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Robert Mario De Niro, Jr. (born August 17, 1943) is a two-time Academy Award and Golden Globe-winning American film actor, director, and producer. He is often listed among the greatest actors of all time. Often regarded as one of the greatest actors of all time, Robert De Niro was also called one of the most enigmatic. Due to his abhorrence with being interviewed, De Niro had famously remained tight-lipped about his personal life, background, past experiences, opinions about other actors and just about everything else that had nothing to do with acting. Even then, he had sometimes put fear into journalists whenever he was asked about playing Travis Bickle in “Taxi Driver” (1976), going on an eating tour in the south of France to gain 60-pounds for “Raging Bull” (1980), or wearing custom-made silk underwear in order to get the right feel for sashaying like Al Capone in “The Untouchables” (1987). Because of such close attention paid to small details, De Niro developed a reputation for being one of the hardest working actors in the business, giving rise to legendary methods of preparation which were sometimes exaggerated, like actually playing Russian roulette for “The Deer Hunter” (1978). But there was never any doubt as to where De Niro stood in the pantheon of acting – he towered above all. Who he was as a man, however, would never be known. In the end, all that was left was his performances. Given his amazing body of work, that would be enough. He is noted for his methodist acting and portrayal of conflicted, troubled characters and for his enduring collaboration with director Martin Scorsese. He is best known for his roles as the young Vito Corleone in The Godfather Part II, cabbie Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver, boxer Jake La Motta in Raging Bull and mobsters Jimmy Conway in Goodfellas and Al Capone in The Untouchables. De Niro was born in New York, the son of Virginia Admiral, a painter, and Robert De Niro, Sr., an abstract expressionist painter and sculptor. De Niro's father was a lapsed Catholic of Italian and Irish descent and his mother a Presbyterian-raised atheist of German, Dutch and French descent. His Italian great-grandparents had emigrated from Ferrazzano, in the province of Campobasso, Molise. His parents, who had met at the painting classes of Hans Hofmann in Provincetown, Massachusetts, divorced when he was two years old. De Niro grew up in the Little Italy area of Manhattan. His childhood nickname was "Bobby Milk" due to his pale complexion in his youth. De Niro was left at two years old without his father, Robert, a painter who traveled to Europe to paint when his parents divorced. When he was 10 years old, De Niro had his first taste of acting playing the Cowardly Lion in a school production of “The Wizard of Oz.” His mom, Virginia Admiral, worked as a typist at the Dramatic Workshop, where De Niro began his training. He quit, however, when he was 16 – around this time, he briefly ran with a local street gang, who affectionately knew him as Bobby Milk. When he was 18 years of age, De Niro returned to his training after being taken under the wing of actress Shelley Winters; this time with Stella Adler at the famed Actors Studio. One of his earliest appearances onscreen was a brief walk-on in “Trois Chambres A Manhattan” (1965), a romantic drama set in New York by French director Marcel Carne. Meanwhile, De Niro went around town looking for work with a composite headshot of him in numerous guises – cab driver, old man, business executive – to avoid being typecast in ethnic Italian roles. De Niro first attended the Little Red School House and was then enrolled by his mother at the High School of Music and Art in New York. He dropped out at the age of 13 and joined a Little Italy street gang. De Niro attended the Stella Adler Conservatory, as well as Lee Strasberg's Actor's Studio, and used his membership there mostly as a professional advantage. At the age of 16 he toured in a production of Chekhov's The Bear. At the age of 20, in 1963, came De Niro's first film role and collaboration with Brian De Palma, when he appeared in The Wedding Party; it was not released until 1969, however. He spent much of the 1960s working in theater workshops and off-Broadway productions. He was an extra in the French film Three Rooms in Manhattan (1965), and made his official film debut after he reunited with De Palma in Greetings (1968) and later reprised his Greetings role in Hi, Mom (1970). He gained popular attention with his role as a dying Major League baseball player in Bang the Drum Slowly (1973). The same year he began his fruitful collaboration with Scorsese when he played his memorable role as the smalltime Mafia hood "Johnny Boy" alongside Harvey Keitel's "Charlie" in Mean Streets (1973). In 1974, De Niro played a pivotal role in Francis Coppola's The Godfather Part II playing young Don Vito Corleone. His performance earned him his first Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. He became the first actor to ever win an Academy Award speaking only a foreign language, Sicilian. After working with him in Mean Streets he had a very successful working relationship with Scorsese 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.) In these films, De Niro has primarily played charming sociopaths. Taxi Driver is 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 improvised himself. De Niro began his feature acting career in earnest when he appeared in a few low-budget films by director Brian De Palma, who paid the actor fifty bucks a role. They first worked together on “The Wedding Party” (1967), a comedy of errors about a couple nervously preparing for their pending nuptials. Shot in 1967, the film was released two years after De Niro was seen in “Greetings” (1968), playing a voyeuristic film enthusiast who tries to help a friend avoid the Vietnam War. After landing the lead role in “Sam’s Song” (1969), a low-budget indie about a New York film buff who makes a documentary about Richard Nixon, De Niro rejoined De Palma for “Hi, Mom!” (1970), a counterculture satire about a returning Vietnam vet who sets out to make it as an aspiring pornographer. He learned to speak fluent Sicilian in making his first foray into the mafia world with “The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight” (1971), a disastrous comedy that De Niro would probably rather forget. De Niro followed with supporting roles in the equally forgettable “Born to Win” (1971) and “Jennifer on My Mind” (1971). In 1976, De Niro appeared, along with Gérard Depardieu and Donald Sutherland, in Bernardo Bertolucci's epic biographical exploration of life during 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. He was offered the role of "Cowboy" in director Walter Hill's The Warriors (1979) but turned it down. 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, ground his teeth for Cape Fear, lived in Sicily for The Godfather Part II, worked as a cab driver for three months for Taxi Driver, and learned to play the saxophone for New York, New York. He also put on weight and shaved his hairline to play Al Capone in The Untouchables. De Niro's brand of Method acting includes employing whatever extreme tactic he feels is necessary to elicit the best performance from those he is acting with. An example of De Niro's Method acting was during the filming of The King of Comedy, in which De Niro 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 going for Bobby's throat." Up to this point, De Niro’s career had been merely a proving ground for the young actor, who suddenly found himself earning vast critical praise with his performance in “Bang the Drum Slowly” (1973). As a dimwitted baseball player who finds himself dying young from Hodgkin’s disease, De Niro delivered a tear-jerking performance that propelled him into the limelight and earned him a Best Supporting Actor award from the New York Film Critics Circle. In stark contrast to his gentle portrayal of a simple Southern boy, he exploded onscreen as Johnny Boy in “Mean Streets” (1973), his first of many landmark collaborations with director Martin Scorsese. His portrayal of the hot-headed street thug whose best friend (Harvey Keitel) tries to save his neck from a local loan shark while struggling with his Catholic guilt, was the stuff of legend. Meanwhile, he earned critical kudos from all corners and a Best Supporting Actor award from the National Society of Film Critics. De Niro’s performance as Johnny Boy remained arguably perhaps the finest and most revered breakthrough performances in cinema history. De Niro cemented his stature as the best actor of his generation with “The Godfather, Part II” (1974), starring as a young Vito Corleone – played in the first part by Marlon Brando – who is sent as a child to America to escape the mafia in Sicily. Told in flashback, young Vito’s turn-of-the-century rise to power in New York’s Lower East Side is paralleled by a paranoid and increasingly malevolent Michael (Al Pacino), whose ambition to expand the family business in the 1950s ultimately destroys his marriage to Kay (Diane Keaton) and leads him to kill his own brother (John Cazale). Despite playing a younger version of Vito Corleone, by no means did De Niro simply regurgitate Brando’s performance. He instead made the young Vito his own and presaged the wise, Machiavellian mafia head by portraying him as a quiet, but fearless family man, determined to make a life in his new country on his own terms. De Niro’s brilliant performance turned him into an international star and earned him an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Following on the heels of “The Godfather, Part II” was another seminal performance – one that forever scarred the memories of audiences both young and old. In “Taxi Driver” (1976), perhaps one of the most chilling, but ultimately redeeming character studies ever made, De Niro played Travis Bickle, a lone New York City cab driver