Robert De Niro

Robert De Niro is an American actor.

Biography
Along with Al Pacino, Robert De Niro is widely regarded as one of the world's best actors.

Born in New York in 1943, Robert De Niro was born to an Irish/Italian painter and a French/German mother who also painted. His first film role was in Brian De Palma's The Wedding Party and followed it up with several character roles, before auditioning for the role of Sonny Corleone in The Godfather. He was actually given the role of Paulie Gatto, but he was traded to the film The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight for Al Pacino.

De Niro later appeared as the young Vito Corleone in The Godfather Part II, for which he won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Knowing that filmgoers were expecting something similar to Marlon Brando's portrayal of Vito in The Godfather, he studied it very closely, trying to guess the first time Vito did or said certain things. He was the first actor to win an Academy Award speaking mainly a foreign language; in Part II Vito spoke almost entirely in Sicilian dialect.

He later acheived fame by appearing in several several gangster films, including Mean Streets and The Untouchables, although he was lauded for his performance as a dying baseball player in Bang the Drum Slowly.

De Niro made his career become even more sucessful by working with Martin Scorsese in such films as Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Goodfellas and Casino. He continues to appear in successful films to this day.