Biography

Robert De Niro

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Overview

Born
August 17, 1943 · New York City, New York, USA
Birth name
Robert Anthony De Niro Jr.
Nicknames
- Bobby Milk
- Kid Monroe
- Bob
Height
5′ 9½″ (1.77 m)

Mini bio

One of the greatest actors of all time, Robert De Niro was born in 1943, in Manhattan, New York City, to artists Virginia (Admiral) and Robert De Niro Sr.. His paternal grandfather was of Italian descent and his other ancestry is Irish, English, Dutch, German and French. He was trained at the Stella Adler Conservatory and the American Workshop. Robert De Niro first gained fame for his role in Bang the Drum Slowly (1973), but he gained his reputation as a volatile actor in Mean Streets (1973), which was his first film with director Martin Scorsese. He received an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in The Godfather Part II (1974) and received Academy Award nominations for best actor in Taxi Driver (1976), The Deer Hunter (1978) and Cape Fear (1991). He received the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as Jake LaMotta in Raging Bull (1980).

Robert De Niro has earned four Golden Globe Award nominations for Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for his work in New York, New York (1977), opposite Liza Minnelli, Midnight Run (1988), Analyze This (1999), and Meet the Parents (2000). Other notable performances include Brazil (1985), The Untouchables (1987), Backdraft (1991), Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1994), Heat (1995), Casino (1995), and Jackie Brown (1997). At the same time, he also directed and starred in such films as A Bronx Tale (1993) and The Good Shepherd (2006). Robert De Niro has also received the AFI Lifetime Achievement Award in 2003 and the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2010.

As of 2025, Robert De Niro is 82 years old. He has never retired from acting, and continues to work regularly in mostly film.
- IMDb mini biography by: Pedro Borges

Family

Spouses
Children
Parents
Relatives

Trademarks

Characters prone to brutal violence and/or characters who are borderline psychotics.
Method acting, heavily studying his characters' backgrounds.
Mole on his right cheek.
Frequently works with Martin Scorsese and Joe Pesci.
Intense physical and mental preparation for roles.

Trivia

He and Martin Scorsese were brought up blocks apart in the Greenwich Village area of Manhattan, but never formally met when they were young. When introduced at a party in 1972, the two came to realize that they had seen each other many times but had never spoken.
Spent four months learning to speak the Sicilian dialect in order to play Vito Corleone in The Godfather Part II (1974). Nearly all the dialogue that his character spoke in the movie was in Sicilian.
Was good friends with comedian John Belushi, who died of an overdose on March 5, 1982. In fact, Robert De Niro and Robin Williams were the last stars to see Belushi alive, albeit on separate visits to Bungalow #3 of L.A.'s Chateau Marmont hotel that fateful day. Robert De Niro visited Belushi at 3:00 am on the morning of his death, but, according to eyewitnesses, left minutes later after seeing that Belushi was sick. Less than an hour earlier, Belushi had been visited by Robin Williams, who also left straight away.
He was the one who first made Martin Scorsese aware of Leonardo DiCaprio. He had worked with DiCaprio on This Boy's Life (1993) and had been very impressed by his talent and spoke about him to his friend and frequent collaborator. Martin Scorsese and DiCaprio would later work together on many films.
He is the second actor to receive an Academy Award for portraying Vito Corleone. He and Marlon Brando were the first two actors to receive an Academy Award for playing the same character.

Quotes

It's important not to indicate. People don't try to show their feelings, they try to hide them.
I don't like to watch my own movies--I fall asleep in my own movies.
Don't talk it [shooting a scene] away, do it!
Some people say that drama is easy, and comedy is hard. Not true. I've been making comedies the last couple of years, and it's nice. When you make a drama, you spend all day beating a guy to death with a hammer, or what have you. Or you have to take a bite out of somebody's face. On the other hand, with a comedy, you yell at Billy Crystal for an hour, and you go home.
[interview in Chicago Sun Times, 1/8/98] I think Hollywood has a class system. The actors are like the inmates, but the truth is they're running the asylum. You've got to look at the whole studio structure. There's these guys. We call them suits. They have the power to okay a film. They're like your parents, going, "We have the money". But at the same time they say to us actors, "We love you. We can't do without you". You know, I've been around a long time. I've seen the suits run the asylum. I think I can do it as good or even better. Let me try it. That's why I have TriBeCa.