Robert De Niro Returns To The Genre Of His Second Oscar-Winning Movie Role

Sep 16, 2026 - 10:20

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Robert De Niro Returns To The Genre Of His Second Oscar-Winning Movie Role

Robert De Niro at the Netflix The Whisper Man red carpet-1

Published Sep 16, 2026, 12:59 AM EDT

Matthew Rudoy is one of ScreenRant's Movie & TV News Editors. He covers the latest in movie & TV news, with a focus on major franchises like Star Wars, The Boys, and Game of Thrones, and also writes some features and reviews. He wrote lists for ScreenRant from 2017-2022, became a news writer in 2023, a senior staff writer in 2024, and an editor in 2025.

Robert De Niro returns to the genre that helped shape his earlier career.

Many of Robert De Niro's movies have led to Academy Award wins or nominations, including The Godfather Part II, Taxi Driver, The Deer Hunter, Raging Bull, Awakenings, Cape Fear, Silver Linings Playbook, The Irishman, and Killers of the Flower Moon. His first win was for Best Actor in a Supporting Role in recognition of his performance as Young Vito Corleone in The Godfather Part II. The older and original version of the character was played by Marlon Brando in The Godfather.

Reel 1 · The Deep Cuts Robert De Niro Filmography Trivia “Are you talkin' to me?”

⚾Bang the DrumPre-Mean Streets lead

🎩UntouchablesCapone's silk skivvies

📖Cape FearTeeth ground down

🎬Bronx TaleBehind the camera

😬Jack ByrnesCircle of trust

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Months before Mean Streets put him on the map, De Niro played a slow-witted, terminally ill Major League catcher named Bruce Pearson opposite Michael Moriarty in a 1973 baseball drama. The role earned him the National Society of Film Critics' Best Supporting Actor award. What was the film?

AThe Natural BBang the Drum Slowly CEight Men Out DBull Durham

✓ Correct! Bang the Drum Slowly (1973). Released about five months before Mean Streets, John Hancock's adaptation of Mark Harris' novel features De Niro as Bruce Pearson, a backwoods catcher dying of Hodgkin's. He spent weeks at minor-league spring training in Georgia learning to chew tobacco and squat behind the plate. The role earned him the New York Film Critics Circle and National Society of Film Critics nods that primed him for Godfather II auditions a year later.

✗ Wrong dugout. The answer is Bang the Drum Slowly (1973). The Natural (1984) is the Robert Redford / Roy Hobbs picture — no De Niro. Eight Men Out (1988) is John Sayles' Black Sox film. Bull Durham (1988) is Costner / Sarandon. Bang the Drum Slowly is the dying-catcher drama that came out months before Mean Streets and made Hollywood take notice.

For Brian De Palma's 1987 prohibition-era epic, De Niro famously gained around 30 pounds, shaved his hairline back, and insisted on wearing silk underwear made by the same Sulka shirtmakers Al Capone himself had used. He plays Capone for less than 20 minutes of screen time but dominates every frame. What's the film?

AOnce Upon a Time in America BBugsy CThe Untouchables DMobsters

✓ Correct! The Untouchables (1987). De Niro replaced Bob Hoskins late in pre-production — Hoskins was paid $200,000 for not playing Capone, prompting his famous “If they ever have parts they don't want me for, please call again” quote. The Sulka silk underwear thing is real: De Niro tracked the firm down because Capone was a documented client. Sean Connery won Best Supporting Actor as Jim Malone, but it's De Niro's swaggering “baseball bat” speech that everyone remembers.

✗ Wrong rap sheet. The answer is The Untouchables (1987). Once Upon a Time in America (1984) is Sergio Leone's Noodles / Max epic — De Niro plays a fictional Jewish gangster, not Capone. Bugsy (1991) is Warren Beatty as Bugsy Siegel. Mobsters (1991) didn't feature De Niro. The Untouchables is the De Palma / Mamet picture with Capone, the baseball bat scene, and the silk Sulka underwear.

In Scorsese's 1991 Southern-Gothic remake, De Niro plays a tattooed, scripture-quoting ex-con stalking the Bowden family. He reportedly paid a dentist around $5,000 to grind down his teeth for the part — and another $20,000 after filming to fix them. Who was the character?

ASam Bowden BMax Cady CLewis Medlock DHannibal Lecter

✓ Correct! Max Cady. De Niro had body-builder Vince Wilfork-level abs at age 47 for the role, learned his Pentecostal cadence from real Southern preachers, and yes — ground down his teeth so Cady would look like he'd done 14 hard years in prison. Robert Mitchum had originated the Cady role in J. Lee Thompson's 1962 Cape Fear; both Mitchum and Gregory Peck cameo in Scorsese's version. De Niro was Oscar-nominated; he lost to Anthony Hopkins (Lecter, ironically).