whose revulsion for the scumbags, whores and other degenerates stalking the night leads him to unleash bloody carnage in order to save a young prostitute (Jodie Foster) from her pimp (Harvey Keitel). De Niro’s disturbing portrayal of a lonely man on the fringes about to crack from the pressures of a decaying society was long remembered for being one of his finest, thanks in large part to the infamous improvisation where Bickle – armed to the teeth and descending into madness – stares himself down in a mirror and demands to know, “You talkin’ to me?” De Niro earned the adulation of critics and audiences the world over, while securing several critic awards. He also earned an Oscar nomination for Best Actor, but lost out to Peter Finch’s even more-insane Howard Beale in “Network” (1976). After playing two of the most seminal characters in American cinematic history, it was no surprise that De Niro’s next film, “The Last Tycoon” (1976), failed to reach previous heights. A thinly-guised portrait of Hollywood mogul Irving Thalberg, “The Last Tycoon” – the final film directed by legendary director Elia Kazan – suffered from a slow pace and muddled storyline, even as it benefited from De Niro’s strong portrayal of a studio head who coolly maneuvers through the chaos of Hollywood. He next starred in Bernardo Bertolucci’s little-known, but exceptional five-hour epic “1900” (1976). Set in the countryside of the Province of Emilia in Italy, “1900” told the story of two men – one a bastard born into a family of farm workers (Gerard Depardieu); the other, the heir to wealthy landowners (De Niro) – both of whom are bound by the coincidence of being born on the same day as the death of famed composer Giuseppe Verdi. Despite the gargantuan scale – both in terms of scope and screen time – the film was released in a small amount of American theaters. Nonetheless, De Niro gave one of his more moving and vulnerable performances as a man torn between duty and friendship. Joining forces with Scorsese for a third time, De Niro starred in “New York, New York” (1977), playing a jazz saxophonist struggling to make it in the New York music scene of the 1940s with his singer wife (Liza Minnelli). Despite making beautiful music together on stage, the marriage suffers and they eventually split. Both become successful once on their own, but meet again years later and decide whether or not to give their relationship another shot. Despite learning to play a tenor sax, De Niro gave one of his lesser performances – at least in terms of critical reception – which was largely ambivalent at best. But De Niro’s greatness would not be denied for long – he again delivered another landmark performance, this time in Michael Cimino’s intimate anti-war epic, “The Deer Hunter” (1978). As Mike, a steelworker and avid deer hunter who goes off to fight in Vietnam with his hometown buddies (Christopher Walken and John Savage), De Niro was in top form, playing a man devastated by the horrors he faced in war, namely being forced to play Russian roulette while a prisoner of the Viet Cong. De Niro earned another nod at the Academy Awards for Best Leading Actor. Perhaps no other collaboration between De Niro and Scorsese was more admonished and admired at the same time than “Raging Bull” (1980). A critical darling, but financial disaster upon release, “Raging Bull” had, over the years become a seminal classic that ranked high on many lists as being one of the greatest films of all time. In Scorsese’s brutal look at a man consumed by violence, “Raging Bull” depicted the public and private life of former middleweight boxer Jake La Motta, a Bronx-born, street-tough brawler who became champion in 1948, only to lose everything, including his wife (Cathy Moriarty), his title and eventually his self-respect after collaborating with the mob to throw a fight. For an entire year prior to production, De Niro trained as a boxer with La Motta, who molded the actor into what he thought would translate onscreen as a top middleweight contender. On the flipside, Scorsese stopped production for four months so De Niro could go to France and eat his way to gaining 60-odd pounds. In the end, De Niro delivered a visceral portrayal of a man who can only use animalistic violence to deal with complex human emotions, earning his first Academy Award for Best Leading Actor. To follow “Raging Bull” with anything that attempted to achieve such greatness again would have been an exercise in futility. So De Niro instead, starred alongside Robert Duvall in “True Confessions” (1981), a rather predictable send-up of film noir that centered on two brothers – one a detective; the other a young priest, tasked with finding a prostitute’s killer. Then in his fifth collaboration with Scorsese, De Niro gave one of his finer, but less-appreciated performances in “The King of Comedy” (1983), playing Rupert Pupkin, a wannabe stand-up comic living in his mother’s basement who becomes so desperate for a break, that he hatches a plan to kidnap a