Robert De Niro: Little known facts about the legend
Last Tuesday was the 67th birthday of Robert De Niro, the legendary American actor and two time Oscar (Academy Awards) winner. The following are some little known facts about De Niro:
- Robert De Niro was born in New York City, the son of Virginia Admiral, a painter - of German, French, and Dutch ancestry - and Robert De Niro, Sr., also a painter and sculptor - of Italian and Irish descent. De Niro's parents, who had met at a painting class, divorced when he was three years old.
- De Niro was raised by his mother in the Little Italy area of Manhattan and brielfy joined a Little Italy street gang. But following his stellar stage debut playing the Cowardly Lion in his school's production of The Wizard of Oz, he quit high school at age 16 to pursue acting. He studied under Stella Adler and Lee Strasberg. De Niro was enrolled by his mother at the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music and Art in New York, which had a different division attended by another legendary actor Al Pacino.
- In 1974, De Niro played young Don Vito Corleone in Francis Coppola's The Godfather, Part II, and became the first actor to win an Academy Award speaking mainly a foreign language, in this case, multiple Sicilian dialects (although he delivered a few lines in English).
Robert De Niro and Al Pacino in Godfather II
- 33 years later (in 2007), Francis Coppola, told GQ magazine that he had become disappointed with the older and richer De Niro (and Al Pacino and Jack Nicholson) as they lacked ambition and now only seem interested in women and money!
- In February 1998, during a film shoot in France, De Niro was taken in for questioning by French police over a prostitution ring. De Niro denied any involvement, saying that he had never paid for sex, "... and even if I had, it wouldn't have been a crime." In an interview with the French newspaper Le Monde, De Niro said, "I will never return to France."
- De Niro has a son, Raphael, a former actor who now works in New York real estate, with first wife Diahnne Abbott. De Niro also adopted Abbott's daughter (from a previous relationship), Drena. In 1997, De Niro married his second wife, Grace Hightower (a former flight attendant). Their son Elliot was born in 1998. In addition, De Niro has twin sons, Julian Henry and Aaron Kendrick (conceived by in vitro fertilization and delivered by a surrogate mother in 1995), from a long-term live-in relationship with former model Toukie Smith. De Niro has had other lovers and partners.
- De Niro, who lives in New York City, has been investing in the TriBeCa neighborhood in lower Manhattan since 1989, and has been helping with the local economy. His capital ventures include the film studio TriBeCa Productions and the popular TriBeCa Film Festival.
- De Niro is a supporter of the Democratic Party, and vocally supported Al Gore in 2000, John Kerry in 2004, and Obama in 2008. In 1998, he lobbied Congress against impeaching President Bill Clinton.
- De Niro has made several politically inspired movies. He narrated 9/11, a documentary about the September 11, 2001 attacks, shown on CBS, that focused on the heroic role of firefighters following the attacks. Also, he directed (and acted in) the 2006 film "The Good Shepherd" which stars Matt Damon and Angelina Jolie, and is a fictional film loosely based on real events and the untold story of the birth of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and its problems.
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