✗ Wrong file. The answer is Max Cady. Sam Bowden is the lawyer Cady is stalking — played by Nick Nolte in '91 and Gregory Peck in '62. Lewis Medlock is Burt Reynolds in Deliverance. Hannibal Lecter is The Silence of the Lambs — the role Anthony Hopkins beat De Niro to Best Actor for that same year. Cape Fear is the one with the bible-quote tattoos and the ground-down teeth.

In 1993 De Niro made his directorial debut with a coming-of-age story set in the 1960s Bronx, adapted by Chazz Palminteri from his own one-man play. De Niro played the working-class father Lorenzo Anello opposite Palminteri's mob boss Sonny. Name the film.

AThe Good Shepherd BA Bronx Tale CSleepers DThis Boy's Life

✓ Correct! A Bronx Tale (1993). Palminteri famously turned down million-dollar studio offers because they all wanted to recast Sonny — he held out for a deal that kept him as both writer and lead. De Niro produced, directed and co-starred as bus-driver Lorenzo. He's only directed two features in his career: this and 2006's The Good Shepherd. A Bronx Tale was later adapted into a Broadway musical that De Niro and Jerry Zaks co-directed in 2016.

✗ Wrong block. The answer is A Bronx Tale (1993). The Good Shepherd (2006) is De Niro's other directorial outing, the slow-burn CIA history piece. Sleepers (1996) is Barry Levinson; De Niro plays a priest, doesn't direct. This Boy's Life (1993) is Michael Caton-Jones — De Niro stars as Dwight Hansen but doesn't direct. A Bronx Tale is the directorial debut, with Chazz Palminteri's Sonny.

In 1990 De Niro played Leonard Lowe, a man emerging from a 30-year catatonic state under the care of a fictionalised Oliver Sacks (Robin Williams). De Niro spent weeks observing real encephalitis-lethargica patients at the Bronx Psychiatric Center and earned a Best Actor Oscar nomination. What's the film?

AMad Dog and Glory BStanley & Iris CAwakenings DJacknife

✓ Correct! Awakenings (1990). Penny Marshall directed it from Steven Zaillian's adaptation of Sacks' 1973 memoir. Sacks himself was on set during shooting, and patients on the actual ward later said De Niro's tics, gait and post-encephalitic tremors were uncannily accurate — he'd watched videotapes Sacks had made in the 1960s. The film was nominated for Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Actor for De Niro (he lost to Jeremy Irons for Reversal of Fortune).

✗ Wrong ward. The answer is Awakenings (1990). Mad Dog and Glory (1993) is the John McNaughton dark comedy with De Niro and Bill Murray. Stanley & Iris (1990) is the Jane Fonda romance about adult illiteracy — same year, very different film. Jacknife (1989) is the Vietnam-vet drama. Awakenings is the Oliver Sacks adaptation with Robin Williams — one of De Niro's most physically delicate performances.

De Niro's character Sam “Ace” Rothstein in Scorsese's 1995 Casino — a meticulous, pastel-suited sportsbook genius running the fictional Tangiers — was a thinly fictionalised version of which real-life Vegas figure who actually ran the Stardust?

ABugsy Siegel BFrank “Lefty” Rosenthal CMeyer Lansky DTony “The Ant” Spilotro

✓ Correct! Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal. Nicholas Pileggi (Goodfellas) wrote the source non-fiction book, and Rosenthal — the brilliant handicapper who really did run the Stardust, Fremont, Marina and Hacienda for the Chicago Outfit until a 1982 car bomb nearly killed him — consulted on the film. Joe Pesci's Nicky Santoro is the fictionalised Tony Spilotro, and Sharon Stone's Ginger McKenna is based on Rosenthal's wife Geri. De Niro reportedly studied hours of Rosenthal's late-1970s local-TV talk show.

✗ Wrong vault. The answer is Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal. Bugsy Siegel built the Flamingo in 1946 and was murdered in 1947 — he's Warren Beatty in Bugsy. Meyer Lansky was the mob's accountant, a behind-the-scenes figure. Tony “The Ant” Spilotro is Joe Pesci's Nicky Santoro, not De Niro's character. De Niro played Rosenthal — the Stardust handicapper whose 1982 car bomb survival opens the movie.

