A season is a subdivision of the year, marked by changes in weather, ecology, and hours of daylight. Seasons result from the yearly revolution of the Earth around the Sun and the tilt of the Earth's axis relative to the plane of revolution.^[1] In temperate and polar regions, the seasons are marked by changes in the intensity of sunlight that reaches the Earth's surface, variations of which may cause animals to go into hibernation or to migrate, and plants to be dormant.

During May, June and July, the northern hemisphere is exposed to more direct sunlight because the hemisphere faces the sun. The same is true of the southern hemisphere in November, December and January. It is the tilt of the Earth that causes the Sun to be higher in the sky during the summer months which increases the solar flux. However, due to seasonal lag, June, July and August are the hottest months in the northern hemisphere and December, January and February are the hottest months in the southern hemisphere.

In temperate and subpolar regions, generally four calendar-based seasons (with their adjectives) are recognized: spring (vernal), summer (estival), autumn (autumnal) and winter (hibernal). However, ecologists mostly use a six season model for temperate climate regions that includes pre-spring (prevernal) and late summer (serotinal) as distinct seasons along with the traditional four (See Ecological Seasons).

In some tropical and subtropical regions it is more common to speak of the rainy (or wet, or monsoon) season versus the dry season, because the amount of precipitation may vary more dramatically than the average temperature. For example, in Nicaragua the dry season (November to April) is called 'summer' and the rainy season (May to October) is called 'winter', even though it is located in the northern hemisphere. In other tropical areas a three-way division into hot, rainy, and cool season is used. In some parts of the world, special "seasons" are loosely defined based on important events such as a hurricane season, tornado season or a wildfire season.

Cool temperate zone seasonal changes on a city road in Manchester, UK:
Spring	Summer	Autumn	Winter

Causes and effects[link]

Illumination of the earth during various seasons

Fig. 1
This is a diagram of the seasons. Regardless of the time of day (i.e. the Earth's rotation on its axis), the North Pole will be dark, and the South Pole will be illuminated; see also arctic winter. In addition to the density of incident light, the dissipation of light in the atmosphere is greater when it falls at a shallow angle.

The seasons result from the Earth's axis being tilted to its orbital plane; it deviates by an angle of approximately 23.5 degrees. Thus, at any given time during summer or winter, one part of the planet is more directly exposed to the rays of the Sun (see Fig. 1). This exposure alternates as the Earth revolves in its orbit. Therefore, at any given time, regardless of season, the northern and southern hemispheres experience opposite seasons.

The effect of axis tilt is observable from the change in day length, and altitude of the Sun at noon (the culmination of the Sun), during a year.

Seasonal weather differences between hemispheres are further caused by the elliptical orbit of Earth. Earth reaches perihelion (the point in its orbit closest to the Sun) in January, and it reaches aphelion (farthest point from the Sun) in July. Even though the effect this has on Earth's seasons is minor, it does noticeably soften the northern hemisphere's winters and summers. In the southern hemisphere, the opposite effect is observed.

Seasonal weather fluctuations (changes) also depend on factors such as proximity to oceans or other large bodies of water, currents in those oceans, El Niño/ENSO and other oceanic cycles, and prevailing winds.

In the temperate and polar regions, seasons are marked by changes in the amount of sunlight, which in turn often causes cycles of dormancy in plants and hibernation in animals. These effects vary with latitude and with proximity to bodies of water. For example, the South Pole is in the middle of the continent of Antarctica and therefore a considerable distance from the moderating influence of the southern oceans. The North Pole is in the Arctic Ocean, and thus its temperature extremes are buffered by the water. The result is that the South Pole is consistently colder during the southern winter than the North Pole during the northern winter.

The cycle of seasons in the polar and temperate zones of one hemisphere is opposite to that in the other. When it is summer in the Northern Hemisphere, it is winter in the Southern Hemisphere, and vice versa.

In the tropics, there is no noticeable change in the amount of sunlight. However, many regions (such as the northern Indian ocean) are subject to monsoon rain and wind cycles. A study of temperature records over the past 300 years^{[2][page needed]} shows that the climatic seasons, and thus the seasonal year, are governed by the anomalistic year rather than the tropical year.

