Robert de Niro, born in New York on August 17, 1943, turns 80. And in New York, precisely in Greenwich Village, he will celebrate his most important birthday without forgetting his origins, choosing a strictly Italian restaurant.
In fact, everyone knows that his paternal grandparents, Giovanni Di Niro (a pronunciation error led to the transcription De Niro) and Angelina Mercurio were originally from Ferrazzano, in the province of Campobasso. Italy is practically his second homeland, and he also has citizenship.
He grew up with his mother in Little Italy and likes to call himself Italian-American. We recently saw him in Naples with Paolo Sorrentino, a city he said he loves very much, but his true home remains New York. During his career he has been a gangster and a cop, a detective and a criminal, even a comedian.
She boasts two Oscars and seven children, the last of which she had at the age of 79. Now she is in the running for a third Oscar, for The Monn Killers, with her friend of equally Italian origins, Martin Scorsese.
80 years through “Raging Bull” (1980), “Taxi Driver” (1976), “The Godfather Part II” (1974), “New York, New York” (1977), “The Deer Hunter” (1978), “Once Upon a Time in America” (1984), “The Mission” (1986), “Angel's Heart” (1987), “One of Us” (1990), “Cape Fear” (1991), “A Bronx Tale” (1993), “Casino'” (1995), “Heat” (1995), “Sleepers” (1996), “Marvin's Room” (1996), “Jackie Brown” (1996) or “Ronin” (1998).
All these are just “some” of the titles of the films he played. With Scorsese who was from the same neighborhood, he made a dozen films, all masterpieces. Brian De Palma discovered him: he brought to the big screen a handsome boy with very black eyes and that unmistakable mole on his cheek.
In the collective imagination, despite the many films, we are used to remembering him first of all for his interpretation of Vito Corleone in the second part of “The Godfather” and for the legendary “Once Upon a Time in America”. It is said that De Niro spent 4 months in Sicily to learn to act in the fateful accent.
He underwent other “metamorphoses” to act in “Raging Bull”, gaining a whopping 27 kilos. He knew how to transform himself on the set into a psychopath, a murderer, almost always an anti-hero, even the devil. Tender in “Manuale d'amore 3” in which he plays the part of an American university professor living in Rome since the death of his wife, who is in a relationship he tries to escape in every way, with the young and exuberant daughter of the doorman, played by Monica Bellucci. For her he will perform a famous striptease.
Robert's career is long, very long, and he has also played comic roles such as in "Meet the Fockers" and its sequels, with Ben Stiller. He also tried his hand at directing with his debut in 1993, directing himself alongside Chazz Palminteri in the film "Bronx", and then getting behind the camera for other films. His love life has been decidedly eventful.
Italian-American Robert De Niro has seven children born to four different women: with Diahnne Abbott – to whom he was married from 1976 to 1988 – he adopted a daughter, Drena (1971), born from a previous relationship of his wife and had a biological son Raphael (1976). In 1995, with Toukie Smith, the twins Julian Henry and Aaron Kendrik arrived, via surrogate mother.
In 1997, the marriage with Grace Hightower followed by the birth of Elliot (1998). In 2011, Helen Grace was born, again from a surrogate mother, always from Hightower. And in May 2023, here is the last child: at 79 years old, from the story with Tiffany Chen, Gia Virginia was born. He is also the grandfather of four grandchildren.
On October 18, 2006, Robert De Niro was naturalized as an Italian, while retaining his U.S. citizenship. To celebrate his birthday, he asked fans to vote for their favorite film he starred in. In Italy, he was famously dubbed by Ferruccio Amendola, who then had to, by force of circumstances, give way to Stefano De Sando.
And when Gianni Mina died, someone from the archives pulled out a famous photo from “Checco er Carrettiere”, a well-known Roman trattoria, which portrays De Niro in the company of the Italian journalist, Sergio Leone, Muhammad Ali and Garcia Marquez. It is said that the magnet to put them all together in that enviable group was the boxer himself. In the meantime, it was history.
Article published on 17 August 2023 - 14:28
