As one of the most highly regarded Hollywood actors of all time, Robert De Niro has long been associated with his roles as Italians and Italian-Americans. Is De Niro really Italian?
Robert De Niro was born in New York City on August 17 1943. Both his parents were also born in the US, though De Niro has significant Irish ancestry on his father’s side. He spent several years of his youth living in Little Italy, New York. His frequent roles as Italian-Americans, as well as his name, have meant that being Italian is a large part of his public identity.
For more on De Niro’s family background and how he became known as an Italian-American screen icon, read on.
Family
Robert De Niro has a large number of nationalities in his family history. His father, Robert De Niro Sr is of Italian and Irish descent.
Robert Sr was born in New York to an Italian-American father, Henry, whose parents emigrated from Italy, and Irish-American mother, Helen O’Reilly, whose parents emigrated from Ireland.
Robert Jr’s mother, Virginia Admiral, was born in Oregon to a father of England, French and Dutch ancestry, and a mother of German ancestry.
Robert Jr was also born in New York City, Manhattan in particular, on August 17, 1943. From reading De Niro’s family history, it’s clear that the majority of his ancestry is not Italian, however, his appearance, with dark hair and eyes, is noticeably Italian.
When Robert Jr was two years old, Robert Sr announced that he was gay and separated from Virginia, though he continued to live nearby and maintained a strong relationship with his son.
De Niro, now living with his mother alone, was raised in both Greenwich Village and Little Italy. His time in Little Italy likely increased De Niro’s sense of Italian identity.
His pale complexion likely inherited from his mother’s side of the family, earned him the nickname “Bobby Milk” in his youth.
In his late teens, De Niro explored his roots by traveling to Europe. He visited Ireland in the hopes of tracking down his paternal grandmother’s family, sadly to no avail, but also traveled to Italy. His time in Italy was more successful,
Italian Roles
Even if De Niro isn’t predominantly Italian by blood, his on-screen identity has been Italian for the majority of his career.
His work with Italian-American directors Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorcese, and Brian De Palma, in particular, have seen De Niro stake his claim to being one of the greatest actors in Hollywood history.
De Niro now famously auditioned for the role of Sonny in Coppola’s “The Godfather”, a role that instead went to James Caan.
He was, however, cast in the sequel “The Godfather Part II” in the role of Vito Corleone, playing a younger version of Marlon Brando’s character from the first film. The role saw De Niro speaking Sicilian extensively, with much of the film taking place in Vito’s homeland.
De Niro won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar in 1975 for the role, following in the footsteps of Brando, who won Best Actor in 1973.
For decades, this was the only time that two actors had won Academy Awards for playing the same character until Heath Ledger and Joaquin Phoenix repeated the feat for their respective portrayals of The Joker.
De Niro’s other roles as characters of Italian descent are numerous. He won his only Best Actor Oscar for his portrayal of legendary Italian-American boxer Jake LaMotta in 1980, one of many collaborations with Martin Scorcese.
The role saw De Niro undergo extensive boxing training, to the point that LaMotta himself said he felt the actor would have been competitive in a boxing ring.
There are too many other examples of De Niro portraying Italian-Americans to list, whether ethnicity is a major focus of the character or not.