famous late-night talk show host (a surprisingly subdued Jerry Lewis) in order to get a spot on his show. Though not nearly as chilling as his performance in “Taxi Driver,” De Niro’s portrayal of Pupkin was no less obsessive – sort of an overeager Travis Bickle in a bad suit. Technically a financial disaster – the second in a row for De Niro and Scorsese – “The King of Comedy” nonetheless remained one of his most remembered and revered performances. Although unmistakably better known for his roles in Scorsese's films, he starred in Sergio Leone's last film: a four-hour long epic period gangster movie titled Once Upon a Time in America. Leone had spent almost ten years of his life trying to obtain the rights to get the film, which was heavily edited for US theaters and was underplayed both with critics and audiences alike. Though it was rare for De Niro to be overshadowed by a film, “Once Upon a Time in America” (1984) – Sergio Leone’s sprawling epic about four Jewish mobsters in New York – happened to be one of those instances. Clocking in at close to four hours, Leone’s stunning, non-linear masterwork chronicled David “Noodles” Aaronson (De Niro) and his three Lower East Side friends who grow up to become ruthless gangsters running rampant throughout the 1920s and 1930s, only to suffer the sad fate of many living the a life of crime and violence. Moving fluidly through four decades with flashbacks, dream sequences and opium-induced visions, “Once Upon a Time in America” was ultimately a commentary on the mythology of gang violence in America that displayed an intellectual depth and emotional resonance unsurpassed by other crime dramas. It was a larger-than-life masterpiece that aspired to be much more than the sum of its parts. De Niro spent the rest of the 1980s resting on his laurels, with a few occasional bright moments. After starring opposite Meryl Streep in the tepid romance “Falling in Love” (1984), De Niro had an amusing cameo as a heating-and-air conditioning repairman in Terry Gilliam’s futuristic satire “Brazil” (1985). He did as much as he could in “The Mission” (1986), a sweeping, but ultimately uninspiring historical epic about a former slave trader (De Niro) seeking redemption in 18th century South America after killing his brother (Aidan Quinn). De Niro followed with a brief, but memorable portrayal of famed Chicago gangster Al Capone in Brian De Palma’s “The Untouchables” (1987), then played the mysterious and malevolent client of a seedy private detective (Mickey Rourke) looking for a singer who owes him a debt in the controversial crime thriller, “Angel Heart” (1987). With “Midnight Run” (1988), De Niro made his first foray into mainstream comedy, effectively playing a hard-nosed bounty hunter bringing an embezzler (Charles Grodin) to justice, only to learn that the criminal owes the mob money and has been targeted for assassination. Despite a clever script and deft direction on display in “Midnight Run,” one could not help feeling that De Niro had stepped onto a slippery-slope of audience-pleasing films that began to diminish his previous accomplishments. In perhaps his first serious lack of judgment, De Niro starred alongside Sean Penn in “We’re No Angels” (1989), an insipid remake of the 1955 comedy about two prisoners escaped from Death Row who disguise themselves as priests to avoid capture, only to be confronted with all manner of problems from their newfound path. He next starred in what could best be described as his least remembered film, “Jacknife” (1989), playing a former Vietnam veteran prone to wild outbursts who visits an army buddy (Ed Harris) drowning himself in a bottle in order to deal with his painful memories of the war. Despite an unpredictable story and good performances all around, “Jacknife” failed to capture the public’s attention and quickly disappeared down the memory hole. De Niro made another foray into romantic drama territory with “Stanley and Iris” (1990), playing an illiterate man fired from his factory job who falls in love with a coworker (Jane Fonda) while she teaches him how to read. Touching to a fault, “Stanley and Iris” capped a long stretch of mediocre films for De Niro. The string of unchallenging material came to an end with his next film, “Goodfellas” (1990), a long-awaited and most-welcomed reunion with Martin Scorsese. In what many felt was the director’s best work, De Niro had a supporting role as Jimmy Conway, a mid-level mobster who takes a young, half-Irish kid (Ray Liotta) under his wing and shows him the gangster life. Along with a hot-tempered Sicilian (Joe Pesci) quick to pull the trigger, the three embark on a decades-long spree of robbing and killing that eventually leads to a breakdown of their once strictly-held moral code to each other and their bosses. Though the focus was clearly centered on Liotta’s character – a fictionalized version of real-life mobster-turned-FBI informant Henry Hill – De Niro was nonetheless engaging and powerful as the elder mobster who