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Robert De Niro – One of the Finest Actors of All Time
Robert De Niro is considered, by both critics and fans alike, as one of the finest actors of his generation as well as one of the greatest actors of all time. His frequent collaborations with Martin Scorsese has also earned tremendous acclaim. His performances are consistently praised and he has won numerous awards, which includes two Academy Awards, as well as been nominated for several more and has been nominated for six BAFTA awards but has yet to win one.
He was born in New York in 1943, the son of two artists. He enjoyed acting from an early age and went on to train at the acclaimed acting school in New York; the Stella Adler Studio of Acting, as well as the American Workshop.
The major breakthrough for De Niro came with his role in Bang the Drum Slowly, his first major role, where he played a dying Major League Baseball player in 1973. The role pushed him into mainstream popularity for the first time and he would not leave this stardom, only further it. In the same year he began his long term, highly acclaimed, collaboration with Martin Scorsese with the film Mean Streets that also starred Harvey Keitel. In Mean Streets he took on the role of a small time crook named Johnny Boy.
The following year would prove to be a fine year for De Niro as he starred in The Godfather: Part II as a young Vito Corleone, a role for which he won his first Academy Award. With this role he became the first actor to win an Oscar for speaking mainly in a foreign langauge, in this case Sicilian.
De Niro continued his successful collaboration with Scorsese in 1976 with the highly acclaimed film Taxi Driver, in which De Niro played Travis Bickle, a former marine who becomes a Taxi Driver. The role earned De Niro another Oscar nomination and shot him to stardom. It was also this role that led to the iconic “You talkin’ to me?” scene forever being an iconic moment in film history and one of the most memorable scenes of all time.
It was 1980 and the film Raging Bull that earned De Niro his Oscar for Best Actor in a lead role. The film was another Scorsese collaboration and was widely praised as was the performance of De Niro as Jake LaMotta.
During the 1980s he featured in many more films but to avoid being typecast he ensured roles in various different type of films, including comedies such as The King of Comedy (1983) and Brazil (1985).
During the 1990s he appeared in some highly acclaimed films including Goodfellas (1990), Cape Fear (1991), Casino (1995), Heat (1995) and Jackie Brown (1997), with great acclaim for each role. In the year 2000 he starred opposite Ben Stiller for the comedy movie Meet the Parents and followed up in sequels to the film. Sine 1993 and A Bronx Tale he has taken to the directors’ chair and has taken this role for numerous movies including The Good Shepherd that starred Leonardo di Caprio.
De Niro has won numerous awards and has been honoured with the Lifetime Achievement Award from AFI.
One of his most acclaimed attributes is his committment to his roles. For the film Taxi Driver he took up driving a taxi in between filming of another movie to prepare. For Raging Bull he bulked up and had boxing training and learned to play saxophone for his role in New York, New York.