DOB: August 17, 1943
Where: New York City, New York
Residence: TriBeCa, Lower Manhattan
Citizenship? Italy and the US
Years Active: 1959-present
Spouse: Diahnne Abbott(1976-1988), Grace Hightower(1997-present)
Kids: 5(including Drena De Niro)
Parents: Robert De Niro Sr and Virginia Admiral
-Frst major film roles: Bang the Drum Slowly, where he played a baseball player named Bruce Pearson and Mean Streets, both in 1973.
-In 1974, he played the young Vito Corleone in The Godfather pt. II, which won him the Academy award for Best Supporting Actor.
-His longtime relationship with director Martin Scorsese began with 1973's Mean Streets. And he earned an Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of Jake LaMotta in the 1980 movie Raging Bull.
Early Life
-Born in Greenwich Village, the only son of Virginia Holton Admiral, a paitner and poet and Robert De Niro Sr. an abstract expressionist painter and sculptor. His father was of Italian Albanian and Irish descent, and his mother was of English, German, French and Dutch ancestry. His Italian great grandparents emigrated from Ferrazzano, in the province of Campobasso, and his paternal grandmother, Helen O'Reilly, was the daughter of an immigrant named Edward O'Reilly, who was from Ireland.
-De Niro's parents, who had met at the painting classes of Hans Hofmann in Provincetown, Massachusetts, divorced when he was 3. De Niro was rasied by his mother in Little Italy neighborhood of Manhattan and in Greenwich Village. His father lived within walking distance and he spent much time with him growing up. He attended PS 41, a public elementary school in Manhattan, through the 6th grade and then went to private school Elisabeth Irwin High School, the upper school of the Little Red Schoolhouse for 7th-8th grades. He transferred to a public high school, McBurney School, attended Rhodes Preparatory School.
-Was nicknamed "Bobby Milk" because of his pale complexion, the young De Niro hung out with a group of street kids in Little Italy, some of whom are still friends with him to this day.
-Dropped out of school at age 16 to pursue acting. Attended the Stella Adler Conservatory and Lee Strasberg's Actor's Studio
Career
-His first movie role was in 1963. It was in collaboration with Brian De Palma when De Niro was 20. He starred opposite his friend Jill Clayburgh in The Wedding Party.
-In 1970, he played Lloyd Barker, the drug abusing son of gangster Kate "Ma" Barker, who was played by Shelley Winters, in Bloody Mama.
-In 1973, he starred as Bruce Pearson, a baseball player slowly dying from Hodgkin's Disease in Bang the Drum Slowly.
-In 1973, he starred in Mean Streets, directed by Martin Scorsese.
-In the Godfather pt. II, he was the first actor to win an Academy Award for mainly speaking a foreign language, in this case, multiple Sicilian dialects.
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| De Niro as a young Don Vito Corleone |
-When he starred in Taxi Driver(1976), this gave him the iconic line "You talkin' to me?"
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| De Niro as Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver |
-Fearing he would be typecast in in mob movies, he did the occasional comedic roles, such as Midnight Run(1988) and also other films include The Untouchables(1987), where he played crime kingpin Alphonse "Scarface" Capone, Goodfellas(1990), where he played a mobster named Jimmy "The Gent" Conway, Sleepers(1996), where he played a priest, Cop Land(1997) which he starred in alongside Sylvester Stallone.
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| De Niro as Jimmy "The Gent" Conway in Goodfellas |
-In 2008, he starred alongside veteran actor Al Pacino in Righteous Kill. Other films include Shark Tale, where he provided the voice of a shark mobster named Don Lino, who even had the trademark mole on his cheek like the real De Niro.
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| Righteous Kill |
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| Robert De Niro as Don Lino |
-In 1993, he made his director's debut with the movie A Bronx Tale.
Acting style
-His type of acting would be called 'method acting', which is basically immersing yourself in the role you take when acting, meaning if it requires being bilingual, learning a language or learning a new skill. He gained 60 pounds and learned how to box for his role as Jake LaMotta; ground his teeth for Cape Fear; lived in Sicily for The Godfather pt. II; worked as a cab driver for Taxi Driver, learned to play the sax for New York, New York, and put on weight again to play mob kingpin Al Capone in The Untouchables.
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| De Niro as Neal McAuley in Heat |
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| De Niro as Sam 'Ace' Rothstein in Casino. Based on the story of Frank 'Lefty' Rosenthal |
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| De Niro as Max Cady, a psychopathic killer in Cape Fear |
-De Niro and his first wife Diahnne Abbott have a son, Raphael, a former actor now in New York real estate. He also adpoted Abbott's daughter from a previous relationship, Drena.
-Also has twni sons, Julian Henry and Aaron Kendrik, through a surrogate mom from mode Toukie Smith.
-In 1997, married 2nd wife Grace Hightower at their Marbletown home. Their son Elliot was born in 1998 and the couple split in 1999. In 2004, they renewed their vows.
Activism
-De Niro also narrated 9/11, a documentary about the 9/11 attacks.
Filmography
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