undyingly follows orders, even when having to turn on those he trusts and loves most. What was unprecedented about “Goodfellas,” however, was the ability of Pesci to actually steal the show from all involved – his Academy Award-winning performance was the rare instance where an exceptional De Niro was actually upstaged. Because the two became close friends off-screen, perhaps the sting of scene-stealing was lessened. Ever since “Raging Bull,” De Niro became less selective with his projects in order to make a bigger payday and finance his own projects through TriBeCa Films, which he formed back in 1988. Meanwhile, he earned another Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor for “Awakenings” (1990), which saw him play a man brought back from a coma through the tireless efforts of a passionate and somewhat unorthodox doctor (Robin Williams). De Niro elevated otherwise mediocre material in “Guilty By Suspicion” (1991), playing a Hollywood director blacklisted during the Communist witch hunts in the early 1950s, only to be driven to testify after failing to resuscitate his career. After giving a strong performance as an arson investigator in Ron Howard’s well-crafted “Backdraft” (1991), De Niro joined forces with Scorsese a seventh time for a remake of the 1962 thriller, “Cape Fear” (1991). De Niro played Max Cady, a deranged ex-convict who seeks revenge on Sam Bowden, (Nick Nolte), the attorney who improperly defended him. Cady begins harassing the family, first by trying to seduce Bowden’s teenage daughter (Juliette Lewis), followed by more violent means. For his electric, if sometimes over-the-top performance, De Niro earned another Oscar nod for Best Actor in a Leading Role. Although the early 1990s were challenging for his career – he made a series of films that made little impact with the press or public – he did become more actively involved as a filmmaker, chiefly as a producer, then as a director. De Niro enhanced his reputation as a champion of New York film with his TriBeCa Film Center, home to TriBeCa Films, which became a hub of the city's resurgent production community. He produced actor Barry Primus' low-budget directorial debut "Mistress" (1992), as well as Michael Apted's more ambitious "Thunderheart" (1992). The first, which saw De Niro portray an urbane film financier trying to help a once-promising filmmaker (Robert Wuhl) get his first movie off the ground, was easily dismissed as a poor man's version of "The Player" (1992). De Niro stayed behind the camera for “Thunderheart,” which was a well-received story of a Native American FBI agent (Val Kilmer) grappling with his identity while working on a culturally sensitive case. De Niro segued into television production as the executive producer of "Tribeca" (Fox, 1992-93), a short-lived dramatic anthology about life in the Manhattan neighborhood of Tribeca. After playing an ambulance chaser who tries to make it as a boxing promoter in “Night and the City” (1992), De Niro made his directing debut with “A Bronx Tale” (1993), an affectionate and understated coming-of-age drama set in the 1960s about an adolescent boy (Francis Capra/Lillo Brancato) torn between his honest, hard-working father (an endearing De Niro), and a violent, but charismatic neighborhood crime boss (Chazz Palminteri). De Niro received warm praise for his first effort, though the film ultimately failed to find much of an audience at the box office. He co-starred as a seemingly nice stepfather-to-be who turns out to abuse the son (Leonardo DiCaprio) of his fiancé (Ellen Barkin) in “This Boy’s Life” (1993), then played a neurotic police photographer in the underrated comedy “Mad Dog and Glory” (1993). De Niro made a seriously questionable career move when he starred as the fearsome creature in Kenneth Branagh’s faithful adaptation of “Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein” (1994). Too convoluted and confusing for critics, “Frankenstein” disappointed audiences and failed to make much of a dent at the box office, while the Academy Award-nominated makeup effects nonetheless did little to hide De Niro’s distinct mannerisms. Fearing he had become typecast in mob roles, De Niro from the mid-1980s began expanding into occasional comedic roles, and has had much success there as well with such films as Brazil (1985), in which he had a small role; the hit action-comedy Midnight Run (1988), the melodrama Awakenings (1990) with Robin Williams where DeNiro plays a catatonic patient brought to life by medication; Showtime (2002) opposite Eddie Murphy; and the film-and-sequel pairs Analyze This (1999) and Analyze That (2002), and Meet the Parents (2000) and Meet the Fockers (2004). Despite rumblings from the film buff set about whether or not he had reached the nadir of his creative efforts – though remaining a top box office draw – De Niro still managed to show glimpses of his genius, while at the same time, generating excitement for a few of his endeavors. In one of the most highly anticipated onscreen