In meteorological terms, the summer solstice and winter solstice (or the maximum and minimum insolation, respectively) do not fall in the middles of summer and winter. The heights of these seasons occur up to seven weeks later because of seasonal lag. Seasons, though, are not always defined in meteorological terms.

Compared to axial tilt, other factors contribute little to seasonal temperature changes. The seasons are not the result of the variation in Earth’s distance to the sun because of its elliptical orbit.^[3] Orbital eccentricity can influence temperatures, but on Earth, this effect is small and is more than counteracted by other factors; research shows that the Earth as a whole is actually slightly warmer when farther from the sun. This is because the northern hemisphere has more land than the southern, and land warms more readily than sea.^[4] Mars however experiences wide temperature variations and violent dust storms every year at perihelion.^[5]

Polar day and night[link]

Any point north of the Arctic Circle or south of the Antarctic Circle will have one period in the summer when the sun does not set, and one period in the winter when the sun does not rise. At progressively higher latitudes, the maximum periods of "midnight sun" and "polar night" are progressively longer.

For example, at the military and weather station Alert located at 82°30′05″N 062°20′20″W, on the northern tip of Ellesmere Island, Canada (about 450 nautical miles or 830 km from the North Pole), the sun begins to peek above the horizon for minutes per day at the end of February and each day it climbs higher and stays up longer; by 21 March, the sun is up for over 12 hours. On 6 April the sun rises at 0522 UTC and remains above the horizon until it sets below the horizon again on 21st of September at 0335 UTC. By October 13 the sun is above the horizon for only 1 hour 30 minutes and on October 14 it does not rise above the horizon at all and remains below the horizon until it rises again on 27 February.^[6]

However, end of February is not first light. The sky has twilight, being a glow on the horizon, for increasing hours each day, for more than a month before the sun first appears with its disc above the horizon. From mid November to mid January, there is no twilight.

In the weeks surrounding 21 June, in the northern hemisphere, the sun is at its highest elevation, appearing to circle the sky there without going below the horizon. Eventually, it does go below the horizon, for progressively longer periods each day until around the middle of October, when it disappears for the last time until the following February. For a few more weeks, "day" is marked by decreasing periods of twilight. Eventually, from mid November to mid January, there is no twilight and it is continuously dark. In mid January twilight returns the first faint wash of twilight briefly touches the horizon (for just minutes per day), and then twilight increases in duration with pre-dawn brightness each day until sunrise at end of February and on 6 April the sun remains above the horizon until mid October.

Reckoning[link]

Meteorological[link]

Animation of seasonal differences especially snow cover through the year

Meteorological seasons are reckoned by temperature, with summer being the hottest quarter of the year and winter the coldest quarter of the year. Using this reckoning, the Roman calendar began the year and the spring season on the first of March, with each season occupying three months. In 1780 the Societas Meteorologica Palatina, an early international organization for meteorology, defined seasons as groupings of three whole months. Ever since, professional meteorologists all over the world have used this definition.^[7] Therefore, in meteorology for the Northern hemisphere, spring begins on 1 March, summer on 1 June, autumn on 1 September, and winter on 1 December.

In Sweden and Finland, meteorologists use a definition for the seasons based on the temperature. Spring begins when the daily averaged temperature permanently rises above 0°C, summer begins when the temperature permanently rises above +10°C, summer ends when the temperature permanently falls below +10°C and winter begins when the temperature permanently falls below 0°C. "Permanently" here means that the daily averaged temperature has remained above or below the limit for seven consecutive days. This implies two things: first, the seasons do not begin at fixed dates but must be determined by observation and are known only after the fact; and second, a new season begins at different dates in different parts of the country.

