’s twin sons, were conceived through in vitro fertilization and delivered by a surrogate mother in 1995.
De Niro married actress Grace Hightower in 1997. Elliot, their son, was born in 1998, and the couple divorced in 1999. The divorce was never formalized, and they remarried in 2004. Their surrogate daughter was born in December 2011.
In 2014, he and Hightower relocated to 15 Central Park West, a 6,000-square-foot, five-bedroom condo. After 20 years of marriage, De Niro and Hightower announced their separation four years later.
De Niro has four grandkids, one from Drena and three from Raphael, his son. In a virtual divorce case presided over by a Manhattan judge on April 19, 2021, De Niro’s lawyer argued that her client is “working at an unsustainable pace” in order “to support Hightower and pay off all his past taxes.” According to Hightower’s lawyer, De Niro has been “unfairly lowering” the agreed-upon payments to his estranged wife since the couple filed for divorce in 2018.
2.Health
In October 2003, De Niro was diagnosed with prostate cancer. In December 2003, he had surgery at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.
3.Nationality and residency
De Niro has lived in New York City for a long time and has invested in the Tribeca neighborhood of Manhattan since 1989. On both the east and west sides of Manhattan, he owns real estate. He also has a 78-acre estate in Gardiner, New York, that he uses as his primary house. Despite resistance from the Sons of Italy, De Niro was granted Italian citizenship in 2006, even though he had harmed the public image of Italians by portraying criminals.
4.Opinion on vaccination
De Niro supported the inclusion of the controversial documentary Vaxxed in the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival at the time.
His interest in the film sprang from his own experience with his autistic son, Elliot, he stated. Following discussions with festival organizers and the scientific community, the film was pulled from the schedule.
De Niro and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., head of the anti-vaccine non-profit Children’s Health Defense, gave a joint presentation in February 2017 to express their worries about vaccination safety. De Niro has indicated that he is not anti-vaccine, but he does have reservations about their effectiveness.
5.Assassination Attempt
An explosive device was aimed towards De Niro in October 2018. The device was discovered at the Tribeca Grill in Manhattan, which also houses his production company. Similar devices were allegedly given to high-profile politicians such as Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, former Attorney General Eric Holder, and former CIA Director John Brennan, according to the FBI.
Robert De Niro – Career
A.1963–1973: Early roles and breakthrough
De Niro had tiny appearances in the films Encounter, Three Rooms in Manhattan, (all released in 1965) and Les Jeunes Loups (1968). De Niro received a prominent role in Greetings (1968), a satire picture about guys dodging the Vietnam War draught, not long after. De Niro and filmmaker Brian De Palma collaborated for the first time on this film, which was the first of a series of early collaborations.
De Niro then starred in the drama Sam’s Song, in which he plays a New York City director, a year later. He also participated in De Palma’s comedy The Wedding Party in 1969, although it was shot in 1963 and remained unpublished for six years. The New York Times’ Howard Thompson gave De Niro a positive review at the time, saying, “This farcical comedy, modestly produced by a trio of young people and utilizing some unfamiliar faces, is wonderful fun.”
B. Scorsese collaboration and acclaim, 1974–1980
De Niro portrayed the youthful Vito Corleone in Francis Ford Coppola’s criminal epic The Godfather Part II (1974). De Niro had previously auditioned for the first installment, The Godfather (1972), but dropped out to pursue The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight. Coppola remembered De Niro and gave him a role in Part II instead.
De Niro spoke mostly in numerous Sicilian dialects to portray his character, though he did say a few lines in English. The picture was a commercial success, grossing $48 million in theatres throughout the world.
At the 47th Academy Awards, The Godfather Part II earned eleven nominations and won six, including one for De Niro for Best Supporting Actor.
De Niro’s first Academy Award was accepted on his behalf by Coppola, as he was unable to attend the ceremony. In the first film, De Niro and Marlon Brando, who played the older Vito Corleone, were the first performers to win Academy Awards for portraying the same fictional character.
In 1980, De Niro and Scorsese collaborated for the fourth time on the biographical drama Raging Bull. De Niro plays Jake LaMotta, an Italian-American middleweight boxer whose aggressive conduct and temper damaged his relationship with his wife and family. Raging Bull: My Story is based on Jake LaMotta’s memoir.
De Niro subsequently admitted that it was one of the most difficult parts to prepare for since he had to add 60 pounds (27 kg) and learn to box for the film, which also starred Joe Pesci and Cathy Moriarty.
