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Robert Mario De Niro Jr., credited professionally as Robert De Niro
(born August 17, 1943), is a highly acclaimed, two-time Academy Award-winning
American film actor, director, and producer.
He is noted for his portrayal of conflicted, troubled characters, and for his
enduring collaboration with director Martin Scorsese, and early work with director
Brian De Palma. He is considered by many to be the greatest actor of his generation
and one of the world's greatest living actors.
He is the son of the noted painter Robert De Niro, Sr.
 Early film
career
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 of Best
Supporting Actor.
After working with him in Mean Streets he had a very successful working
relationship with Scorcese 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).
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.
"You talkin' to me?" Alone in his apartment, De Niro as Travis postures and
practices his moves in front of the mirrorIn 1976 De Niro appeared, along with
Gerard Depardieu, 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 role of Cowboy in director Walter Hill's The Warriors (1979) but
turned it down. The role went instead to Tom McKitterick.
Later film
career
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, 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.
During the filming of The King of Comedy, De Niro directed a slew of anti-Semitic
epithets at co-star Jerry Lewis. An enraged Lewis claims he was “going for Bobby’s
throat”.
Fearing he had become typecast in mob roles — another of which was Jewish gangster
David "Noodles" Aaronson in Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in America (1984) — 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); and the film-and-sequel
pairs Analyze This (1999) and Analyze That (2002), and Meet the Parents (2000) and
Meet the Fockers (2004).
Other films include Falling in Love (1984), The Mission (1986), The Untouchables
(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 proved he was able to play a
supporting role taking a back seat to Stallone, Keitel and Liotta.
De Niro had to turn down a role in The Departed (Jack Nicholson 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."
De Niro directed Angelina Jolie and Matt Damon on the set of The Good ShepherdIn 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, GoodFellas 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 with Al Pacino on the set of The Godfather Part II. De Niro and Pacino
never shared any screen time together during the film.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 did not work together on screen until 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 ("I didn't come here to fight with
you" and "I make him an offer he can't refuse").
Source : Some of the information on
this page came from a Wikipedia article and is licensed under the GNU
Documentation License. ©2008 www.geneticmatrix.com.
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Robert De
Niro - Manifestor - Biography
