Robert De Niro

Robert Anthony De Niro is an American actor, director, film producer, and restaurateur born in the Manhattan borough of New York City on August 17, 1943. The only child of painters Virginia Admiral and Robert De Niro Sr., he grew up in the Greenwich Village and Little Italy neighborhoods of Manhattan after his parents separated when he was two years old. His father was of Irish and Italian descent, and his mother had Dutch, English, French, and German ancestry. Known in his youth by the nickname "Bobby Milk" for his pale complexion, De Niro made his stage debut at age 10, playing the Cowardly Lion in a school production of The Wizard of Oz. He dropped out of high school at 16 to pursue acting, later training at HB Studio, Lee Strasberg's Actors Studio, and the Stella Adler Conservatory, where he was introduced to the techniques of the Stanislavski system.

De Niro's screen career began with minor roles in Encounter and Three Rooms in Manhattan, both released in 1965, followed by Les Jeunes Loups in 1968. That same year he landed a major role in Brian De Palma's satirical film Greetings, the first of several early collaborations with De Palma. Subsequent credits included De Palma's Hi, Mom! (1970), Roger Corman's Bloody Mama (1970), and The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight (1971). His performance as Bruce Pearson, a Major League Baseball player with Hodgkin disease, in Bang the Drum Slowly (1973) brought him wider critical recognition. Also in 1973, he began his long creative partnership with director Martin Scorsese in the crime film Mean Streets, playing small-time criminal "Johnny Boy" Civello alongside Harvey Keitel.

De Niro won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Vito Corleone in The Godfather Part II (1974), becoming the first male performer to win an Oscar for an Italian-language role. Six years later, his physically transformative portrayal of boxer Jake LaMotta in Raging Bull (1980) earned him the Academy Award for Best Actor. He received additional Oscar nominations for Taxi Driver (1976), The Deer Hunter (1978), Awakenings (1990), Cape Fear (1991), Silver Linings Playbook (2012), and Killers of the Flower Moon (2023), as well as a Best Picture nomination as a producer of The Irishman (2019).

Among his most recognized dramatic performances are roles in 1900 (1976), The King of Comedy (1982), Once Upon a Time in America (1984), Brazil (1985), The Mission (1986), Angel Heart (1987), The Untouchables (1987), Goodfellas (1990), This Boy's Life (1993), Heat (1995), Casino (1995), Jackie Brown (1997), Ronin (1998), and Joker (2019). He also demonstrated range in comedic work, including Midnight Run (1988), Wag the Dog (1997), Analyze This (1999), the Meet the Parents film series, and The Intern (2015). De Niro both directed and acted in the crime drama A Bronx Tale (1993) and the spy film The Good Shepherd (2006), and he portrayed Bernie Madoff in the HBO film The Wizard of Lies (2017).

In 1989, De Niro and producer Jane Rosenthal founded TriBeCa Productions, a film and television production company. The two also co-founded the Tribeca Film Festival in 2002. Six of De Niro's films have been inducted into the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress, and five appear on the AFI's list of the 100 greatest American films of all time.

In addition to his extensive film and television work, De Niro appeared on Broadway in 1986 in Cuba & His Teddy Bear, a credit that connects his career back to the New York City where he was born and raised. Among the many honors he has received are the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2003, the Kennedy Center Honors in 2009, the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2011, the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2016, the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award in 2019, and the Honorary Palme d'Or in 2025. He has also received nominations for eight BAFTA Awards and four Emmy Awards throughout his career.