Robert Anthony De Niro (/də ˈnɪəroʊ/, Italian: [de ˈniːro]; born August 17, 1943) is an American

actor, producer, and director who holds both American and Italian citizenship. He is particularly
known for his collaborations with filmmaker Martin Scorsese. He is the recipient of various
accolades, including two Academy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, the Cecil B. DeMille Award,
and a Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award. In 2009, he received the Kennedy Center
Honor and in 2016, he received a Presidential Medal of Freedom from U.S. President Barack
Obama.
Born in Manhattan in New York City, De Niro studied acting at HB Studio, Stella Adler
Conservatory, and Lee Strasberg's Actors Studio. His first major onscreen appearance was
in Greetings (1968). He soon gained recognition with his role as a baseball player in the sports
drama Bang the Drum Slowly (1973). His first collaboration with Scorsese was in Mean
Streets (1973), in which he played the small-time criminal "Johnny Boy". Stardom followed soon
after with his role as the young Vito Corleone in Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather Part
II (1974), which won him the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. For his portrayal
of Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver (1976), and a soldier in the Vietnam War drama The Deer
Hunter (1978), he earned two Academy Award nominations for Best Actor.
In 1980, De Niro portrayed Jake LaMotta in Scorsese's biographical drama Raging Bull which
won him an Academy Award for Best Actor, his first in this category. He diversified into comic
roles, such as by playing a stand-up comedian in The King of Comedy (1982), and gained further
recognition for his performances in Sergio Leone's crime epic Once Upon a Time in
America (1984), Terry Gilliam's science fiction dystopian satire Brazil (1985), the religious
epic The Mission (1986), and the comedy Midnight Run (1988). De Niro entered the 1990s
playing gangster Jimmy Conway in the crime film Goodfellas, a catatonic patient in the
drama Awakenings (both 1990), and as a criminal in the psychological thriller Cape Fear (1991).
All three films received praise for De Niro's performances. He then starred in This Boy's
Life (1993), and directed his first feature film with 1993's A Bronx Tale. His other critical
successes include the crime films Heat and Casino (both 1995).