pairings of all time, De Niro starred opposite Al Pacino in Michael Mann’s excellent crime thriller, “Heat” (1995), playing a master thief determined never to go back to prison, who leads his highly-professional crew on one last heist, only to meet his match in the form of a relentless LAPD lieutenant (Pacino) determined to track him down. Though the two only appeared onscreen together for less than 10 minutes, fans of both were finally satisfied seeing two masters at the top of their game square off against one another – since the two had never appeared onscreen together in “Godfather, Part II.” Then for the eighth time, he teamed with Scorsese for “Casino” (1995), a vibrant, though uneven look at a corrupt Las Vegas casino owner (De Niro) who lives and breathes the odds for gambling, but has trouble figuring out his hustler wife (Sharon Stone) and trusting his best friend (Joe Pesci). In the end, too many critics and fans compared the film to “Goodfellas.” After a small supporting role as the physician to a woman (Diane Keaton) carrying for her chronically ill father (Hume Cronyn) in “Marvin’s Room” (1996), De Niro stood out as a conflicted neighborhood priest who helps four childhood friends retaliate against a sadistic guard (Kevin Bacon) for abusing and raping them in Barry Levinson’s plodding coming-of-age drama, “Sleepers” (1996). De Niro had grave trouble trying to elevate Tony Scott’s dreadful thriller, “The Fan” (1996), doing his best to play an obsessive baseball fan who inserts himself into the everyday life of his favorite player (Wesley Snipes). He was compelling, however, as an internal affairs officer using a put-upon sheriff (Sylvester Stallone) to take down a crew of corrupt cops in “Cop Land” (1997). De Niro then gave an hilarious performance in an atypical role, playing a stoned-out ex-con planning a robbery with a ruthless arms dealer (Samuel L. Jackson) and his equally stoned-out beach bunny girlfriend (Bridget Fonda), only to be set up in a double cross by an airline stewardess (Pam Grier) looking to avoid prison in “Jackie Brown” (1997). De Niro rounded out a productive and interesting year playing a Washington spin doctor who enlists a Hollywood producer (Dustin Hoffman) to help him create a phony war in order to avoid a sex scandal involving the president in “Wag the Dog” (1997). De Niro continued his string of unusual supporting roles with “Great Expectations” (1998), playing Lustig in Alfonso Curon’s modern-day retelling of Charles Dickens’ classic novel. Taking a turn into the world of post-Cold War espionage, De Niro starred in John Frankenheimer’s solid thriller “Ronin” (1998), playing a CIA agent who infiltrates a group of European criminals hired to nab a mysterious briefcase from another group of crooks. Then in what some considered a bizarre change of course, De Niro made a rare broad comedy, “Analyze This” (1999), in which he gave a comical send-up of former onscreen mobsters as a New York gang boss who seeks help for his anxiety attacks from a nebbish psychologist (Billy Crystal). Not too surprisingly, De Niro received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor – Musical or Comedy. He took a drastic step backwards with his next project, however, playing a homophobic stroke victim who tries to regain his power of speech by learning how to sing with the help of a drag queen (Philip Seymour Hoffman) in Joel Schumacher’s heavy-handed melodrama, “Flawless” (1999). Luckily, the film was a low-profile indie which generated little attention. The same, however, could not be said of the tent pole disaster, “The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle” (2000), which saw De Niro’s painful portrayal of the Fearless Leader. Returning to high-profile broad comedy, De Niro scored another major hit with “Meet the Parents” (2000), playing a former CIA agent who takes an instant disliking to his potential son-in-law (Ben Stiller) and puts him through intense scrutiny – and the occasional lie-detector test – to make sure he is right for his first-born daughter (Teri Polo). De Niro again was rewarded for his unusually comic efforts with another Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy. He rounded out the year with a strong performance as a formidable Master Chief Navy Diver who helps a young man (Cuba Gooding, Jr.) become the Navy’s first African-American Master Diver in the well-received, but overlooked, true-life tale, “Men of Honor” (2000). De Niro only confirmed calls that he had become a mere shadow of his former self when he appeared in several consecutive films best left forgotten. After phoning it in as a criminal ready to make one last heist before he retires in “The Score” (2001), he was easily dismissed as a New York homicide detective who enlists the help of a young arson investigator (Ed Burns) in tracking down a pair of Eastern European psychos embarked on a killing rampage in “15 Minutes” (2001). The string of lackluster films continued when he appeared opposite Eddie Murphy