Surface air temperature
Diagram was calculated (Abscisse: 21. of each month) Calculation based on data published by Jones et al. [8]	The picture shows Figure 7 as published by Jones et al.[8]

Astronomical[link]

The precise timing of the seasons as viewed by astronomers is determined by the exact times of transit of the sun over the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn for the solstices and the times of the sun's transit over the equator for the equinoxes. ^[9] For 2012 these times are:

The following diagram shows the relation between the line of solstice and the line of apsides of Earth's elliptical orbit. The orbital ellipse (with eccentricity exaggerated for effect) goes through each of the six Earth images, which are sequentially the perihelion (periapsis—nearest point to the sun) on anywhere from 2 January to 5 January, the point of March equinox on 20 or 21 March, the point of June solstice on 20 or 21 June, the aphelion (apoapsis—farthest point from the sun) on anywhere from 4 July to 7 July, the September equinox on 22 or 23 September, and the December solstice on 21 or 22 December.

In astronomical reckoning, the solstices and equinoxes ought to be the middle of the respective seasons, but, because of thermal lag, regions with a continental climate often consider these four dates to be the start of the seasons as in the diagram, with the cross-quarter days considered seasonal midpoints. The length of these seasons is not uniform because of the elliptical orbit of the earth and its different speeds along that orbit.^[10]

From the March equinox it takes 92.75 days until the June solstice, then 93.65 days until the September equinox, 89.85 days until the December solstice and finally 88.99 days until the March equinox.

Because of the differences in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, it is no longer considered appropriate to use the northern-seasonal designations for the astronomical quarter days. The modern convention for them is: March Equinox, June Solstice, September Equinox and December Solstice. The oceanic climate of the Southern Hemisphere produces a shorter temperature lag, so the start of each season is usually considered to be several weeks before the respective solstice or equinox in this hemisphere, in other countries with oceanic climates, and in cultures with Celtic roots.

Ecological seasons[link]

Seasonal changes regarding a tree over a year

Ecologically speaking, a season is a period of the year in which only certain types of floral and animal events happen (e.g.: flowers bloom—spring; hedgehogs hibernate—winter). So, if we can observe a change in daily floral/animal events, the season is changing.

Hot regions[link]

Hot regions have two seasons:

• Rainy season
• Dry season

Temperate areas[link]

Six seasons can be distinguished.^[11] Mild temperate regions tend to experience the beginning of the hibernal season up to a month later than cool temperate areas, while the prevernal and vernal seasons begin up to a month earlier. For example, prevernal crocus blooms typically appear as early as February in mild coastal areas of British Columbia, the British Isles, and western and southern Europe. The actual dates for each season vary by climate region and can shift from one year to the next. Average dates listed here are for cool temperate climate zones in the Northern Hemisphere:

• Prevernal (ca.1 March–1 May)
• Vernal (ca.1 May–15 June)
• Estival (ca.15 June–15 August)
• Serotinal (ca.15 August–15 September)
• Autumnal (ca.15 September–1 November)
• Hibernal (ca.1 November–1 March)

Cold regions[link]

There are again only two seasons:

• Polar Day (spring and summer)
• Polar Night (autumn and winter)

Traditional season divisions[link]

Traditional seasons are reckoned by insolation, with summer being the quarter of the year with the greatest insolation and winter the quarter with the least. These seasons begin about four weeks earlier than the meteorological seasons and 7 weeks earlier than the astronomical seasons.

In traditional reckoning, the seasons begin at the cross-quarter days. The solstices and equinoxes are the midpoints of these seasons. For example, the days of greatest and least insolation are considered the "midsummer" and "midwinter" respectively.

This reckoning is used by various traditional cultures in the Northern Hemisphere, including East Asian and Irish cultures.^{[citation needed]} In Iran, Afghanistan and some other parts of Middle East the beginning of the astronomical spring is the beginning of the new year which is called Nowruz.

So, according to traditional reckoning, winter begins between 5 November and 10 November, Samhain, 立冬 (lìdōng or rittou); spring between 2 February and 7 February, Imbolc, 立春 (lìchūn or risshun); summer between 4 May and 10 May, Beltane, 立夏 (lìxià or rikka); and autumn between 3 August and 10 August, Lughnasadh, 立秋 (lìqiū or risshū). The middle of each season is considered Mid-winter, between 20 December and 23 December, 冬至 (dōngzhì or touji); Mid-spring, between 19 March and 22 March, 春分 (chūnfēn or shunbun); Mid-summer, between 19 June and 23 June, 夏至 (xiàzhì or geshi); and Mid-autumn, between 21 September and 24 September, 秋分 (qiūfēn or shūbun).

