The Great Robert De Niro

Born in New York City on August 17, 1943, Robert De Niro Jr. left high school at age 16, after which he launched one of the most successful careers in the history of modern acting. Through the years, De Niro has won two Academy Awards and played roles ranging from troubled Vietnam War veteran to abusive prizefighter to mafia kingpin to neurotic bookmaker. De Niro’s range and capacity for meaningfully connecting with viewers has made him one of Hollywood’s leading men and, by most accounts, one of the finest actors of this or any other time.

De Niro’s parents were both acclaimed artists who dominated the New York art scene, despite parting ways when young Robert was just two years old. As Robert continued to develop a taste for the theatrical, he earned a scholarship to the prestigious High School of Music and Art. Nevertheless, De Niro preferred public school to the specialized and privileged high school and, soon enough, De Niro dropped school altogether and pursued life as an Italian street gangster; a life experience that would find his later forays into Italian Mafioso roles (Biography Channel, 2013). As De Niro steered further away from a conventional life, he began studying acting with renowned teachers Stella Adler and Lee Strasbourg, as he explored the psychological boundaries of performance art. Nevertheless, De Niro was but a small fish in a big pond and his earliest roles served to separate him from the rest of the pack.

By 1974, De Niro was prepared to play Don Vito Corleone in The Godfather: Part II and, just two years later, he portrayed troubled New York City cab driver Travis Bickle in a film that garnered him not only critical acclaim, but an instant cult following: Taxi Driver. De Niro continued his unconventional choice of roles, De Niro then portrayed the punch-drunk and abusive boxer Jake La Motta in Raging Bull. His performance in what was already his third collaboration with Martin Scorsese earned De Niro an Academy Award in 1981 (Rompalske, 2001). Over the years, De Niro has continued to play edgy roles, while also leaving room for my humorous roles in films like Analyze This, Meet the Parents and, more recently, The Family. Needless to say, De Niro’s gift for high-octane performance has made him a living legend.

It was The Godfather: Part II, however, that announced De Niro’s arrival as a serious actor capable of moving an audience to tears. For the film, a young De Niro learned to speak Sicilian and came to embody the being of young Vito Corleone, providing director Francis Ford Coppola’s vision of Don Corleone in his formative stages. Through a performance that mixes compassion and elements of morality with raw brutality, De Niro’s portrayal is as easygoing as it is seriously engaging. In so indulging Coppola’s vision, De Niro brings authenticity and genuine vitality to the role of young Don Corleone and the viewer is thereby compelled to re-consider the origins of a character to which they have previously been exposed within a violent context. To this end, De Niro is relied upon to provide a crucial foundation for Coppola’s masterpiece.

In Raging Bull, De Niro explored the depths of his Stanislavski method training in playing a role in such a way as amounted to being well ahead of the times. In putting on 60 lbs. of muscle to play the beleaguered and once great prizefighter, De Niro lived the less than fulfilling existence of Jake LaMotta, the Raging Bull, brining a painful rage to the screen in portraying LaMotta’s struggles with violence and obsessive tendencies that eventually undermined his career and personal life. In working again with Martin Scorsese, De Niro again showed off his capacity for meaningful contribution to the oeuvre of a great filmmaker, bringing crucial energy to an otherwise lifeless film that was initially received poorly by media outlets and audiences alike. That De Niro won an Academy Award for it speaks to the remarkable quality of his performance in demonstrating his ability to raise a film’s overall quality by sheer virtue of his commitment to it.

By the time the 1990s rolled around, De Niro was set to reprise his early roles in the Italian Mafioso vein, again collaborating with Scorsese in what many consider to be the finest mafia-inspired film of all time: Goodfellas. The measure and elegance with which De Niro’s character operates is characteristic of a fully evolved performer at the peak of his powers. De Niro commands the screen and drives the film’s narrative, appearing both driven and yet somehow comfortable. It is as though De Niro has firmly blended his youthful intensity with a more lighthearted professionalism, but without compromising the comprehensive brilliance of his performance. In the aftermath of Goodfellas, De Niro has continued to challenge his fully evolved performance ethic through roles as diverse as they are daunting.

From a relatively conventional New York City upbringing to one of Hollywood’s most sought-after performers, Robert De Niro has emerged as one of the finest actors of our time. Along the way, De Niro has battled efforts to pigeon-hole him as an Italian-American gangster and transcended his own craft by performances that demonstrate not only range, but a uniquely intense brand of screen presence that commands the attention of any audience and which has also contributed to the valuable filmmaking of so many of our finest directors and filmmakers. De Niro’s life has been singularly devoted to performance, though the easygoing mannerisms so prevalent in his personal life have rarely seeped into his acting, unless intended to do so. As such, De Niro amounts to a prototypically consummate professional. For this reason, audiences and directors will continue to flock to De Niro for the kind of performance that is rarely seen these days in an age of self-absorbed and neurotic performers. While not yet complete, Robert De Niro Jr.’s legacy is already one worth of praise and admiration.

References

Robert A De Niro. (2014). The Biography Channel website. Retrieved 09:25, Feb. 14, 2014, from http://www.biography.com/people/robert-de-niro-9271729.

Rompalske, D. (2001). Finding the Real Robert De Niro. Biography, 5(2), 80.

Coppola, F. F. (Director). (1974). The Godfather part II [Motion picture]. USA: Paramount.

Scorsese, M. (Director). (1980). Raging bull [Motion picture]. USA: MGM.

Scorsese M. (Director). (1990). Goodfellas [Motion picture]. USA: Warner Bros.