Robert De Niro is one of the finest actors of all time. He has been in some of the greatest and most popular films ever made, and he has been showered with acclaim and accolades – including seven Academy Award nominations (and two wins).
Of course, everyone knows about the big movies, the Godfathers and the Taxi Drivers. But De Niro has appeared in literally hundreds of movies and TV shows throughout his long and storied career. Some were bound to fall through the cracks. However, just because they have been forgotten doesn’t mean they aren’t good.
Awakenings (1990)
Of all the Oscar-nominated performances of Robert De Niro, Leonard Lowe in Awakenings is arguably his most forgotten. The movie stars Robin Williams as Dr. Malcolm Sayer, a fictional doctor based on the real Oliver Sacks, who penned the memoir Awakenings in 1973.
Both it and the movie chronicle Sacks’s experiments with the drug L-DOPA, which was used to treat paralyzed patients suffering from Encephalitis lethargica – also known as “the sleeping sickness.” De Niro plays patient Leonard Lowe and earned his fifth Oscar nomination for his efforts.
The King Of Comedy (1982)
Due to their many similarities and parallels, The King of Comedy earned a sudden rise in popularity following the release of Joker, which was widely described as a cross between it and Taxi Driver. Like the latter, The King of Comedy was directed by Martin Scorsese, although it’s much lighter in tone.
De Niro plays Rupert Pupkin, a struggling stand-up comedian who suffers from mental illness and who desperately tries to earn fame and fortune through lackluster stand-up comedy. He grows so desperate and depraved that he kidnaps talk show host Jerry Langford and forces himself into an opening segment on Langford’s show. De Niro would somewhat revisit this in Joker, ironically taking a role similar to Langford’s and being on the receiving end of an unhinged comedian’s madness.
Bloody Mama (1970)
Bloody Mama served as one of De Niro’s first major film roles. The movie was directed by Roger Corman, a massively influential director known for revolutionizing independent film. This one was released in March of 1970, long before The Godfather Part II and when De Niro was just 26 years old.
It stars Shelley Winters as “Ma” Barker, a psychotic matriarch who ran a criminal gang with her sons. They became known as the Barker-Karpis Gang, whose criminal exploits lasted through the early ’30s. De Niro plays one of Ma’s sons, Lloyd Barker.
Bang The Drum Slowly (1973)
Released on the eve of De Niro’s breakout, Bang the Drum Slowly is widely regarded as one of the greatest baseball films ever made. It was adapted from Mark Harris’s novel of the same name and concerns De Niro’s Bruce Pearson, a man of limited intellect suffering from Hodgkin’s disease, and his best friend Henry Wiggen.
They both play for a fictional baseball team called the New York Mammoths, and they are both forced to deal with Pearson’s terminal illness and the impact it has on his career. Mean Streets was released just two months later, and De Niro became a star.
1900 (1976)
1900 is a dense and incredibly long journey, but one well worth taking. Released the same year as Taxi Driver, 1900 is a historical drama concerning two lifelong friends in the midst of Italy’s early 20th century political turmoil. One is a landowner named Alfredo Berlinghieri, played by De Niro. The other, Olmo Dalcò, is a peasant. They tragically reunite on opposite sides of a growing class conflict.
The movie is notable for being one of the longest commercially released films ever made, running at an astounding five hours and seventeen minutes. De Niro certainly had a knack for long, ambitious films.
New York, New York (1977)
De Niro reunited with Martin Scorsese yet again for New York, New York, a dramatic musical that shares striking similarities with the far more recent La La Land. De Niro stars as Jimmy Doyle, a jazz saxophonist who falls in love with lounge singer Francine Evans, played by Liza Minnelli. The two fall in love, marry, and have children, but their disparate personalities and divergent career paths cause their relationship and marriage to crumble.
De Niro earned his second Golden Globe nomination for his role, but lost to Richard Dreyfuss in The Goodbye Girl.
True Confessions (1981)
Most people recognize De Niro from his crime films, yet his crime movie True Confessions is one that has seemingly fallen through the cracks. The movie was adapted from the John Gregory Dunne novel of the same name, which itself was very loosely based on the infamous Black Dahlia murder case from 1947.
The movie concerns two estranged brothers – ambitious priest Desmond Spellacy and homicide detective Tom – as they reunite following the grisly murder of a prostitute. De Niro and Robert Duvall make for a spectacular duo in this underrated gem of a procedural neo-noir film.
The Mission (1986)
The Mission was not exactly adored by critics, but general audiences seemed to enjoy it very much, as seen in its 7.4/10 rating on IMDb. It concerns a group of Spanish Jesuits attempting to save a remote South American tribe which is danger of falling under Portugal’s oppressive rule. De Niro plays Captain Rodrigo Mendoza, a mercenary and slave trader who kidnaps natives from their communities and sells them to nearby plantations.
The movie took home the Palme d’Or at the 1986 Cannes Film Festival and won the Oscar for Best Cinematography, two testaments to its quality.
Angel Heart (1987)
It’s not like De Niro to do horror, but Angel Heart proves one of the few horrifying exceptions. De Niro plays Louis Cyphre, a man who hires private investigator Harry Angel (Mickey Rourke) to find an elusive man named Johnny Favorite. Of course, the case isn’t that easy.
While the movie initially underperformed at the box office, it has generated a cult following and helped inspire numerous other pieces of pop culture, including Christopher Nolan’s Memento and the popular video game BioShock: Infinite.
Midnight Run (1988)
Midnight Run is hardly mentioned among the best buddy cop films, which is an undeniable shame. It stars De Niro as Jack Walsh, a bounty hunter who is hired to bring an accountant in league with the mob back to Los Angeles.
The movie earned incredible reviews from critics, with most praising the hilarious and electric chemistry between leads Robert De Niro and Charles Grodin. A buddy cop film lives and dies on its leads’ chemistry and luckily, Midnight Run had chemistry to spare.
