De Niro: A Biography - Softcover

Baxter, John

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0006532306 ISBN 13: 9780006532309

Publisher: HarperCollins, 2003

Synopsis

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.

About this title

Review:

‘Amusing and eminently readable’ Empire
‘Not recommended for the faint-hearted’ Sunday Telegraph
‘Excellent. Baxter’s analysis of De Niro as an actor is fascinating’ Julie Evans, Manchester Evening News
‘Baxter is fascinating on the making of De Niro’s great movies’ Sunday Tribune (Dublin)
‘Informative and highly readable’ Allan Hunter, Herald (Glasgow)

Synopsis:

This is the life of the elusive actor Robert De Niro. A pre-eminent Hollywood character performer of contemporary times, De Niro's film portraits, such as 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 and 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 most well-known biographers. As well as his film roles, Baxter examines De Niro's often controversial private life and his collaborations with directors like Martin Scorsese and performers like Harvey Keitel and Meryl Streep. He also discusses his increasingly ambitious off-screen activities.

About this edition

• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0006532306
• ISBN 13: 9780006532309
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 384