The three actors who gave Robert De Niro an “untangible feeling”
Whether you’re a lover of independent cinema or grand spectacular epics, one thing that the large majority of film fans can agree on is that Robert De Niro was, and still remains, one of the greatest actors ever to grace the silver screen. Sure, his most recent screen ventures may not have showered him global adoration, but he built up enough of a reputation throughout the 1970s and 1980s to still be considered an icon.
Taking to the fold at the dawn of the 1970s, when the likes of Paul Newman, John Wayne and Jane Fonda were still at the pinnacle of Hollywood cinema, De Niro almost immediately began associating himself with some of the industry’s most exciting burgeoning filmmakers. While Martin Scorsese’s 1973 film Mean Streets is the movie often credited as his cinematic awakening, it was actually Brian De Palma who discovered De Niro in the first place, giving him his first major debut in 1968’s Greetings, followed by roles in The Wedding Party and Hi, Mom!.
Still, while De Palma gave him a leg-up, it was Scorsese and, soon after, Francis Ford Coppola, who would nurture his talents, starring in a trio of successive hits: Mean Streets, The Godfather: Part II and Taxi Driver. Of the three, it was perhaps his Oscar-winning role in The Godfather sequel which was the most impressive, after all, the part meant picking up the reins from Marlon Brando, one of the greatest living actors, who played the same character in the previous instalment.
De Niro has never made any secrets regarding just how much he adores Brando as a performer, either naming A Streetcar Named Desire and On the Waterfront as two of the actor’s greatest-ever performances. In fact, he takes this one step further, too, including Brando, who achieved two Oscar wins and six other separate nominations in a short list of truly coveted stars.
“People like [Marlon] Brando, James Dean, Montgomery Clift. They all had something more,” De Niro stated during an interview with Christina Lessa, naming three of the mid-20th-century’s greatest actors. Elaborating further, De Niro added that these actors had “An intangible feeling… Heart, soul… It wasn’t just about interpreting your character, it was something so much more than that”.
While Brando is celebrated for his mastery, popularising the use of method acting in mainstream Hollywood, the likes of James Dean and Montgomery Clift often fall through the cracks. Of course, Dean was a cultural icon back in the 1950s and his style remains influential to this very day, but there’s no doubt that his influence has waned in contemporary society.
Elsewhere, Clift might be one of Hollywood’s most underrated stars, with the four-time Oscar nominee too often going under the limelight while the familiar names get the plaudits. Known for iconic performances in such films as From Here to Eternity, Judgment at Nuremberg and A Place in the Sun, Clift was similarly influential in bringing method acting to the mainstream but lacked the major ‘big break’ that Brando most definitely secured in the form of The Godfather.
In the contemporary era, De Niro rubs shoulders with the likes of Brando, with the pair sharing the unlikely record of having won separate Oscars for playing the very same character, Vito Corleone.
