De Niro, Robert

Born: August 17, 1943

Actor, director and producer
Born in NY, USA.

Robert Mario De Niro, Jr. is a two-time Academy Award- and Golden Globe-winning American film actor, director, and producer. Often regarded as one of the greatest actors of all time, Robert De Niro has also been called one of the most enigmatic actors of his time. He is noted for his method acting and portrayals of conflicted, troubled characters and for his enduring collaboration with director Martin Scorsese.

He is best-known for his roles as the young Vito Corleone in The Godfather, Part II; cabbie Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver; boxer Jake La Motta in Raging Bull; mobster Jimmy Conway in Goodfellas; Al Capone in The Untouchables; and Michael Vronsky in The Deer Hunter.

De Niro was born in New York, the son of Virginia Admiral, a painter, and Robert De Niro, Sr., an abstract expressionist painter and sculptor. De Niro's father was a lapsed Catholic of Italian and Irish descent, and his mother was a Presbyterian-raised atheist of English, German, Dutch, and French descent.

His Italian great-grandparents emigrated from Ferrazzano, in the province of Campobasso, Molise. His parents, who had met at the painting classes of Hans Hofmann in Provincetown, Massachusetts, divorced when he was two years old.

De Niro grew up in the Little Italy area of Manhattan. His childhood nickname was "Bobby Milk," due to his pale complexion in his youth. De Niro first attended the Little Red School House and was then enrolled by his mother at the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music and Art in New York, a division of which (officially named The School of Performing Arts: A Division of the Fiorello H. La Guardia High School of Music and the Arts) was attended by fellow Godfather II actor Al Pacino.

He dropped out at the age of 13 and joined a Little Italy street gang. De Niro attended the Stella Adler Conservatory as well as Lee Strasberg's Actor's Studio, and used his membership there mostly as a professional advantage.

For more information on his acting career please check Wikipedia.

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