Australia[link]

The indigenous people of Australia defined the seasons by what was happening to the plants, animals and weather around them. This led to each separate tribal group having different seasons, some with up to eight seasons each year. However, most modern Aboriginal Australians follow either four or six meteorological seasons, as do non-Aboriginal Australians.

The commonly followed dates are as follows: 1st day of March, June, September and December for the start of Autumn, Winter, Spring and Summer, respectively.

Celts[link]

The ancient Celts used a solar calendar, with the four Pagan agricultural festivals, Imbolc, Beltaine, Lughnasa and Samhain occurring on the cross-quarter days. Today, those festivals are celebrated on 1 February, May, August and November respectively.

China[link]

Chinese seasons are traditionally based on 24 periods known as solar terms, and begin at the midpoint of solstices and equinoxes.^[12]

India[link]

In the Hindu calendar, there are six seasons or Ritu: Vasanta (Spring), Greeshma (Summer), Varsha (Monsoon) and Sharad (Autumn), Hemanta (pre-hibernal), Shishira (Winter).

The six seasons are ascribed to two months each of the twelve months in the Hindu calendar. The rough correspondences are:

See also[link]

• Geocentric view of the seasons
• Indian Summer
• Perennial tea ceremony
• Months
• Persephone
• Risks and benefits of sun exposure
• Indigenous Australian seasons

References[link]

• Maris, Mihaela, St. Luchian School, Bacau, Romania, Seasonal Variations of the Bird Species, ref. ecological seasons pp. 195–196 incl. and pp. 207–209 incl.

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Seasons

• Australian Weather and Seasons
• When do the Seasons Begin? (from the Bad Astronomer)
• Solstice does not signal season's start (from The Straight Dope)
• Why the Earth has seasons article on h2g2.
• Aboriginal seasons of Kakadu
• Indigenous seasons (Australian Bureau of Meteorology)
• Mt Stirling Seasons
• The Lost Seasons
• Melbourne's six seasons
• The Lengths of the Seasons (numerical integration analysis)
• Earth distance vs tilt
• Tutorial on Earth/Sun Relations and Seasons

v t e Seasons Temperate seasons Spring · Summer · Autumn · Winter Science portal Tropical climate seasons Wet season · Dry season Specific Fog season · Hurricane season · Monsoon season

lez:Йисан вахтар

Robert De Niro
De Niro at the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival premiere of The Bang Bang Club
Born	(1943-08-17) August 17, 1943 (age 68) New York City, New York, U.S.
Residence	TriBeCa, Lower Manhattan
Nationality	American
Citizenship	United States and Italy
Education	High School of Music Art
Alma mater	Stella Adler Studio of Acting
Occupation	Actor, director and producer
Years active	1959–present
Home town	Manhattan, New York
Spouse	Diahnne Abbott (m. 1976–1988) «start: (1976)–end+1: (1989)»"Marriage: Diahnne Abbott to Robert De Niro" Location: (linkback:http://en-wiki.pop.wn.com/index.php/Robert_De_Niro) Grace Hightower (m. 1997) «start: (1997)»"Marriage: Grace Hightower to Robert De Niro" Location: (linkback:http://en-wiki.pop.wn.com/index.php/Robert_De_Niro)
Children	6 (including Drena De Niro)
Parents	Robert De Niro, Sr. Virginia Admiral

Robert De Niro (pronounced /dəˈnɪəroʊ/; born August 17, 1943) is an American actor, director and producer. His first major film roles were in Bang the Drum Slowly and Mean Streets, both in 1973. In 1974, he played the young Vito Corleone in The Godfather Part II, a role that won him the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.

