The Life of Robert De Niro

Meet one of Hollywood's All-Time Greats

He is a son of Italian immigrants who conquered Hollywood. He has played the role of mobsters, a boxer, a taxi driver, he is firmly opposed to Donald Trump, this is Robert De Niro. Robert De Niro was born in 1943 in New York to an Italian-Irish immigrant family and grew up in the Little Italy neighborhood. When he was only 2 years old, his parents got divorced and his father came out as a homosexual. As a child, he was nicknamed "Bobby Milk" because of how thin and pale he was. At 16, he left high school to devote himself to theatre and trained according to the Actor's Studio method, which involves experiencing emotions rather than performing them. At 20, he was spotted by Brian de Palma who gave him his first cinematic role in "The Wedding Party”. Shot in 1963, the movie was only released 6 years later.

In 1973, he acted for the first time under the direction of Martin Scorsese in "Mean Streets”. It was in this movie that he played a mobster for the first time. A role he will play in several other films, such as "The Godfather Part II" or "Goodfellas". In 1976, he was a taxi driver for a month to prepare for the role that made him famous: Travis Bickle in "Taxi Driver". That same year, he married actress Diahnne Abbott and adopted her eldest daughter. Together, they also had a son. He then had 4 other children with 2 other women. At 36, he gained 60 pounds to play the boxer Jake LaMotta in "Raging Bull" and was awarded an Oscar for this role.

At 50, he directed his first movie: "A Bronx Tale”. In 2000, he started to shift towards comedy with "Meet the Parents”. In 2002, he founded the Tribeca Film Festival. At 67, he served as President of the Jury of the 64th Cannes Film Festival. The jury he presided awarded the Palme d'Or to Terrence Malick's "The Tree of Life". At 73, he received the Medal of Freedom, the highest American civilian award, from Barack Obama. Fiercely opposed to Donald Trump, he attacked him at the start of the 2016 presidential campaign. In January 2019, he revealed a personal reason for his opposition to Donald Trump. At 76, Robert De Niro met up with Martin Scorsese for a 9th collaboration: "The Irishman", produced by Netflix, where he performed alongside Harvey Keitel, Joe Pesci and Al Pacino.

Brut.