Robert De Niro: His career from cinema godfather to Trump haters
The addition "legend" is used quite inflationary these days. Director legends here, music legends there, movie legends over there - legends as far as the eye can see. A man who has honestly earned this title with more than 100 films shot but celebrates his 75th birthday today, August 17th. In addition to quantity, the name Robert De Niro stands for quality with very few exceptions. And that adds up to a legend in the end.
No normal family home
For many later stars, the nursery does not allow any conclusions about their career path. That De Niro would not be a welder or car mechanic, that was clear. His father Robert De Niro Sr. earned his life as an expressionist painter money and moderate recognition, his mother Virginia also painted and was a poet. That the restrained boy, who was called because of his paleness "Bobby Milk", one day would ripen to one of the greatest character mimes in the world, that could of course nobody suspect. Even though he was on stage for the first time at the age of ten, in a school performance of "The Wizard of Oz" - as the cowardly lion ...
De Niro meets De Palma
At 16, De Niro eventually left school to pursue a career as an actor with the blessing of his family of artists. To become Marlon Brando, that's what the boy with the big ambitions wanted. But until his first serious role, it took until 1970. De Niro, by that time no longer a boy, but a 27-year-old man, scored in Brian De Palma's black comedy "Hi, Mom!" his first leading role. It took only four more years until the first Oscar.
As a kid, De Niro still raved about Marlon Brando, literally following in his footsteps in The Godfather II. In Francis Ford Coppola's mafia masterpiece, he plays the young edition of Don Vito Corleone and inspired as gangster boss so much that it gave the gold boy as the best supporting actor as a reward. At the latest from this milestone De Niro is no longer indispensable to the screen - until today.
Many hits and a few flops
Especially in the 70s and 80s De Niro played in another acting league. Only a few of the films that were created during this creative period: "Taxi Driver", "Those Who Go Through Hell", "Once Upon a Time in America", "Brazil" and "The Untouchables". For the 1980 boxer drama "Like a wild bull", in which he was certified by his coach the stuff to professional boxer, there was the second and so far last Oscar for him (in total he was nominated five more times). For the part as Jake LaMotta, De Niro had taken boxing lessons for a year and later on he was eating 30 kilos of fat within a very short time.
But aspirations and success do not always go hand in hand. Many of the works already mentioned and also later films with De Niro were critics, but only limited audience favorites. For example, "Awakening Time", "Wag the Dog" or "Mary Shelley's Frankenstein", in which De Niro is hardly recognizable as a defaced Frankenstein monster. De Niro was supposed to land his biggest commercial hit only in 2004 and in a genre he could not possibly have imagined ...
De Niro, the comedy talent
From the turn of the millennium De Niro increasingly proved his comedic talent. In the movie "Reine Nervensache" still referring to his parade role as a godfather (he plays in a mafia boss who lands at the psychiatrist and suffering from erectile dysfunction). Only a year later, he made family life hell in "My Bride, Her Father, and Me," Ben Stiller. Its sequel "My wife, her parents-in-law and I" is even with DeNiro's biggest box-office hit with 516 million registered dollars.
In the dramatics section he was, of course, still to be seen, was nominated in 2012 for the last time thanks to his role in "Silver Linings" for an Oscar (Supporting Actor). Other roles in the past five years, in which De Niro increasingly became a well-known supporting actor due to his age, were in "American Hustle" and "Joy - Everything But Ordinary". The difficult to endure "Dirty Grandpa" (2016), which was literally torn by the critics, may be considered as extremely rare misstep De Niro.
Fuck Trump
In contrast to his political commitment. Even with his now 75 years of the wild bull of yore once much is left. It was not until June this year that De Niro abused US President Donald Trump (72) at the Tony Awards and earned a standing ovation.In any case, the star does not tire of expressing his displeasure with the world's most powerful Twitter user - and was promptly twittered by the president of a low IQ.
De Niro still has a bit of bite - in front of and away from the camera. In the cinema, the birthday child could soon prove this with a premiere of his old days. Rumors that De Niro in the planned "Joker" movie - and thus for his first comic screen adaptation - in conversation. At any rate, the father of six children does not think about the well-earned pension for a long time.