His critically acclaimed, longtime collaborations with Martin Scorsese began with 1973's Mean Streets, and earned De Niro an Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of Jake LaMotta in the 1980 film Raging Bull. He was also nominated for an Academy Award for his roles in Scorsese's Taxi Driver (1976) and Cape Fear (1991). In addition, he received nominations for his acting in Michael Cimino's The Deer Hunter (1978) and Penny Marshall's Awakenings (1990). Also in 1990, his portrayal as Jimmy Conway in Martin Scorsese's Goodfellas earned him a BAFTA nomination.^[1]

He has earned four nominations for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy: New York, New York (1977), Midnight Run (1988), Analyze This (1999) and Meet the Parents (2000). De Niro directed A Bronx Tale (1993) and The Good Shepherd (2006). He has received accolades for his esteemed career, including the AFI Life Achievement Award and the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award.

Early life[link]

Robert De Niro was born in Greenwich Village,^[2] New York City, New York, the son of Virginia Holton Admiral, a painter and poet, and Robert De Niro, Sr., an abstract expressionist painter and sculptor.^[3] His father was of Italian and Irish descent, and his mother was of English, German, French, and Dutch ancestry.^[4][5] His Italian great-grandparents, Giovanni De Niro and Angelina Mercurio, emigrated from Ferrazzano, in the province of Campobasso, Molise, and his paternal grandmother, Helen O'Reilly, was the granddaughter of Edward O'Reilly, an immigrant from Ireland.

De Niro's parents, who had met at the painting classes of Hans Hofmann in Provincetown (Cape Cod), Massachusetts, divorced when he was three years old. De Niro was raised by his mother in the Little Italy neighborhood of Manhattan, and in Greenwich Village. His father lived within walking distance and Robert spent much time with him as he was growing up.^[6] De Niro attended PS 41, a public elementary school in Manhattan, through the sixth grade, and then went to the private Elisabeth Irwin High School, the upper school of the Little Red School House, for the seventh and eighth grades.^[7] He was accepted at the High School of Music and Art for the ninth grade, but only attended for a short time, transferring instead to a public junior high school.^[8] He began high school at the private McBurney School,^[9] attended the private Rhodes Preparatory School,^[10] but never graduated.^[11] Nicknamed "Bobby Milk" for his pallor, the youthful De Niro hung out with a group of street kids in Little Italy, some of whom have remained lifelong friends of his.^[12] But the direction of his future had already been determined by his stage debut at age ten, playing the Cowardly Lion in his school's production of The Wizard of Oz.^[2][13] Along with finding relief from shyness through performing, De Niro was also entranced by the movies, and he dropped out of high school at age sixteen to pursue acting.^[12] De Niro studied acting at the Stella Adler Conservatory, as well as Lee Strasberg's Actors Studio.^[11]

Career[link]

Acting[link]

De Niro's first movie role, in collaboration with Brian De Palma, was in 1963, at the age of 20, when he appeared opposite his friend Jill Clayburgh in The Wedding Party; however, the film was not released until 1969. He then played in Roger Corman's 1970 Bloody Mama, which starred Shelly Winters as Ma Barker. He gained popular attention with his role as a dying Major League Baseball player in Bang the Drum Slowly (1973).^[2] That same year, he began his collaboration with Martin Scorsese, when he played the smalltime crook Johnny Boy, alongside Harvey Keitel's Charlie, in Mean Streets (1973).^[2]

De Niro at the Cannes Film Festival, 2011

In 1974, De Niro had a pivotal role in Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather Part II, playing the young Vito Corleone – the director having remembered his previous auditions for the roles of Sonny Corleone, Michael Corleone, Carlo Rizzi and Paulie Gatto, in The Godfather. His performance earned him his first Academy Award, for Best Supporting Actor,^[2] although Coppola accepted the award, as De Niro was not present at the Oscar ceremony. He became the first actor to win an Academy Award speaking mainly a foreign language, in this case, multiple Sicilian dialects^[2] (although he delivered a few lines in English). De Niro and Marlon Brando, who played the older Vito Corleone in the first film, are the only actors to have won Oscars portraying the same fictional character. Brando and De Niro came together onscreen for the only time in The Score (2001).

