De Niro: A Biography

The life of Hollywood’s number one movie actor, the elusive Robert De Niro, who shuns the limelight and rarely gives interviews, written by the leading film critic and biographer of Spielberg, Kubrick, Woody Allen and George Lucas.

Robert De Niro is the pre-eminent Hollywood character performer of our time: film portraits like the young Don Vito Corleone in THE GODFATHER II, Jake La Motta in RAGING BULL and Travis Bickle in TAXI DRIVER are some of the most vivid ever put on celluloid. De Niro cannot be cast to type, prefers to work for old friends like Martin Scorsese, and (apart from FRANKENSTEIN) has never played anything but 20th-century roles.

John Baxter calls him ‘the archetypal empty bottle which only becomes visible when it’s filled by a role’: which makes him such a tempting subject for one of Hollywood’s finest historian/biographers.

As well as his film roles, Baxter examines De Niro’s often controversial private life, his collaborations with directors like Martin Scorsese and performers like Harvey Keitel and Meryl Streep, and his increasingly ambitious off-screen activities.

Robert De Niro is considered by many to be the greatest screen actor of our time: film portrayals like the young Vito Corleone in The Godfather II, Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver, and Jake La Motta in Raging Bull are among the most vivid ever committed to celluloid. The actor is famously perfectionistic, and the lengths to which he will go to create his characters are legendary. Based on scrupulous research and conversations with De Niro's friends and colleagues, and featuring a complete filmography, John Baxter's biography sheds new light on the life and career of this fiercely private star. As well as his film roles, he examines De Niro's private life, his fruitful collaborations with directors and actors like Martin Scorsese and Meryl Streep, and the ambitious off-screen activities that have increasingly engaged him in recent years. John Baxter, a British film critic, is the author of Hollywood Exiles, The Cinema of Josef von Sternberg, and The Cinema of John Ford.

Library Journal

Robert De Niro's ability to inhabit his characters completely makes him one of our greatest actors. Despite his fame-or perhaps because of it-he rarely gives interviews, which may explain the dearth of material available on him. Drawing on his own research and interviews with friends and colleagues, Baxter, a British film critic and the author of more than 15 film books, has written a detailed, unauthorized overview of De Niro's life and career. A native of New York City, De Niro was the only child of artist parents who had an unconventional marriage (Baxter asserts that De Niro's father was gay). At 17, shy, lonely, and with few prospects, he decided to train as an actor, toiling long and hard before his breakthrough in Taxi Driver. Though there are some juicy tidbits here, the book's strength lies in Baxter's detailed critique of De Niro's movies and career and the inclusion of a filmography. Unfortunately, the text is marred by an irritating, sometimes overly dramatic point of view, as when Baxter puts thoughts in De Niro's head and words in his mouth. Nevertheless, given the scarcity of literature on the actor, this will make a welcome addition to performing arts collections.-Rosellen Brewer, Monterey Cty. Free Libs., Salinas, CA Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

John Baxter is a film critic, novelist, biographer and broadcaster, whose books include The Hollywood Exiles, The Cinema of Josef von Sternberg, The Cinema of John Ford, and biographies of Ken Russell, Fellini, Buñuel, Steven Spielberg, Stanley Kubrick, Woody Allen and George Lucas. Born and brought up in Australia, he has worked in London, taught in the United States, and now lives in Paris.