Born August 17, 1943 in New York, New York, Robert De Niro Jr. is the only child of painters Virginia and Robert De Niro, Sr. Although he has an Italian name and is, along with Al Pacino, the screen’s most prolific of actors playing Italian-American men, De Niro is only 25% Italian, his father having been half Irish and his mother a mix of Dutch, English, French, and German.
His parents separated when he was 2, with De Niro Sr. announcing that he was gay. His father was a lapsed Catholic from the age of 12, and his mother, though raised Presbyterian, became an atheist as an adult. Against his parents’ wishes, De Niro was secretly baptized into the Catholic Church by his paternal grandparents while he was staying with them during his parents’ divorce. He was raised by his mother but remained close to his father who lived nearby in their Greenwich Village neighborhood.
Attending acting classes from an early age, De Niro made his stage debut at the age of 10 playing the Cowardly Lion in a production of The Wizard of Oz. He began acting in films in minor roles in 1963. Critics first took note of him as one of Shelley Winters’ gangster sons in Roger Corman’s 1970 film, Ma Barker. Three years later, his career exploded with his roles in both Bang the Drum Slowly and Mean Streets, the latter directed by Martin Scorsese with whom he has since had a long association ever since.
De Niro’s next film, Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather Part II won him his first Oscar on his first nomination. His later films of the decade were all major productions. His first film after receiving his Oscar was Scorsese’s Taxi Driver for which he received his second Oscar nomination. That was followed by Bernardo Bertolucci’s 1900, Elia Kazan’s The Last Tycoon, Scorsese’s New York, New York, and Michael Cimino’s The Deer Hunter for which he received his third Oscar nomination. Scorsese’s 1980 film, Raging Bull would bring him his fourth Oscar nomination and second win.
Among the actor’s subsequent 1980s films were Ulu Grosbard’s True Confessions, Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a Time in America, Terry Gilliam’s Brazil, Roland Joffé’s The Mission, and Brian de Palma’s The Untouchables. In 1990, he had two of his best roles in Scorsese’s GoodFellas and Penny Marshall’s Awakenings, receiving an Oscar nomination for the latter. In 1991 came Ron Howard’s Backdraft and Scorsese’s Cape Fear for which he received his sixth Oscar nomination. In 1993 he starred in Michael Caton-Jones’ This Boy’s Life and directed his first film, A Bronx Tale, in which he also starred.
De Niro has since lent his talents to both leading and supporting roles. Among the highlights have been Scorsese’s Casino, Michael Mann’s Heat, Jerry Zaks’ Marvin’s Room, Quentin Tarantino’s Jackie Brown, Barry Levinson’s Wag the Dog, and Joel Schumacher’s Flawless in the 1990s; is own The Good Shepherd and Kirk Jones’ Everybody’s Fine in the 2000s; and David O. Russell’s Silver Linings Playbook for which he received his seventh Oscar nomination, Todd Phillips’ Joker, and Scorsese’s The Irishman for which he received his eighth Oscar nomination, albeit for producing the film, not for his starring role in it in the 2010s.
Married twice with seven children from his various relationships, De Niro also has four grandchildren. With six films in post-production, he is currently nominated for an Oscar for the ninth time for his role in Killers of the Flower Moon at 80.
ESSENTIAL FILMS
TAXI DRIVER (1976), directed by Martin Scorsese
In his breakout films, Bang the Drum Slowly and Mean Streets, De Niro received equal billing and great partner acting with Michael Moriarty and Harvey Keitel respectively. In his Oscar winning role in The Godfather Part II, he dominated his section of the film. Now, for the first time he had the sole leading role in a film and nailed it. Playing a Vietnam war veteran in New York who spends his nights driving a cab to ward off insomnia, he falls for an attractive presidential campaign worker (Cybill Shepherd) and fancies himself as her savior. Jodie Foster as a 12-year-old prostitute and Harvey Keitel as her pimp are almost as good as De Niro.
THE DEER HUNTER (1978), directed by Michael Cimino
De Niro, Christopher Walken, and John Savage are three friends and co-workers at the local steel mill in their Pennsylvania town who sign up to fight in Vietnam. One of the first films about the war, made just a few years after it ended, the film also featured Meryl Streep in her first major screen role. Highly controversial for the fictional Russian roulette scenes involving Walken and his Vietnamese captors, it nevertheless won five of the nine Oscars it was nominated for including Best Picture, Director, and Supporting Actor (Walken). De Niro and Streep were also nominated. John Cazale and George Dzundza co-star.
RAGING BULL (1980), directed by Martin Scorsese
De Niro stars as real-life boxer Jake LaMotta whose violent temper brought him to the fight game but cost him dearly in real life. The film heralded by many film critics as the greatest of the decade famously lost the Best Picture Oscar to Ordinary People which also won Best Director for Robert Redford over Scorsese. De Niro won for Best Actor in a tight race with Robert Duvall in The Great Santini. The two actors would co-star as brothers in their next film, Ulu Grosbard’s True Confessions in which De Niro was a priest and Duvall a tough cop investing a murder that involved the Catholic Church.
AWAKENINGS (1990), directed by Penny Marshall
Based on Dr. Oliver Sacks’ non-fiction book about a new drug in the 1960s that had the effect waking patients with encephalitis from their catatonic state after many years, the Best Picture Oscar nominee featured two extraordinary performances by Robin Williams as Sacks and Oscar nominated De Niro as one of his patients. Veteran character actress Ruth Nelson (Wilson, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Humoresque) co-stars as De Niro’s mother, a role she got after the more popular Shelley Winters refused to read for it. It was one of two hits for De Niro that year. The other was Scorsese’s GoodFellas for which co-star Joe Pesci won an Oscar.
KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON (2023), directed by Martin Scorsese
Nominated for 10 Oscars including Best Picture and Director, De Niro has been nominated for the ninth time for his portrayal of one the film’s principal villains. Leonardo DiCaprio as his dimwitted nephew had been a contender but did not receive a nomination. The standout performance in the film is Lady Gladstone as DiCaprio’s wife, the last surviving member of her oil rich Osage Indian family. This is the third film in 97 years about the murders. The first was James Young Deer’s 1926 film, Tragedies of the Osage Hills starring his wife, Lillian A, King. The second was Meryn LeRoy’s 1959 film, The FBI Story starring James Stewart.
ROBERT DE NIRO AND OSCAR
The Godfather Part II (1974) – Oscar – Best Supporting Actor
Taxi Driver (1976) – nominated – Best Actor
The Deer Hunter (1978) – nominated – Best Actor
Raging Bull (1980) – Oscar – Best Actor
Awakenings (1990) – nominated – Best Actor
Cape Fear (1991) – nominated – Best Actor
Silver Linings Playbook (2012) – nominated – Best Supporting Actor
The Irishman (2019) – nominated – Best Picture
Killers of the Flower Moon (2023) – nominated – Best Supporting Actor