After working with Scorsese in Mean Streets, he had a successful working relationship with the director in films such as Taxi Driver (1976), New York, New York (1977), Raging Bull (1980), The King of Comedy (1983), Goodfellas (1990), Cape Fear (1991), and Casino (1995). They also acted together in Guilty by Suspicion and provided their voices for the animated feature Shark Tale.

Taxi Driver was particularly important to De Niro's career: his iconic performance as Travis Bickle shot him to stardom and forever linked De Niro's name with Bickle's famous "You talkin' to me?" monologue, which De Niro largely improvised.^[14] The role of Travis Bickle earned him his first Academy Award Nomination for Best Actor.

In 1976, De Niro appeared, along with Gérard Depardieu and Donald Sutherland, in Bernardo Bertolucci's epic biographical exploration of life in Italy before World War II, Novecento (1900), seen through the eyes of two Italian childhood friends at the opposite sides of society's hierarchy. In 1978, De Niro played Michael Vronsky in the acclaimed Vietnam War film The Deer Hunter, for which he was nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role.

De Niro in 1988 during his New York tour

Fearing he had become typecast in mob roles, De Niro began expanding into occasional comedic roles in the mid-1980s and has had much success there as well, with such films as Brazil (1985), the hit action-comedy Midnight Run (1988), Analyze This (1999), opposite actor/comedian Billy Crystal, Meet the Parents (2000) and Meet the Fockers (2004), both opposite Ben Stiller.

Other films include Falling in Love (1984), Once Upon a Time in America (1984), The Mission (1986), Angel Heart (1987), The Untouchables (1987), Goodfellas (1990), Awakenings (1990), Heat (1995), The Fan (1996), Sleepers (1996), Wag the Dog (1997), Jackie Brown and Ronin (1998). In 1997, he re-teamed with Harvey Keitel and Ray Liotta along with Sylvester Stallone in the crime drama Cop Land. De Niro played a supporting role, taking a back seat to Stallone, Keitel, and Liotta.

In 1993, he also starred in This Boy's Life, featuring then-rising child actors Leonardo DiCaprio and Tobey Maguire. Around this time, he was offered the role of Mitch Leary in In the Line of Fire, opposite Clint Eastwood. However, due to scheduling conflicts with A Bronx Tale, he turned the role down in favor of John Malkovich, who, himself, received an Academy Award nomination for the role. De Niro would later reference In the Line of Fire, along with Dirty Harry and Magnum Force, two more of Eastwood's films, in Righteous Kill.

De Niro with Matt Damon in Berlin in February 2007 for the premiere of The Good Shepherd

In 1995, De Niro starred in Michael Mann's police action-thriller Heat, along with fellow actor and long-time friend, Al Pacino. The duo drew much attention from fans, as both have generally been compared throughout their careers. Though Pacino and De Niro both starred in The Godfather Part II, they shared no screen time. De Niro and Pacino once again appeared together, in the crime thriller Righteous Kill.^[15]

In 2004, De Niro provided the voice of Don Lino, the antagonist in the animated film Shark Tale, opposite Will Smith. He also reprised his role as Jack Byrnes in Meet the Fockers, and was featured in Stardust. All of the films were successful at the box office, but they received mixed reviews. When promoting Shark Tale, De Niro said that was his first experience with voice acting, which he commented, was an enjoyable time.

Robert De Niro in 2008

De Niro had to turn down a role in The Departed (Martin Sheen taking the role instead) due to commitments with preparing The Good Shepherd. He said, "I wanted to. I wish I could've been able to, but I was preparing The Good Shepherd so much that I couldn't take the time to. I was trying to figure a way to do it while I was preparing. It just didn't seem possible."^[16]

In 2006, De Niro costarred with Matt Damon and Angelina Jolie in The Good Shepherd (which he also directed). The movie also reunited him onscreen with Joe Pesci, with whom De Niro had starred in Raging Bull, Goodfellas, A Bronx Tale, Once Upon a Time in America and Casino.

