Robert De Niro’s favourite actors of all time
Known as one of the greatest modern actors, few performers can truly compare to the work of the maverick method actor Robert De Niro. Winner of two Academy Awards and the recipient of seven nominations in the acting categories, De Niro is a titan of the Hollywood silver screen, elevating movies from the likes of Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola and Quentin Tarantino with some of the most memorable performances ever put to celluloid.
A formidable presence ever since his breakout role in Martin Scorsese’s 1973 movie Mean Streets, De Niro physically dominates the screen with an intimidating disposition, convincing viewers of his beliefs with just one menacing stare. He has done this for Scorsese over the course of several decades and ten iconic movies, including the Palme d’Or winner Taxi Driver from 1976 and the classic crime flick Goodfellas from 1990.
So enamoured by the actor throughout his collaboration, Scorsese called the screen icon “the greatest actor of his generation” when presenting him with an honour of the Variety Creative Impact in Acting Award, adding that De Niro’s “creative impact in acting will always be felt so long as there are actors to express their art” in his opening speech.
A key fixture of dark thrillers and gangster flicks, De Niro has become synonymous with the likes of Al Pacino, Joe Pesci and Ray Liotta, with his memorable method acting having also inspired a whole new generation of stars to break through in modern cinema. Yet, while De Niro is a pioneer of his own style of acting, he wasn’t a lone wolf, having been influenced by a whole host of previous stars who provided a basis for his foundational growth.
De Niro revealed these influential names in an interview with Kenneth Branagh upon the release of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein in 1994, in which both actors played a leading role while also sharing some of his favourite movies from the era.
Asked about his earliest film influences, De Niro surprisingly turned to British cinema, responding, “I was thinking actually some early English films like Karel Reisz’s Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, Albert Finney. There was This Sporting Life with Richard Harris. Those films I remember were considered, when I was a kid, they were art film films in America and were not as mainstream as European films are becoming today”.
Aspects of Finney’s brutish performance in Saturday Night and Sunday Morning can certainly be seen behind the eyes of De Niro’s Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver or Max Cady in Cape Fear, with such English thespians bringing an earthy realism to their kitchen-sink performances. Understandably, they weren’t the only ones who inspired De Niro either, taking further inspiration from performers closer to home.
“In America, the actors I thought were the most interesting were James Dean, Marlon Brando, Montgomery Clift, Kim Stanley and Greta Garbo,” he added, listing some of the greatest and most underrated performers of mid-century American cinema. Commenting on the quality of their iconic performances, De Niro added, “When you saw James Dean do East of Eden, he was great, but you can’t do what he could do. Brando with On the Waterfront or A Streetcar Named Desire are considered the great performances of that time and still are”.
Robert De Niro went on to briefly discuss his creative process with director Martin Scorsese, where he works with the filmmaker to form the best possible character to suit the mood of the film. Discussing their process, he explains, “Some directors like to rehearse, like with Scorsese sometimes we videotape certain scenes, we rehearse and we improvise and we fool around to see if we can get anything else out of the scene”.
Yet, it was the candidness with which he revealed his admiration for his fellow screen stars that remains the most potent feature, choosing actors who perfectly reflect the spectrum of characters De Niro has played over the generations. From the suave performances of Montgomery Clift to the elegance of Greta Garbo to the masterful method acting of Marlon Brando, De Niro tries to harness it all.
Robert De Niro’s favourite actors:
- Marlon Brando
- Montgomery Clift
- James Dean
- Greta Garbo
- Albert Finney
- Richard Harris
- Kim Stanley
