Robert De Niro did not get the trophy this year. He is always working towards another one since it has been many years since he got one. He is one of our most respected actors and most recently played a football fan in the movie Silver Linings Playbook and was up for a possible third Oscar win. He only has 2 Oscars? That is a real low number considering there are so many movies that he stared in that we know practically every word spoken since we have wanted to see them over and over again.

The films are him. Raging Bull, Taxi Driver, The Killing Season, Goodfellas, The Godfather: Part II, and Meet the Fockers to name just a few. In Silver Linings Playbook we see our tough guy crying as he tries to deal with his mentally unstable son. It is a performance that has earned him his seventh Oscar Nomination. It is his first nomination in 21 years. Really? What is wrong with the Oscar committee to let this guy pass by recognition awards?

It was 1981 when De Niro last took home an Oscar for his portrayal of real life middleweight champion Jake La Mont in Raging Bull. His dedication to the role was emotional and physical. He had to learn how to box and gain 60 pounds for some scenes in the movie. It was not the first time he went above and beyond for a role. In Taxi Driver he actually got a taxi license and drove a cab getting cab fare to prepare for the role. Robert was also nominated for an Oscar.

Robert is now 69 years old and has a new baby daughter. He has been married twice and now has six children. The age differences spread over four decades. His daughter Drena De Niro has become a big sister again at age 40. He has four of the children, ranging in age from 14 to their 30s, by three mothers. The new baby, a girl was born by a surrogate mother to De Niro and second wife Grace Hightower.

Winning an Oscar is not easy it seams for him. In order for him to earn his Oscar that he won for The Godfather II he had to learn to act in a different language. He played the young Vito Carelone and he took the young Marlon Brandon character a step further by learning a Sicilian dialect and speaking Italian through the entire film.

He was born in Greenwich Village New York to both parents being accomplished painters. His father was a figurative artist and had his work celebrated in galleries all over the country. Dozens of his paintings are displayed along the walls of his restaurants in New York. He even kept his father’s art studio and remains the same as the day he died many years ago. Robert wanted his children to know who their grandfather was through his art and through his personal space.

Robert wants the world to know more about his father too and has produced a documentary about his father’s art and life due to come out later this year. Robert admits that he never picked up a paint brush but used to practice acting as a child by being the Cowardly Lion from The Wizard of Oz. That is ironic since in his adult life he mostly played tough guys like Al Capone in The Untouchables movie.

When he stared in the movie Analyze This he turned his usual mob boss image into more of a comic role than serious and has been playing in comedies ever since. Although his comedy roles like in the Meet The Focker movies are a box office success bringing in lots of money they lack artistic Oscar worthy merit. Could it be that Bobby D is giving up on achieving the trophy?

Never the less, he remains a busy man investing in restaurants, owns a hotel and of course bringing to us the Tribeca Film Festival. We love Bobby D and every time we want to watch one of his movies again is better than any stupid trophy. He does have his fans.