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ROBERT DENIRO BIOGRAPHY |
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Robert De Niro, Jr. (born August 17, 1943 in New
York City) is an American film actor, director and producer. He
is regarded as one of the finest actors of his generation, noted
for his enduring collaboration with the director Martin Scorsese
and his apprenticeship under Stella Adler. He regards himself as
an Italian American, although only his paternal grandfather was
of Italian descent.
De Niro was born in New York City, the son of Robert De Niro,
Sr., an abstract expressionist painter, sculptor, and poet of
Irish and Italian descent (De Niro's great-grandparents were
Italian immigrants from the village of Ferrazzano, Molise), and
Virginia Admiral, also a painter. They had met at the painting
classes of Hans Hofmann in Provincetown, Massachusetts. His
parents divorced when he was two years old. A biographer, John
Baxter, claims that his father was homosexual, and had
relationships with poet Robert Duncan, playwright Tennessee
Williams, and artist Jackson Pollock. De Niro first attended the
Little Red School House School and was then enrolled by his
mother at the High School of Music and Art in New York. He
dropped out at the age of 13 and joined a Little Italy street
gang, where he earned the nickname Bobby Milk due to his white
complexion. He then had a falling-out with his father, although
they were eventually reconciled when, aged 18, he flew out to
Paris to bring his father home when he had been suffering from
depression. De Niro attended the Stella Adler Conservatory, as
well as Lee Strasberg's Actor's Studio (although De Niro
conflicted with Strasberg's methods, and used his membership
there mostly as a professional advantage). At the age of 16 he
toured in Chekhov's The Bear.
At the age of 20 came his first important collaboration with
Brian De Palma in 1963 when he appeared in The Wedding Party; it
was not released until 1969, however. He spent much of the 1960s
working in theatre workshops and off-Broadway productions. He
was an extra in the French film Three Rooms in Manhattan, (1965)
and was reunited with De Palma in Greetings, 1968 and Hi, Mom,
1970. He gained popular attention with his role as a sick
Baseball catcher in Bang the Drum Slowly (1973). The same year
he began his fruitful collaboration with Scorsese when he played
his memorable role as the small time Mafia hood "Johnny Boy"
alongside Harvey Keitel's "Charlie" in Mean Streets. This led to
an incredibly successful relationship between the actor and
director 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. In 1978, De Niro played "Michael Vronsky" in the
acclaimed Vietnam War film Deer Hunter. Another notable role was
in Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in America as the Jewish
gangster "David 'Noodles' Aaronson" (1984). Beginning in the mid-1980s,
De Niro began expanding into occasional comedic roles, and has
had much success in that area as well with such films as Brazil
(1985), Midnight Run (1988), Wag the Dog (1997), Analyze This
(1999), Analyze That (2002), Meet the Parents (2000) and Meet
the Fockers (2004). In the late 1980s, De Niro began to invest
in the Tribeca area of New York, including establishing a film
studio and a film festival in the area. De Niro later admitted
that some of the 'below par' film roles he had taken in the
1990s were solely for the purpose of supporting these charitable
ventures. He has won two Academy Awards: as Best Actor for his
role in Raging Bull; and as Best Supporting Actor for The
Godfather, Part II. Interestingly, De Niro and Marlon Brando are
the only pair of actors who have won Academy Awards for
portraying the same character: Brando won for playing the
elderly Don Vito Corleone (although 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 director Francis Ford Coppola
was in pre production for The Godfather, Part II he remembered
De Niro's audition, and knew he was going to play young Vito
Corleone. Praised for his commitment to roles, 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, and
learned to play the saxophone for New York, New York. De Niro is
considered a skilled observer of physical tics and details, and
is an intense perfectionist. He is often compared to fellow
acting icon Al Pacino with whom he appeared in The Godfather,
Part II in 1974 and Heat in 1995. His next project will see the
versatile actor handling both sides of the camera in The Good
Shepherd (2006), which DeNiro is directing and co-starring
alongside Matt Damon and Angelina Jolie. The movie also marks
the return of actor Joe Pesci, who has been offscreen for almost
a decade, in a small role. The film is expected to be a heavy
Oscar contender for 2006. |
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