“The novel isn’t great literature, but it has a lot of heart,” De Niro said at the time to Scorsese. Although the film earned positive reviews, several critics panned it for its “very violent” violence; yet, De Niro was praised for his realistic portrayal. According to The Hollywood Reporter’s critic, “De Niro is amazing, and he looks so much like La Motta that he is nearly indistinguishable as himself. In the concluding scenes, De Niro’s look is also breathtaking “.
According to Michael Thomson of the BBC, “Scorsese’s power is matched by De Niro’s ferocity as he goes deep into the soul of the boxer.” The film got eight nominations at the 53rd Academy Awards, including Best Actor for De Niro, which he won. American critics have since hailed Raging Bull as one of the best pictures of the 1980s.
C.2017–present
De Niro was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Television Movie for his performance as Bernie Madoff in Barry Levinson’s HBO miniseries The Wizard of Lies in 2017.
De Niro received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series in 2019 for his portrayal of Robert Mueller opposite Alec Baldwin’s Donald Trump on several episodes of Saturday Night Live.
For his work as a producer on Ava DuVernay’s critically acclaimed limited series When They See Us, he garnered another Emmy nomination. De Niro made his comeback in 2019 with Todd Phillips’ Joker, in which he played talk show presenter Murray Franklin, a possible origin tale for the Batman villain The Joker (Joaquin Phoenix).
The picture was a commercial success and received eleven Academy Award nominations. In the same year, De Niro returned with Scorsese for The Irishman, a film based on Charles Brandt’s 2004 novel I Heard You Paint Houses. Al Pacino, Harvey Keitel, and Joe Pesci co-star in the picture, which is their ninth feature film together and their first since 1995’s Casino.
The Daily Telegraph’s Robbie Collin commended De Niro’s “sensational” performance and the chemistry between his co-stars, whom he had previously worked with within other films. Despite alleged flaws in the film’s special effects, Variety magazine’s critic praised the chemistry, calling him “superb.”
De Niro was cast in James Gray’s period drama Armageddon Time in June 2020. Oscar Isaac, Cate Blanchett, Anne Hathaway, and Donald Sutherland will all-star in the film. The film is described as “a coming-of-age story that explores friendships and devotion against the backdrop of an America ready to elect Ronald Reagan as president” by Variety magazine.
De Niro will star in Nancy Meyers’ comedic short film Father of the Bride Part 3 on September 25, 2020 (ish). Diane Keaton, Steve Martin, Kieran Culkin, Martin Short, and Florence Pugh also appeared in the short.
De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio will act in Scorsese’s next film Killers of the Flower Moon, based on the same-named book, according to Variety magazine in 2020. In April, it was rumored that Scorsese was looking for Netflix or Apple TV+ to produce and distribute the picture due to its $200 million budget. Apple TV started in May that it would co-finance and co-distribute the film, with Paramount still handling distribution.
De Niro has inked a new deal for David O. Russell’s production in January 2021. Christian Bale, Margot Robbie, John David Washington, Michael Shannon, Mike Myers, Timothy Olyphant, and Anya-Taylor Joy are among the cast members.
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Robert De Niro – Business Interest
De Niro and his business partner Jane Rosenthal co-founded TriBeCa Productions in 1989, which also organizes the Tribeca Film Festival.
Tribeca Grill (co-owned by De Niro and Broadway producer Stewart F. Lane) is a New American restaurant in Tribeca, Manhattan, located at 375 Greenwich Street (at Franklin Street). It first opened its doors in 1990. In addition, he is the proprietor of the Greenwich Hotel in Tribeca.
With partners Meir Teper and Chef Nobu Matsuhisa, De Niro co-owns Nobu restaurants and hotels. In 2013, the first Nobu Hotel debuted in Caesars Palace, Las Vegas. Two years later, in Manila, Philippines, the second Nobu Hotel opened at City of Dreams.
De Niro teamed up with James Packer in 2015 after the billionaire bought a 20% share in Nobu for $100 million. He owns a share in Paradise Found Nobu Resort, a firm that plans to create a luxury resort on Barbuda’s island.
De Niro directed several films in addition to acting. A Bronx Tale, a film about the Mafia set in the 1960s, was his directorial debut in 1993. He went on to direct The Good Shepherd (2006), a critically acclaimed film about the origins of the CIA and the compromises made by one agent throughout his career.
De Niro was named a Kennedy Center honoree in 2009, and he earned the Cecil B. DeMille Award two years later (a Golden Globe for lifetime achievement). In 2016 He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
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