De Niro announced that he would appear in Martin Campbell's film version of the classic BBC crime series Edge of Darkness in 2010, alongside Mel Gibson; however, just after he arrived to begin shooting, De Niro walked from the set due to creative differences.^[17] He was then replaced by Ray Winstone.^[18][19] He appeared as Senator John McLaughlin in the action film Machete, directed by Robert Rodriguez and Ethan Maniquis. De Niro starred in the thriller Stone (2010), along with Edward Norton and Milla Jovovich. The sequel to Meet the Parents (2000) and Meet the Fockers (2004), Little Fockers, starring De Niro, Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson, Blythe Danner, Teri Polo, Dustin Hoffman and Barbra Streisand, was released on December 22, 2010.

De Niro in 2011

In 2011, De Niro appeared in the action film Killer Elite with Jason Statham and Clive Owen, in the film adaptation of the novel The Dark Fields, Limitless, with Bradley Cooper, directed by Neil Burger, and in New Year's Eve, the romantic comedy film directed by Garry Marshall.^[20][21][21]

Thirty-four years after Bernardo Bertolucci's 1900, De Niro stars in one of three episodes of the film Manuale d'amore 3, with Monica Bellucci, directed by Italian director Giovanni Veronesi.^[22][23]

In January 2011, CBS picked up De Niro's crime pilot, Rookies.^[24] In 2011, he was the President of the Jury for the 64th Cannes Film Festival.^[25]

In 2012, he will star in the movies The Silver Linings Playbook, Freelancers, Red Lights and in Being Flynn.

Film director[link]

In 1993, De Niro made his directorial debut with A Bronx Tale. The film, written by Chazz Palminteri, was about Palminteri's turbulent childhood in the Bronx. De Niro agreed to direct the film after seeing Palminteri's one-man off-Broadway play. De Niro also played Lorenzo, the bus driver who struggles to keep his son away from local mobster Sonny, played by Palminteri.

De Niro did not direct another film until 2006's The Good Shepherd, which starred Matt Damon and Angelina Jolie. The Good Shepherd depicts the origins of the CIA, with Damon portraying one of the top counter-intelligence agents during World War II and the Cold War. De Niro has a small role as General Bill Sullivan, who recruits Damon's character into the world of counter-intelligence.

Restaurants[link]

His capital ventures have included: cofounding the film studio TriBeCa Productions; the popular Tribeca Film Festival; Nobu and TriBeCa Grill, which he co-owns with a developer Paul Wallace and Broadway producer Stewart F. Lane,^[26] The Greenwich Hotel,^[27] located in Tribeca, and the restaurant inside the hotel, Locanda Verde, formally known as Ago, which is run by executive chef and co-owner, Andrew Carmellini.^[28]

According to the July 2010 issue of Gourmet magazine, De Niro is in negotiations with an internationally renowned chef, Natalia Jibladze, to launch a yet unnamed restaurant in Manhattan under his Tribeca trademark. He was in Malaysia recently, and while having lunch with the Malaysian Prime Minister's wife, was asked to open a Malay restaurant in Alor Setar, Kedah, Malaysia.^[29]

Other work[link]

In June 2006, it was announced that De Niro had donated his film archive — including scripts, costumes, and props — to the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin. On April 27, 2009, it was announced that the De Niro collection at the Ransom Center was open to researchers and the public. De Niro has said that he is working with Martin Scorsese on a new project. "I'm trying to actually work... [screenwriter] Eric Roth and myself and Marty are working on a script now, trying to get it done."^[16]

Acting style[link]

Praised for his commitment to roles, stemming from his background in method acting, De Niro gained 60 pounds (27 kg) and learned how to box for his portrayal of Jake LaMotta in Raging Bull;^[2] ground his teeth for Cape Fear; lived in Sicily for The Godfather Part II; worked as a cab driver for a few weeks for Taxi Driver;^[30] and learned to play the saxophone for New York, New York. He again put on weight for his performance as Al Capone in The Untouchables (1987).^[31]

De Niro's brand of method acting includes employing whatever extreme tactic he feels is necessary to elicit the best performance from those with whom he is working. During the filming of The King of Comedy, for example, he directed a slew of anti-Semitic epithets at co-star Jerry Lewis in order to enhance and authenticate the anger demonstrated by his onscreen character. According to People magazine, the technique was successful. Lewis recalled, "I forgot the cameras were there... I was going for Bobby's throat."^[32]

Personal life[link]

Family[link]

De Niro with his wife Grace Hightower at the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival

De Niro and his first wife Diahnne Abbott have a son, Raphael, a former actor who works in New York real estate.^[33] De Niro also adopted Abbott's daughter from a previous relationship, Drena.