In 2000 De Niro played the polygraph-wielding ex-CIA father-in-law Jack Byrnes opposite Ben Stiller's Greg Focker, kicking off a comedy trilogy that would gross over $1 billion globally. The first instalment was directed by Jay Roach (Austin Powers). Name it.

AAnalyze This BMeet the Parents CWag the Dog DThe In-Laws

✓ Correct! Meet the Parents (2000). Universal had been chasing the project since the mid-1990s based on a 1992 Greg Glienna short film — Steven Spielberg was briefly attached to direct with Jim Carrey starring before Roach and Stiller landed the parts. The trilogy (with Meet the Fockers in 2004 and Little Fockers in 2010) leaned heavily on the contrast between De Niro's stone-faced gravitas and Stiller's flop-sweat. Combined worldwide gross: roughly $1.1 billion.

✗ Wrong family dinner. The answer is Meet the Parents (2000). Analyze This (1999) is De Niro's comedy with Billy Crystal — he plays a panic-attacked mob boss, not Jack Byrnes. Wag the Dog (1997) is the Levinson satire with Dustin Hoffman. The In-Laws (2003) is a Peter Falk remake De Niro isn't in. Meet the Parents is the polygraph / Focker / circle-of-trust one.

De Niro's eighth Academy Award nomination — and his first Best Supporting Actor nod since Godfather Part II nearly 40 years earlier — came in 2013 for playing an OCD-prone, Eagles-obsessed Philadelphia father opposite Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence. Name the film.

AAmerican Hustle BJoy CSilver Linings Playbook DThe Family

✓ Correct! Silver Linings Playbook (2012). Directed by David O. Russell, it earned Oscar nominations in all four acting categories — the first film to do so since Reds in 1981. De Niro reportedly cried on set during his “I love my son” monologue, telling Russell it had been so long since he'd had material like this. He lost Best Supporting Actor to Christoph Waltz for Django Unchained, but went on to make American Hustle and Joy with Russell. Killers of the Flower Moon (2023) earned him a ninth nom.

✗ Wrong year. The answer is Silver Linings Playbook (2012). American Hustle (2013) was Russell's next film and De Niro had a single-scene cameo as mafia boss Victor Tellegio — not a nomination. Joy (2015) again featured him in a small role. The Family (2013) is Luc Besson, no Oscar attention. Silver Linings is the Pat Sr. / Eagles superstition / handicapping role — his first Supporting nod since 1974.

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⤴ ANOTHER TAKE

According to Deadline, De Niro is now in talks to play legendary Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda in the upcoming sports movie Tommy & Me. This brings him back to the genre of the sports drama Raging Bull, which won De Niro his second Academy Award, and his only win for Best Actor in a Leading Role.

Tommy & Me comes from Paramount's Skydance Sports, with Reid Carolin directing and co-writing the script alongside George Gallo and Cambron Clark. All details about how the movie will approach Lasorda's life story remain under wraps. He was the Dodgers' manager from 1976-1996, during which he led the team to four National League pennants and World Series Championships in 1981 and 1988. Lasorda was named to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1997 and coached the U.S. baseball team at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, where they won the gold medal. He died at the age of 93 in 2021.

For De Niro, Raging Bull is not only his second Oscar win, but is also the last time he won, having only been nominated since then. This is not his first time returning to the sports drama genre, though. He returned to a boxing movie specifically with 2016's Hands of Stone, although this time he played the trainer, Ray Arcel, as opposed to the boxer Jake LaMotta. De Niro was also in a drama that sports played an important role in with 2012's Silver Linings Playbook, for which he received a Best Actor in a Supporting Role nomination.

De Niro being in talks to join Tommy & Me comes after he starred in Netflix's crime thriller The Whisper Man, which has been among Netflix's most-watched movies on the streaming platform's charts for three consecutive weeks now. On November 25, he can be seen in Focker-in-Law, where he reprises the role of Jack Byrnes, reunites with Ben Stiller, and is joined by franchise newcomer Ariana Grande.

Prior to Tommy & Me, Paramount Skydance has another sports movie coming up with Mr. Irrelevant, a biopic starring Superman's David Corenswet that got near-perfect test screening reviews and is generating buzz ahead of its December 25 theatrical release. Sports dramas appear to be one of many areas that the corporation is looking to expand on amid their ongoing merger with Warner Bros. Discovery.

In terms of the Tommy & Me creative team that Robert De Niro is in talks to work with, Carolin's previous credits include Dog and all three Magic Mike movies. Gallo developed the story for the original Bad Boys film, and Clark worked on a recent sports movie, having written the upcoming Madden starring Nicolas Cage and Christian Bale.