Robert De Niro

Robert Anthony De Niro, born August 17, 1943, is an American actor and producer widely recognized for his work in American cinema. Over his career, he has earned numerous accolades, including two Academy Awards and a Golden Globe Award, along with nominations for eight BAFTA Awards and four Emmy Awards. He has also received lifetime achievements and career honors such as the AFI Life Achievement Award, the Kennedy Center Honors, the Cecil B. DeMille Award, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award, and the Honorary Palme d'Or.

De Niro was born in the Manhattan borough of New York City to painters Virginia Admiral and Robert De Niro Sr. Following his parents' separation, he was raised by his mother in the Greenwich Village and Little Italy neighborhoods. He discovered an interest in performing as a way to relieve shyness and made his stage debut at age 10 playing the Cowardly Lion in a school production of The Wizard of Oz. At age 16, he dropped out of high school to pursue an acting career, later studying at HB Studio, Lee Strasberg's Actors Studio, and the Stella Adler Conservatory.

After appearing in minor screen roles in the mid-1960s, De Niro achieved major roles in Brian De Palma's satirical films Greetings (1968) and Hi, Mom! (1970). He gained further critical notice playing Major League Baseball player Bruce Pearson in the drama Bang the Drum Slowly (1973). That same year, he began a long-standing professional partnership with director Martin Scorsese when he was cast as small-time criminal Johnny Boy in the crime drama Mean Streets.

In 1974, De Niro played the young Vito Corleone in Francis Ford Coppola's crime epic The Godfather Part II, speaking primarily in Sicilian dialects and winning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. He subsequently starred as Travis Bickle in Scorsese's psychological drama Taxi Driver (1976), earning an Oscar nomination. Six years after his first Academy Award, De Niro won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of boxer Jake LaMotta in Scorsese's biopic Raging Bull (1980).

Throughout his career, De Niro expanded his repertoire across diverse genres. His dramatic and crime film roles include 1900, The Deer Hunter, Goodfellas, Awakenings, Cape Fear, Heat, Casino, and Killers of the Flower Moon, while his comedy credits include Midnight Run, Analyze This, The Intern, and the Meet the Parents film series. He also ventured into directing, helming and starring in the crime drama A Bronx Tale (1993) and the spy film The Good Shepherd (2006), and later portrayed Bernie Madoff in the HBO television film The Wizard of Lies (2017).

In 1989, De Niro co-founded the production company TriBeCa Productions with producer Jane Rosenthal, and the pair later established the Tribeca Film Festival in 2002. Multiple films featuring De Niro have been inducted into the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress, and several have been ranked among the greatest American films of all time by the American Film Institute.