Robert De Niro (born 17 August 1943) is an American actor and producer who is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential actors of his generation. He has won two Academy Awards, for The Godfather Part II and Raging Bull, and he is known for his long partnership with the director Martin Scorsese. This biography follows his life and career up to November 2026.
Robert De Niro at a Glance
| Full name | Robert Anthony De Niro |
| Born | 17 August 1943, Manhattan, New York City, United States |
| Age | 83 (as of November 2026) |
| Profession | Actor and producer |
| Training | HB Studio; Stella Adler Conservatory; Lee Strasberg's Actors Studio |
| Academy Awards | Best Supporting Actor, The Godfather Part II (1974); Best Actor, Raging Bull (1980) |
| Honours | AFI Life Achievement Award (2003); Kennedy Center Honors (2009); Cecil B. DeMille Award (2011); Presidential Medal of Freedom (2016); Honorary Palme d'Or (2025) |
| Companies | TriBeCa Productions (1989); Tribeca Film Festival (2002) |
| Spouses | Diahnne Abbott (married 1976); Grace Hightower (married 1997; separated 2018) |
Early Life and Training
Robert De Niro was born in Manhattan, the only child of the painters Virginia Admiral and Robert De Niro Sr. His parents separated when he was two years old, and he was raised by his mother in Greenwich Village and Little Italy, while his father lived nearby and stayed close to him. He attended PS 41 in Manhattan and began acting classes at the Dramatic Workshop. At age 10 he made his stage debut at school, playing the Cowardly Lion in The Wizard of Oz. He later studied acting at HB Studio, the Stella Adler Conservatory and Lee Strasberg's Actors Studio.
Rise With Martin Scorsese
De Niro appeared in Brian De Palma's early films, including The Wedding Party, which was released in 1969 although it had been filmed in 1963. His long collaboration with Martin Scorsese began with Mean Streets (1973), in which he played the small-time criminal Johnny Boy opposite Harvey Keitel. He then starred in Scorsese's Taxi Driver (1976) as Travis Bickle, New York, New York (1977) and Raging Bull (1980), in which he played the middleweight boxer Jake LaMotta. Their later films include The King of Comedy (1982), Goodfellas (1990), Cape Fear (1991) and Casino (1995), which was their eighth collaboration.
Academy Awards
De Niro won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for playing the young Vito Corleone in The Godfather Part II (1974), becoming the first male actor to win for a performance in Italian. Six years later he won the Academy Award for Best Actor for Raging Bull. He was also nominated for Taxi Driver, The Deer Hunter (1978), Awakenings (1990), Cape Fear, Silver Linings Playbook (2012) and Killers of the Flower Moon (2023), and as a producer he was nominated for Best Picture for The Irishman (2019). In 2023 he played William King Hale in Scorsese's Killers of the Flower Moon, opposite Leonardo DiCaprio.
Other Roles and Directing
Outside his work with Scorsese, De Niro is known for The Deer Hunter, Once Upon a Time in America (1984), Brazil (1985), The Mission (1986), The Untouchables (1987), Heat (1995) and Jackie Brown (1997). He also has a comic side, in Midnight Run (1988), Wag the Dog (1997), Analyze This (1999), the Meet the Parents films and The Intern (2015). In 2019 he played the talk show host Murray Franklin in Joker. He directed and acted in A Bronx Tale (1993) and The Good Shepherd (2006), and on television he played Bernie Madoff in the HBO film The Wizard of Lies (2017). In 2023 he announced that he would produce and star in the Netflix limited series Zero Day.
Business and Tribeca
In 1989 De Niro and the producer Jane Rosenthal founded TriBeCa Productions, and in 2002 they founded the Tribeca Film Festival. He opened the Tribeca Grill restaurant in 1990 with Stewart F. Lane and also owns the Greenwich Hotel in Tribeca. Six of his films have been inducted into the United States National Film Registry, and five are on the American Film Institute's list of the 100 greatest American films.
Honours
De Niro has received the AFI Life Achievement Award (2003), the Kennedy Center Honors (2009), the Cecil B. DeMille Award (2011), the Presidential Medal of Freedom (2016), the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award (2019) and an Honorary Palme d'Or at Cannes (2025).
Personal Life
De Niro married the actress Diahnne Abbott in 1976 and the actress Grace Hightower in 1997. He has several children, including a son, Elliot, born in 1998. He and Hightower separated in 2018 after 20 years of marriage. In December 2003 he had surgery for prostate cancer. In 2006 he received Italian citizenship, and his primary residence is an estate in Gardiner, New York.
Legacy
De Niro's performances for Scorsese and others, from Travis Bickle to Jake LaMotta, are widely seen as defining acting of the New Hollywood era. This biography draws on [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_De_Niro).
