He was born and raised in Greenwich Village. His father, a handsome, curly-haired, passionate man, half Irish, half Italian, is an abstract painter whose name is also Robert De Niro. His mother, Virginia Admiral, strong-looking, husky-voiced, is an artist too.
The De Niros were part of a loosely knit artistic community that had begun to flourish in Greenwich Village during the Second World War. It was an underground community bursting with vitality and gossip, with its own celebrations and myths. In the De Niros separated amicably, and Virginia Admiral moved to an apartment on West Fourteenth Street with her two-year-old son. She started a typing service to support them.
Eventually she started painting again. Bobby De Niro was thrown out on his own very early. Already he was a loner, painfully shy and given to retreating into long silences. After school he took to wandering around the streets of Little Italy, past the sleazy bars and pool halls, and he joined a street gang on Kenmare.
At sixteen he dropped out of high school and never went back. When I got into it, it became more complicated. He was obsessed about discovering his roots. One summer he hitchhiked from Ireland to Italy, trying to locate relatives. After visiting them, he went to see his father, who was living in France.
De Niro senior was painting and sketching landscapes, nudes, portraits, still lifes—all showing an ironclad control of color, drawing, and composition. But he was struggling to survive. He even took color slides of some of the paintings and brought them back to the States. As soon as De Niro became a movie star, he reputedly bought both of his parents spacious lofts. Neither has ever remarried. They remain close friends, and they see a great deal of their only child.
Eventually the movie was screened as evidence for a jury as it sat in judgment on Hinckley. He also gets very upset if people say anything about his friend John Belushi. After the great comic died of cocaine-and-heroin poisoning in March , De Niro broke down in sobs. I directed him in every scene. Almost everybody fell ill with dysentery, except Bob. He takes terrific care of his body. He also spent hours with Daniel Berrigan, the maverick Jesuit priest, who was a consultant on the film.
He had a floor plan laid out in his living room and everything. He was meticulous. And very patient with Ralph Macchio, who was his son in the show and had never been onstage before.
I thought of Bob as our leader. Like when we were invited to play for the prisoners on Rikers Island, Bob called a meeting of the entire cast in his dressing room to discuss it; same with when we moved the production from the Public Theater to Broadway. She recalls that last year when she was teaching a class at the Actors Studio, De Niro was there one day standing beside a pillar and nobody recognized him.
He eventually slithered away. I have known Bob De Niro for over twenty years. Just say we are close, close friends. Bobby used to be there , you know what I mean? He used to talk, give opinions, laugh. He was so sweet. Makes me sad. Bobby was around nineteen—skinny, very gentle, dark watchful eyes. He had very little money and he rode around town on a rickety bike. He played a wide variety of roles. Totally different in each part. Winters subsequently began taking De Niro around with her to parties and introducing him to her friends, and she arranged for him to be an observer at the Actors Studio.
We would go at each other, have knockdown fights—kitchen-sink-drama-style. It was like going into a costume room backstage of a theater. He had every conceivable kind of getup imaginable—and the hats! Derbies, straw hats, caps, homburgs. He was totally focused on his work.
Force of will. Kirkland would talk to De Niro for hours about her hopes and dreams, and still does. Hold something back. Be mysterious. De Niro holds back. He is a deeply private person who rarely shows emotion. Shelley Winters recalls once when he did. He walked into my bedroom and pounded the headboard with his fist. He could be equally intense when he wanted a part.
During the mid-sixties he auditioned for Brian De Palma, then a struggling young film director. Then he asked if he could do something else for me, and I said sure. He went outside to prepare; he took a long, long time. Then he burst into the room and performed the rabble-rousing monologue from Waiting for Lefty. He was absolutely sensational. In the latter two he played a young voyeur who becomes a demoralized Vietnam vet and falls into pornography and urban warfare. His salary for each film was fifty dollars.
He and De Palma became friends. We were always looking for projects to do. But if anybody could do it, it would be Bobby. Oddly enough, the roles he was starting to play Off Broadway were nonstop talkers.
De Niro was supposed to chop a board in half in the play, so he studied karate until he could perform the feat nightly. Earlier, Winters had got him cast in the movie Bloody Mama , about the legendary criminal Ma Barker and her four psychopathic sons, who terrorized the South during the s. De Niro was Lloyd Barker, a sadistic, morphine-addicted killer who eventually dies of an overdose. Get into character. He is a wizard, though. He can blush or turn white like that! But he broke out in sores.
Just to look like an addict. Font Size Abc Small. Abc Medium. Abc Large. Getty Images "Anybody who hurts another person for no reason other than self-defense or the defense of other people around shouldn't be doing that job," Robert De Niro added.
During his virtual appearance on "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon", the year-old actor was asked about whether he had discussed the topic of race with his children. Subscribe to ETPrime. Browse Companies:. Find this comment offensive? This will alert our moderators to take action Name Reason for reporting: Foul language Slanderous Inciting hatred against a certain community Others.
Your Reason has been Reported to the admin. Fill in your details: Will be displayed Will not be displayed Will be displayed. Share this Comment: Post to Twitter. There is a long list, including everyone from model Naomi Campbell to his estranged wife Grace Hightower. And apparently, in the early nineties, late eighties, Bobby was trying to add legendary singer Whitney Houston to the roster. Still, the story of De Niro trying to push up on her is just the type of vintage tea we love to sip.
See what she had to say below. Byron Allen: What is the story here. I hear Robert De Niro was following you all over the world. Whitney Houston: Hmm All the way to London. I think he was there already and he sent me flowers and everything.
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