The Quintessential New Yorker
Robert De Niro, host of 9/11, an insider’s look at the World Trade Center attack, is an Oscar-winning actor and New York native with strong ties to the TriBeCa neighborhood in which the twin towers once stood.
De Niro is a co-founder of the Tribeca Film Center, a few city blocks from Ground Zero, and is co-owner with Drew Nieporent’s Myriad Restaurant Group Inc. of the TriBeCa Grill and the nearby Japanese restaurant, Nobu. The Production Company he founded in the late 1980s also drew its name from the New York City neighborhood.
"Robert De Niro is a quintessential New Yorker who has been instrumental in building up the TriBeCa neighborhood, in the very area of the city that was devastated by the Sept. 11 attacks," said Vanity Fair Editor Graydon Carter, one of the producers of the film, who introduced De Niro to the project. "He has been an active spokesman for TriBeCa, and for all New Yorkers, for more than three decades."
In a career that spans more than 30 years, De Niro has been honored with virtually every award that can be accorded an actor, including the Best Actor Oscar for his portrayal of boxer Jake LaMotta in 1980’s “Raging Bull" and the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his role of the young Vito Corleone in 1974’s "The Godfather: Part II." Other major acting awards were for his landmark films "Mean Streets" (1973) and "Bang the Drum Slowly" (1973), "Taxi Driver" (1976), "Goodfellas" (1990) and "Awakenings" (1990). In 1993, he was given the Career Award of the Venice Film Festival.
Trained in workshops run by Stella Adler and Lee Strasberg, De Niro is known for the violent and near-psychotic characters he plays, as well as for what some consider to be “over the top” performances. After working as a young actor in a variety of off-Broadway productions and budget movies, De Niro gained a name for himself in “Bang the Drum Slowly“ and “Mean Streets,” which was his first film with director Martin Scorsese
"Even given the success he's achieved on his own," critic Leonard Maltin wrote in his "Movie Encyclopedia" biography of De Niro, "De Niro is at his best when teamed with Scorsese, who has a gift for eliciting jaw-dropping performances from his star, including 'The King of Comedy' (1983), as wannabe comic Rupert Pupkin; 'GoodFellas' (1990), as coldblooded gangster Jimmy Conway; and 'Cape Fear' (1991), Oscar-nominated again as sadistic ex-con Max Cady."
De Niro made his directorial debut in 1993 with "A Bronx Tale" and has produced more than 20 films, mostly made in the 1880s and 1990s.
Although cast in a variety of ethnic Italian-American roles, De Niro has Irish as well as Italian ancestry. He was born in August 1943 in New York to Robert De Niro Sr., an abstract expressionist, and Virginia Admiral, a painter. Twice married and divorced, he has one adopted daughter and four biological children, including twin sons born in 1995.