De Niro continued to switch between comedic and serious roles over the next few years, reuniting with Crystal for Analyze That in 2002, and starring in the spy thriller The Good Shepherd with Matt Damon and Angelina Jolie in 2006. The smash-hit spawned two sequels: Meet the Fockers (2004) and Little Fockers (2011), both of which were also box-office successes. In 2000, De Niro took on another comedy, Meet the Parents, with the screen icon playing Ben Stiller's future father-in-law. De Niro portrayed a character based on real-life figure Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal in Casino, co-starring Sharon Stone and Pesci. Michael Mann's Heat followed that same year, with De Niro re-teaming with fellow Godfather star Al Pacino in a well-received outing about a bank robber contemplating getting out of the business and the police detective aiming to bring him down. The fall of 1995 saw another Scorsese telling of mob life, this time in Las Vegas. In 1994, De Niro was practically unrecognizable as the monster in actor/director Kenneth Branagh's adaptation of the Mary Shelley novel Frankenstein. That same year, De Niro made his directorial debut with A Bronx Tale, a film adaptation of a one-man play written and performed by Chazz Palminteri. 'Casino' and Comedic FareĪfter somewhat edgy, comedic outings like Night and the City (1992) and Mad Dog and Glory (1993), another drama followed in the form of This Boy's Life (1993), in which De Niro portrayed an abusive father opposite a young Leonardo DiCaprio. (Peck and Mitchum made appearances in the remake as well.) De Niro received his sixth Academy Award nomination for Fear, with the film becoming the highest-grossing collaboration between the actor and Scorsese, earning more than $182 million worldwide. The film was originally a 1962 thriller starring Gregory Peck, Robert Mitchum, Polly Bergen and Lori Martin, and was recast with Nick Nolte, Jessica Lange and Juliette Lewis. Soon afterward, the actor was once again front and center and reunited with Scorsese in a terrifying way, bulking up to become a tattooed rapist who stalks a family in the 1991 remake of Cape Fear. Dramas continued to be the genre of choice for De Niro, as he played a blacklisted director in Guilty by Suspicion and a fire chief in Ron Howard's Backdraft, both from 1991. De Niro next starred in a project that earned him another Oscar nod, portraying a catatonic patient brought back to awareness in Awakenings (1990), directed by Penny Marshall and co-starring Robin Williams as a character based on physician Oliver Sacks. Acclaim for 'Goodfellas' and 'Awakenings'ĭe Niro opened the 1990s with Goodfellas, yet another acclaimed gangster film from Scorsese that saw the actor teaming up with Ray Liotta and Joe Pesci.
![how old was robert de niro in the godfather 2 how old was robert de niro in the godfather 2](https://cdn2.bigcommerce.com/server4900/364bb/products/214696/images/166406/104057__65101.1495738908.380.500.jpg)
Other notable projects on the actor's diverse roster for the 1980s included the sci-fi art film Brazil (1985) and the historically inspired The Mission (1986), followed by fare like the crime drama The Untouchables (1987, in which De Niro portrayed gangster Al Capone opposite Kevin Costner as Eliot Ness) and the action-comedy Midnight Run (1988). After 1981's True Confessions, his next roles were that of an aspiring standup comedian in Scorsese's The King of Comedy (1983) and as a Jewish mobster in the sprawling historical epic Once Upon a Time in America (1984). The previously skinny De Niro had put on 60 pounds of muscle for his riveting turn as LaMotta and was rewarded for his dedication with the 1981 Academy Award for Best Actor. While De Niro was by all accounts only a very modest troublemaker, the gang provided him with experience to skillfully portray Italian mobsters as an actor.ĭe Niro later portrayed middleweight boxer Jake LaMotta in the commercially unsuccessful but critically adored film Raging Bull (1980), again helmed by Scorsese. 41 in Greenwich Village, De Niro proved to be uninterested in school altogether and, as a teenager, joined a rather tame Italian street gang that gave him the nickname "Bobby Milk," in reference to his pale complexion. However, feeling overwhelmed and unprepared for the intense and competitive atmosphere, he dropped out to attend public school after only a few days.
![how old was robert de niro in the godfather 2 how old was robert de niro in the godfather 2](https://pyxis.nymag.com/v1/imgs/4fa/eab/ab882799a86fa206d0ff8a7e5ec24a18ab-23-mamma-mia-godfather.rsocial.w1200.jpg)
Soon after, he was accepted at New York's prestigious High School of Music and Art, an institution specializing in visual and performance arts. De Niro's mother worked part-time as a typist and copyeditor for Maria Picator's Dramatic Workshop, and as part of her compensation, De Niro was allowed to take children's acting classes for free.Īt the age of 10, De Niro made his stage debut as the Cowardly Lion in The Wizard of Oz.
![how old was robert de niro in the godfather 2 how old was robert de niro in the godfather 2](https://josmarlopes.files.wordpress.com/2015/11/1974-the-godfather-part-ii-04.jpg)
He was especially taken with films starring Swedish actress Greta Garbo. A bright and energetic child, De Niro was incredibly fond of attending movies with his father when they spent time together.