December 21, 2005

Biography of Robert De Niro.

Perhaps most widely known for his later roles as a comedy powerhouse, Robert De Niro will always be remembered by his long-time fans for the meticulously crafted method acting that constituted the first portions of his career in such classic movies as Mean Streets, Taxi Driver and Goodfellas.

Having grown up in the heart of New York City, a city which would later become a prominent location for several of his most famous films, De Niro was born August 17, 1943 to Robert De Niro Sr. and Virginia Admiral, both of whom were artists. Following in his parents’ footsteps, De Niro found his path in the fine arts field, and went on to become one of the greatest and most renowned actors of his time.

De Niro began studying at the Stella Adler Conservatory and the American Workshop, going on to star in several low-level Broadway productions in the late 60s, and then working his way into several low-budget screen appearances, including Greetings (1968) and The Wedding Party (1969), as well as collaborations with director Brian De Palma. In 1973, De Niro’s career took the fateful turn that began his overtly successful collaborations with legendary director Martin Scorsese. Together, the pair completed one another, and the two went on to make history in what many critics and movie fans cite as some of the greatest movies ever made in American cinema. Although the role that won him the fame he would use as a springboard into the best work of his career was his character in The Godfather II (which won him an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor), he is most recognized as the mentally unbalanced gunman in Taxi Driver; the troubled Jake LaMotta in Raging Bull; the hardhearted but oddly loveable gangster in Goodfellas; and the psychotic stalker of Cape Fear. All of these collaborations with Scorsese lead De Niro to some of his most successful, entertaining, and prolific work, displaying the emotional intensity and the methodic acting flare that catapulted him to the top amongst his peers. The setting of New York consistently sprang up in a great deal of his work (most notably the ugly portrayal of the city in Taxi Driver and Mean Streets), which allowed the actor a very transparent honesty and integrity in his roles.

De Niro’s significantly darker on-screen persona continued to run through the veins of his film roles until the mid-nineties, with such films as 1993’s A Bronx Tale and 1994’s Frankenstein, in which he portrayed the notoriously grotesque Creature. However, he seemingly turned over a new leaf with his box office smash Analyze This in 1998, a film that put a far more comical twist on De Niro’s tried and true mob character. This accessibility of character opened De Niro up to several roles of more variety than his mostly dark expertise of the past. He went on to co-star with Ben Stiller in the wildly successful comedy Meet the Parents (2000), which, along with Analyze This, spawned a sequel. He also made a return to his emotional intensity in such films as Men of Honor (2000) and City by the Sea (2002).