in the limp comedy “Showtime” (2002), playing an LAPD detective roped into starring in a reality show after an on-camera mishap attracts a television producer (Rene Russo). After playing yet another homicide detective in the bleak crime thriller “City by the Sea” (2002), De Niro revived paranoid mob boss Paul Vitti for “Analyze That” (2002), a box office dud that generated enough enmity to avert a third installment. Meanwhile, inspired by the terrorist attacks on NYC on Sept. 11, 2001, De Niro and producing partner Jane Rosenthal started the TriBeCa Film Festival, which sought to revitalize and celebrate the city as a major filmmaking center. The first festival took place in 2002 and was a resounding success for the local community, which saw upwards of 150,000 people descend upon lower Manhattan and generated over $10 million in revenue for local businesses. As the festival grew over the years, attracting more widely-recognized talent, some criticized the lack of local representation and complained that it was merely a launching point for Hollywood vanity projects. Despite the criticism, TriBeCa remained a well-regarded staple on the festival circuit. Back on the big screen, De Niro struck gold with the animated adventure “Shark Tale” (2004), voicing Don Lino, the head of a family of sharks chasing after a small fish (voiced by Will Smith) who may have accidentally killed another shark (voiced by Michael Imperioli). After another late-career misfire with “Godsend” (2004), a forgettable supernatural thriller about human cloning, De Niro revived angry father and ex-CIA agent Jack Byrnes for the mega-successful, but typically unfunny sequel “Meet the Fockers” (2004). He then starred opposite kid phenom Dakota Fanning in the rather routine thriller, “Hide and Seek” (2005), perhaps confirmation that his career was indeed on the wane, creatively speaking. De Niro next journeyed to Spain to film the foreign-made period drama, “The Bridge of San Luis Rey” (2005), a poignant adaptation of Thorton Wilder’s novel about the Archbishop of Lima (De Niro) tasked with finding out why God chose to allow five people to perish in a bridge collapse. Other films include Falling in Love (1984), The Mission (1986), Angel Heart (1987) Heat (1995), Wag the Dog (1997) and Ronin (1998). In 1997, he reteamed 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. In 1995 De Niro starred in Michael Mann's Heat, along with fellow actor Al Pacino. The duo drew much attention from fans as both have generally been compared throughout their careers. Though both Pacino and De Niro starred in The Godfather Part II, they shared no screen time. In May 2007, Variety.com reported that De Niro and Pacino will once again appear in a film together as police investigators hunting a serial killer in the crime thriller Righteous Kill. In 2004, De Niro provided the voice of Don Lino, the antagonist in the animated film Shark Tale, opposite Will Smith. This was De Niro's first experience with voice acting. When interviewed about his role in Shark Tale, De Niro said that participating in an animated cartoon was one of the funniest aspects of his Hollywood career. He also reprised his role as Jack Byrnes in Meet the Fockers. Both films were very successful at the box office, but received mixed reviews. After nearly 15 years, De Niro decided to step back behind the camera and direct “The Good Shepherd” (2007), a sprawling historical look at the creation of the CIA through the eyes of an intelligence officer (Matt Damon) struggling to keep his secret life away from his frustrated wife (Angelina Jolie). De Niro had a small role as the former head of the Office of Strategic Services, the precursor agency to the CIA. Despite sharp attention to period details, a strong cast and sweeping scope, “The Good Shepherd” suffered from flat pacing, convoluted storylines and few twists, turning what could have been an intriguing study into an overlong bore. After returning to animated features with a small voice role as The King in “Arthur and the Invisibles” (2006), De Niro chewed up the scenery as a brute pirate looking to unleash his inner queen in the comic fantasy, “Stardust” (2007). De Niro had to turn down a role in The Departed (Martin Sheen taking the role instead) due to commitments 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." In De Niro's next project, he directed and co-starred in The Good Shepherd (2006), also starring Matt Damon and Angelina Jolie. The movie also reunited him onscreen with Joe Pesci, with whom De Niro had starred in Raging Bull, Once Upon A Time in America, Goodfellas, A Bronx Tale and Casino. On June 7, 2006, it was announced that De Niro donated his film archive, including scripts, costumes, and props, to the Harry Ransom Center at The University of Texas at Austin. De Niro has said that he is working with Martin Scorsese on a new project. "I'm trying to actually work...Eric Roth (screenwriter) and myself and Marty are working on a script now, trying to get it