In this weekend's Killer Elite, Robert De Niro plays a special ops vet whose kidnapping sends his former partner Jason Statham out of retirement and into ass-kicking mode. So how did a New York City high school drop-out transform himself into one of our greatest living actors, who, 40-odd years after his film debut, earns applause in second-rate action thrillers for merely appearing onscreen?
You can always trace a direct line through a few important roles to illustrate what led to an actor's current success. As such, let's look at nine pivotal performances that track the evolution of two-time Academy Award winner (and six-time nominee) Robert De Niro.
The Wedding Party (1969)
After first pursuing acting as a means to overcome his shyness, De Niro studied at the Stella Adler Conservatory and Lee Strasberg's Actors Studio before landing his first film role in Brian De Palma's indie The Wedding Party in 1963. At the time, De Niro was 20 years old and credited as Robert Denero. The Wedding Party -- which featured a soon-to-be groom as he interacted with various members of his wedding party prior to the ceremony -- co-starred fellow future Oscar nominee Jill Clayburgh and wasn't released until six years later when De Niro started getting attention for his off-Broadway work.
Mean Streets(1973)
In 1972, De Niro bumped into a former Little Italy acquaintance who would put him on the path to becoming one of the most celebrated actors of this generation: Martin Scorsese. After bumping into each other at a party, Scorsese reportedly offered De Niro four roles in his upcoming drama Mean Streets, about young Italian-Americans struggling to succeed on the mean streets of New York City. De Niro ultimately decided on Johnny Boy -- the violent small-time crook -- and earned critical praise for the marvelous urgency he conveyed onscreen. De Niro and Scorsese would go on to forge a strong working relationship (and earn a number of Oscar nominations) over the next few decades with Taxi Driver, New York, New York, Raging Bull, The King of Comedy, Goodfellas, Cape Fear and Casino.
The Godfather: Part II (1974)/Taxi Driver (1975)
We're clumping together this pair of De Niro credits -- which have gone down in history as two of the performances in two of the greatest movies of all time -- because they happened in such quick succession. In The Godfather sequel, De Niro had enormous shoes to fill playing the younger version of Marlon Brando's Vito Corleone character. De Niro was so successful in the Francis Ford Coppola picture that he earned his first Academy Award. Following Brando's win three years earlier, this marked the first time in Academy history that two characters have won Oscars for portraying the same character.
And then came the movie that would forever associate De Niro with the memorable movie line, "You talkin' to me?" Legend has it that the producers of Taxi Driver hired Martin Scorsese to direct Paul Schrader's script on the condition that he get De Niro to play the lead. To prepare for the role of Travis Bickle, the actor reportedly worked 12-hour days driving cabs and studying mental illness. The performance -- as a depressed Vietnam vet with violent impulses -- earned De Niro an Oscar nomination. The film was a box office success and Roger Ebert officially declared that De Niro was "as good as Brando."
Raging Bull (1980)
The film that definitively proved De Niro's commitment to his craft was also his first biographical project and his only sports project: Raging Bull. As the self-destructive boxer Jake LaMotta, De Niro trained with the fighter himself for earlier career scenes before gaining 60 pounds to portray the fighter in is his post-competition years. Although the film grossed less than $24 million in the box office, critics called De Niro's Oscar-winning performance the finest of his career and helped the film land on a number of Top 10 lists for its year and its decade alike.
Midnight Run (1988)
Following Brian De Palma's crime drama The Untouchables, Robert De Niro reportedly wanted to try something different. After failing to convince Penny Marshall and Gracie Films that he should star in Big, De Niro signed on to the buddy comedy Midnight Run. Paramount Pictures hoped to pair De Niro with a "big name," considering Cher and Robin Williams for the role that would ultimately go to the drier veteran funnyman Charles Grodin. Playing a former Chicago cop-turned-tough bounty under the direction of Martin Brest (Beverly Hills Cop, Scent of a Woman), De Niro found his first real comedy success at the box office. In addition to ad-libbing many of the lines and coming up with the idea that his character continually check his watch as part of his back story, De Niro spent time with bounty hunters to prepare for the role.
A Bronx Tale (1993)
After about 30 years behind the camera, Robert De Niro decided to try his hand at directing with A Bronx Tale. The drama was familiar territory for the actor -- including familiar themes like New York City mafia and Italian-American working class folks pursuing criminal activity as their only means to success. Chazz Palminteri had written the screenplay (adapted from his one-man show) and refused to sell the rights unless he could star as Sonny. Hearing this, De Niro not only offered to let Palminteri star but offered to direct and additionally star in the film himself. Even though A Bronx Tale was a critical success (Roger Ebert gave it four stars and remarked that De Niro "finds the right notes as he moves from laughter to anger to tears."), the actor did not direct again until 2006's CIA film The Good Shepard.
Analyze This (1999)
The first thirty years of De Niro's film career were mostly filled with solid dramatic work and then in the mid-90's, while filming three movies per year, the actor shifted his focus to lighter fare like this gangster comedy with Billy Crystal, its sequel, the Meet the Parents trilogy and a few children's films including Shark Tale.
Godsend (2004)
Remember that time Robert De Niro tried his Oscar-winning hand at horror opposite Rebecca Romijn? I don't really, either, but it is worth noting as a milestone because the film earned the least favorable reviews of De Niro's career and marked the shift between forgivable bad films (Meet the Fockers) and the unforgivable. The Lionsgate movie -- about a couple who agrees to have their deceased son illegally cloned by a doctor who is a little "off" (De Niro) -- rests at 4 percent on Rotten Tomatoes along with his other career bombs that would follow -- 2005's Hide and Seek (13%) and The Bridge of San Luis Rey (4%), 2008's Righteous Kill (19%), 2010's Little Fockers (10%). To think, this man won an Oscar for The Godfather Part II and was now shilling for The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle.
Killer Elite (2011)
This weekend, De Niro returns to the screen for what IMDB calls his 79th acting project. De Niro doesn't get to flex much actorly muscle, but as Jason Statham's knowledgeable mentor, he doesn't have to. The audience I sat with this week clapped when he first appeared onscreen and cheered when he took down a bad guy in a conveniently empty subway station. Whether he is giving us one of the finest performances we'll see in our lifetimes, or putting in three days worth of lucrative work on a soon-to-be forgotten action thriller, Robert De Niro is still Robert De Niro and even now, post-Godsend, is capable of greatness. Here's to future milestones that take De Niro away from upcoming projects like New Year's Eve and back to his grittier roots.