By Michelle Dumas
FROM WIKIPEDIA COMMONS
Robert Anthony De Niro (/də ˈnɪəroʊ/ də NEER-roh, Italian: [de ˈniːro]; born August 17, 1943) is an American actor and film producer. Known for his collaborations with Martin Scorsese, he is considered to be one of the greatest and most influential actors of his generation. De Niro is the recipient of various accolades, including two Academy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, the Cecil B. DeMille Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award. He received the Kennedy Center Honors in 2009, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom from U.S. President Barack Obama in 2016.
De Niro studied acting at HB Studio, Stella Adler Conservatory, and Lee Strasberg‘s Actors Studio. His first credit screen role was in Brian de Palma‘s Greetings (1968). De Niro’s first collaboration with Scorsese was with the crime drama film Mean Streets (1973). De Niro earned two Academy Awards, one for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Vito Corleone in Francis Ford Coppola‘s The Godfather Part II (1974) and the other for Best Actor portraying Jake LaMotta in Scorsese’s drama Raging Bull (1980). De Niro was Oscar-nominated for his performances in Taxi Driver (1976), The Deer Hunter (1978), Awakenings (1990), Cape Fear (1991), Silver Linings Playbook (2012), and Killers of the Flower Moon (2023).
He is also known for his film roles in Bang the Drum Slowly (1973), 1900 (1976), The King of Comedy (1982), Once Upon a Time in America (1984), Brazil (1985), The Mission (1986), Angel Heart (1987), The Untouchables (1987), Goodfellas (1990), This Boy’s Life (1993), Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1994), Heat (1995), Casino (1995), Jackie Brown (1997), Joker (2019), and The Irishman (2019). He directed and acted in both A Bronx Tale (1993) and The Good Shepherd (2006). His comedic roles include Hi, Mom! (1970), Midnight Run (1988), Wag the Dog (1997), Analyze This (1999) and its sequel, Analyze That (2002), the Meet the Parents films (2000–2010), and The Intern (2015).
Also known for his television roles, De Niro portrayed Bernie Madoff in the HBO film The Wizard of Lies (2017), earning a nomination for Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie. He received further Emmy Award nominations for producing the Netflix limited series When They See Us (2019), and for portraying Robert Mueller on Saturday Night Live.
De Niro and producer Jane Rosenthal founded the film and television production company TriBeCa Productions in 1989, which has produced several films alongside his own. Also with Rosenthal, he founded the Tribeca Film Festival in 2002. Many of De Niro’s films are considered classics of American cinema. Six of De Niro’s films have been inducted into the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” as of 2023. Five films are featured on the American Film Institute‘s (AFI) list of the 100 greatest American films of all time. Timeout magazine’s list of 100 best movies included seven of De Niro’s films, as chosen by actors in the industry.
TODAY’S ALMANAC
Cat Nights begin on August 17. This term harks back to the days when people believed in witches. A rather obscure old Irish legend said that a witch could turn herself into a cat eight times, but on the ninth time (August 17), she couldn’t regain her human form. This bit of folklore also gives us the saying, “A cat has nine lives.” Because August is a yowly time for cats, this may have prompted the speculation about witches on the prowl in the first place. Also, nights continue to get longer. Cats, crepuscular creatures, are nocturnal hunters. Their superior night vision means that the nights belong to them.
Question of the Day
In cooking, how exactly should I “macerate” something?
Advice of the Day
Home Hint of the Day
Word of the Day
Dew
Puzzle of the Day
The Hawkeye State.(Name the U.S. state!)
Born
- Davy Crockett (frontiersman) –
- Samuel Goldwyn (producer) –
- Mae West (actress) –
- Rudy York (baseball player) –
- Maureen O’Hara (actress) –
- Robert DeNiro (actor) –
- Belinda Carlisle (singer) –
- Sean Penn (actor) –
- Donnie Wahlberg (actor) –
- Dustin Pedroia (baseball player) –
Died
- Vivian Vance (actress) –
- Ira Gershwin (songwriter) –
- Pearl Bailey (singer) –
- Connie Reeves (America’s oldest cowgirl at 101, died 12 days after being thrown from her horse, Dr. Pepper. She was one of the first women to study law at the University of Texas and she started one of Texas’s first girls’ drill teams) –
Events
- The Clermont, a steamboat designed by Robert Fulton , departed NYC heading to Albany–
- Solyman Merrick granted wrench patent–
- First official U.S. airmail was carried by balloon–
- Blacksmith F.P. Cahill fatally wounded by Billy the Kid–
- The Wizard of Oz made its east coast premiere in NYC. Its use of a relatively new method of technicolor dazzled audience members–
- Indonesia proclaimed itself independent from the Netherlands–
- Charles M. Schulz Museum and Research Center opened in Santa Rosa, CA–
- U.S. swimmer Michael Phelps became the first person to win eight gold medals in a single Olympics–
- Collision of 2 neutron stars about 130 million years ago created ripples in space-time that traveled to Earth and set off detectors in the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory–
Weather
- A hurricane prevented a sea battle between the British and the French, Rhode Island–
- The temperature in Amos, California, reached 130 degrees F–
- Hurricane Diane hit Carolina Beach, North Carolina–
- Hurricane Camille hit the Mississippi Gulf Coast killing 259 people and causing $1.5 billion in damage–
COURTESY www.almanac.com