done." De Niro has won two Academy Awards: Best Actor for his role in Raging Bull; and Best Supporting Actor for The Godfather Part II. De Niro and Marlon Brando are the only actors who won Academy Awards for portraying the same character: Brando won for playing the elderly Don Vito Corleone (though he declined the award) in The Godfather while De Niro later won the award for playing the young Vito in The Godfather Part II. Brando and De Niro came together onscreen for the first and only time in The Score (2001). De Niro actually auditioned for the role of Sonny in the first Godfather but the role was given to James Caan. When The Godfather Part II was in preproduction, the director, Francis Ford Coppola, remembered De Niro's audition, and cast him to play the young Vito Corleone. De Niro's performance is one of only four to win an Academy Award for working in a foreign language, as he primarily spoke Italian, with very few phrases in English. De Niro is acting in the role of a mobster in Paramount Pictures's upcoming movie Frankie Machine. 1993, De Niro made his directorial debut, directing A Bronx Tale. The film was written by Chazz Palminteri about his turbulent childhood in the Bronx. De Niro agreed to direct the film after seeing Palminteri's one-man play off-Broadway. De Niro also played Lorenzo, the bus driver who struggles to keep his son away from local mobster, Sonny, who was 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. De Niro has a son, Raphael, with first wife Diahnne Abbott. He also adopted Abbott's daughter, Drena, from a previous relationship. He also has twin sons, Julian Henry and Aaron Kendrick, (conceived by in vitro fertilization) from a long-term live-in relationship with former model Toukie Smith. Raphael, a former actor, now works in New York real estate. Since 1989, De Niro has been investing in the TriBeCa neighborhood in lower Manhattan. His capital ventures have included co-founding the film studio TriBeCa Productions, the popular TriBeCa Film Festival, and finally Nobu, the now-defunct Layla restaurants that usually need advance reservations and TriBeCa Grill, which he co-owns with Paul Wallace and Broadway Producer Stewart F. Lane. In 1997, De Niro married his second wife, Grace Hightower, a former flight attendant, at their estate near Marbletown in upstate New York (De Niro also has residences on the east and west sides of Manhattan). Their son Elliot was born in 1998 and the couple filed for divorce shortly after his birth, although the action was never officially finalized. In February 1998, during a film shoot in France, he was taken in for questioning for nine hours by French police and 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". 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 Honour back to the ambassador, as soon as possible". French judicial sources say that the actor is regarded as a potential witness, not a suspect. In 2003, Robert De Niro, with film director Woody Allen, jazz musician Wynton Marsalis and writer George Plimpton joined a pro-French tourism campaign as a direct response to anti-French sentiment in the US related to the 2003 Iraq invasion. In 2003, De Niro was diagnosed with prostate cancer. The prognosis for De Niro, who was 60 at the time, was good, according to his publicist, Stan Rosenfield. "Doctors say the condition was detected at an early stage because of regular checkups", Rosenfield says. "Because of the early detection and his excellent physical condition, doctors project a full recovery." Rosenfield declined to give further details about the actor's condition or course of treatment. De Niro's father, painter Robert De Niro Sr., died of cancer in 1993 at age 71. De Niro was due to be bestowed with honorary 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, and 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 Rome Film Festival finale. De Niro is a staunch supporter of the Democratic Party, and vocally supported Al Gore in the 2000 presidential election. Filmmaker Michael Moore's documentary Fahrenheit 9/11 includes a clip of De Niro standing next to Gore at a rally; Moore identifies him as "that Taxi Driver guy". De Niro publicly supported John Kerry in the 2004 presidential election. In 1998, he lobbied Congress against impeaching President Bill Clinton. De Niro also narrated 9/11, a documentary about the September 11, 2001 attacks, shown on CBS and centering on video footage made by Jules Naudet and Gedeon Naudet, which focused on the role of firefighters following the attacks. De Niro was reportedly a supporter of the invasion of Iraq but his comments on February 4 corrected that speculation when he made a speech including the endorsement: "He (Obama) wasn't experienced enough to vote to authorise the invasion of Iraq... That's the kind of inexperience I could get used to". 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 who 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. |
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