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Showing posts with the label Bronx tale

Guess which famous actor's birthday is today...

On this day in 1943, Robert de Niro, one of the greatest actors of all time, was born in New York City. I've called De Niro my favorite actor ever since I saw him in the 1995 crime thriller Heat, which I consider my all-time favorite movie. After seeing him play mobster Paul Vitti opposite Billy Crystal in 1999's Analyze This  and the uptight ex-CIA operative Jack Byrnes in the 2000 comedy Meet the Parents, I realized just how versatile and talented De Niro really is. Not every actor can deftly switch from gun-shooting assassin to funnyman like he can. You know an actor is great when he's likable even as a villain. Other memorable roles include the boxer Jake LaMotta in Raging Bull,  for which De Niro won the Oscar for Best Actor; the young Vito Corleone in The Godfather: Part II , for which he won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor; and creepy loner Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver, where his signature line was "You talking to me?" And that's just ...