People
Robert De Niro
Acting · follow into films and chains
Biography
Robert Anthony De Niro (born August 17, 1943) is an American actor and film producer. Considered one of his generation's greatest and most influential actors, De Niro has received various accolades, including two Academy Awards and a Golden Globe Award, as well as nominations for eight BAFTA Awards and four Emmy Awards. He was honoured with the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2003, the Kennedy Center Honors in 2009, the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2011, and the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award in 2019. De Niro was presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom by U.S. President Barack Obama in 2016. De Niro studied acting at HB Studio, Stella Adler Conservatory, and Lee Strasberg's Actors Studio. His first credited screen role was in Brian de Palma's Greetings (1968). De Niro's first collaboration with Martin Scorsese was with the crime drama film Mean Streets (1973). De Niro has earned two Academy Awards: one for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Vito Corleone in Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather Part II (1974) and the other for Best Actor portraying Jake LaMotta in Scorsese's drama Raging Bull (1980). De Niro was also Oscar-nominated for Taxi Driver (1976), The Deer Hunter (1978), Awakenings (1990), Cape Fear (1991), Silver Linings Playbook (2012), and Killers of the Flower Moon (2023). He is also known for his film roles in Bang the Drum Slowly (1973), 1900 (1976), The King of Comedy (1982), Once Upon a Time in America(1984), Brazil (1985), The Mission (1986), Angel Heart (1987), The Untouchables (1987), Goodfellas (1990), This Boy's Life (1993), Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1994), Heat (1995), Casino (1995), Jackie Brown (1997), Joker (2019), and The Irishman (2019). He directed and acted in A Bronx Tale (1993) and The Good Shepherd (2006). His comedic roles include Hi, Mom! (1970), Midnight Run (1988), Wag the Dog (1997), Analyze This (1999) and its sequel, Analyze That (2002), the Meet the Parents films (2000–2010), and The Intern (2015). Also known for his television roles, De Niro portrayed Bernie Madoff in the HBO film The Wizard of Lies (2017), earning a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie. He received further Emmy Award nominations for producing the Netflix limited series When They See Us (2019) and for portraying Robert Mueller on Saturday Night Live. De Niro and producer Jane Rosenthal founded the film and television production company TriBeCa Productions in 1989, which has produced several films alongside his own. Also with Rosenthal, he founded the Tribeca Film Festival in 2002. Many of De Niro's films are considered classics of American cinema. Six of De Niro's films have been inducted into the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" as of 2023. Five films are featured on the American Film Institute's (AFI) list of the 100 greatest American films ever. Timeout magazine's list of 100 best movies included seven of De Niro's films, as chosen by actors in the industry.
Notable films
Where to start
Highlights from credits and KinoChain journeys.
The Godfather Part II
Appears in a KinoChain journey
GoodFellas
Appears in a KinoChain journey
Heat
Appears in a KinoChain journey
Shark Tale
Appears in a KinoChain journey
The King of Comedy
Appears in a KinoChain journey
The Irishman
Appears in a KinoChain journey
Bohemian Rhapsody
Appears in a KinoChain journey
The Family
Appears in a KinoChain journey
Chains
KinoChain journeys
Public chains that pass through their films — or name them as a bridge.
The Show Must Go On
From Freddie Mercury's operatic excess to the raw defiance of punk, this chain traces how cinema captures the transformative power of self-expression.
8 films
The Perfect Needledrop: Ten Moments That Own the Screen
From sudden silences to euphoric choruses, these are the film moments where a song doesn't just score the scene, it becomes the scene.
10 films
The Camera as Weapon
From Chris Hansen's sting operations to the blood sport of nightly news, this chain traces the moral rot at the heart of spectacle.
8 films
The Art of the Fall
From viral infamy to quiet vindication: a chain of films about bold artists whose audacity is mistaken for failure, tracing the same arc that turned Raygun from...
8 films
Ghosts in the Machine
From a stuntman's final role to a star's digital encore, these eight films trace cinema's long affair with performing from beyond the grave.
8 films
The Vincent Pastore Top Five
A tribute to Vincent Pastore, whose death today invites us to trace Pastore's arc from background wiseguy to recognisable character actor, without leaning on Th...
5 films
Second Chances
From Hitchcock to Mann, a journey through films where directors revisit their own earlier work, refining obsession into art.
8 films
Growing Pains: Sequels That Leap Through Time
From a Parisian afternoon to a boxing ring, these sequels skip years ahead and find their characters changed, challenged, and achingly familiar. A journey throu...
6 films
Topics
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Related people
Collaborators & neighbours
Directed
Acted
Mr. Scorsese
2025 · Self
Zero Day
2025 · President George Mullen
Killers of the Flower Moon
2023 · William Hale
Amsterdam
2022 · General Gil Dillenbeck
The Irishman
2019 · Frank Sheeran
Joker
2019 · Murray Franklin
Dirty Grandpa
2016 · Dick Kelly
Heist
2015 · The Pope
The Family
2013 · Fred Blake / Giovanni Manzoni
Trespassing Bergman
2013 · Self
The Big Wedding
2013 · Don Griffin
Silver Linings Playbook
2012 · Pat Solatano Sr.
Freelancers
2012 · Sarcone
Being Flynn
2012 · Jonathan Flynn
New Year's Eve
2011 · Stan Harris
Limitless
2011 · Carl Van Loon
Machete
2010 · Senator John McLaughlin
Righteous Kill
2008 · Turk
The Good Shepherd
2006 · Bill Sullivan
Hide and Seek
2005 · David Callaway
Meet the Fockers
2004 · Jack Byrnes
Shark Tale
2004 · Don Lino (voice)
The Score
2001 · Nick Wells
Meet the Parents
2000 · Jack Byrnes
Flawless
1999 · Walt Koontz
Analyze This
1999 · Paul Vitti
Ronin
1998 · Sam
Jackie Brown
1997 · Louis Gara
Wag the Dog
1997 · Conrad Brean
Cop Land
1997 · Lt. Moe Tilden
Sleepers
1996 · Father Bobby
Heat
1995 · Neil McCauley
Casino
1995 · Sam 'Ace' Rothstein
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
1994 · The Creature / Sharp Featured Man
A Bronx Tale
1993 · Lorenzo Anello
This Boy's Life
1993 · Dwight
Mad Dog and Glory
1993 · Wayne "Mad Dog" Dobie
Cape Fear
1991 · Max Cady
Guilty by Suspicion
1991 · David Merrill
Awakenings
1990 · Leonard Lowe
GoodFellas
1990 · James Conway
Midnight Run
1988 · John Wesley “Jack” Walsh
The Untouchables
1987 · Al Capone
Angel Heart
1987 · Louis Cyphre
The Mission
1986 · Rodrigo Mendoza
Brazil
1985 · Harry Tuttle
Once Upon a Time in America
1984 · Noodles
The King of Comedy
1982 · Rupert Pupkin
Raging Bull
1980 · Jake LaMotta
Mario Puzo's The Godfather: The Complete Novel for Television
1977 · Young Vito Corleone
Taxi Driver
1976 · Travis Bickle
The Godfather Part II
1974 · Vito Corleone
Mean Streets
1973 · John 'Johnny Boy' Civello