Considered the best actor of his generation, Robert De Niro has built a durable star career out of his formidable ability to disappear into a character, whether tempering his charisma to become a believable everyman or imbuing his renowned gallery of mobsters and psychopaths with a compelling, frightening authority. After rising to stardom in the 1970s with landmark performances as violent New York brutes in Martin Scorsese's Mean Streets (1973), Taxi Driver (1976), and Raging Bull (1980), not to mention his quietly bravura turn in Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather Part II (1974), De Niro appeared to falter in the 1980s. Rejuvenated after The Untouchables (1987) and Goodfellas (1990), as well as the founding of the Tribeca Film Center, De Niro picked up his pace in the 1990s, strengthening his fame into the 2000s with his hilarious self-parodies in the blockbuster comedies Analyze This (1999) and Meet the Parents (2000).… Read More…