De Niro has twin sons, Julian Henry and Aaron Kendrik, conceived by in vitro fertilization and delivered by a surrogate mother in 1995, from a long-term live-in relationship with former model Toukie Smith.^[34]

In 1997, De Niro married his second wife, actress Grace Hightower, at their Marbletown home.^[35] Their son Elliot was born in 1998 and the couple split in 1999. The divorce was never finalized and in 2004 they renewed their vows.^[35] In December 2011, Hightower and De Niro welcomed a daughter, Helen Grace, born via surrogate.^[36][37]

In addition to his six children De Niro has three grandchildren – one from his eldest daughter Drena and two from his son Raphael.^{[38] [39] [40]}

Properties[link]

De Niro, who has long resided in New York City, has been investing in the TriBeCa neighborhood in lower Manhattan since 1989. He has residences on the east and west sides of Manhattan. He also has an estate in Marbletown in upstate New York which acts as his primary residence.

Legal issues[link]

In February 1998, during a film shoot in France, he was taken in for questioning by French police for nine hours and was then questioned by a magistrate over a prostitution ring. De Niro denied any involvement, saying that he had never paid for sex, "and even if I had, it wouldn't have been a crime."^[41] The magistrate wanted to speak to him after his name was mentioned by one of the call girls. In an interview with the French newspaper, Le Monde, he said, "I will never return to France. I will advise my friends against going to France," and he would "send your Legion of Honor back to the ambassador, as soon as possible." French judicial sources say the actor is regarded as a potential witness, not a suspect.

Prostate cancer[link]

In 2003, it was announced that De Niro had been diagnosed with prostate cancer, although he went on to make a full recovery.^[42]

Italian citizenship[link]

De Niro was due to be granted Italian citizenship at the Venice Film Festival in September 2004. However, the Sons of Italy lodged a protest with Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, claiming De Niro had damaged the image of Italians and Italian Americans by frequently portraying them in criminal roles. Culture Minister Giuliano Urbani dismissed the objections, and the ceremony was rescheduled to go forward in Rome in October. Controversy flared again when De Niro failed to show for two media appearances in Italy that month, which De Niro blamed on "serious communication problems" that weren't "handled properly" on his end, stating, "The last thing I would want to do is offend anyone. I love Italy." The citizenship was conferred on De Niro on October 21, 2006, during the finale of the Rome Film Festival. De Niro is registered in the electoral district of Molise, the Italian homeland of his great-grandparents.

Activism[link]

Politics[link]

De Niro is a staunch supporter of the Democratic Party, and vocally supported Al Gore in the 2000 presidential election. De Niro publicly supported John Kerry in the 2004 presidential election. In 1998, he lobbied Congress against impeaching President Bill Clinton.^[43]

While promoting his movie The Good Shepherd with co-star Matt Damon on the December 8, 2006 episode of Hardball with Chris Matthews at George Mason University, De Niro was asked whom he would like to see as President of the United States. De Niro responded, "Well, I think of two people: Hillary Clinton and Obama."

On February 4, 2008, De Niro supported Obama at a rally at the Izod Center in New Jersey before Super Tuesday.^[44]

On March 19, 2012, De Niro and his wife held a fundraiser for President Obama's re-election campaign. At the event, De Niro made a comment, viewed by conservative columnist John Hayward and Steven Kurlander of the Sun-Sentinel as racist,^[45][46] joking "Callista Gingrich. Karen Santorum. Ann Romney. Now do you really think our country is ready for a white first lady?" ^[47][48]

9/11 attacks[link]

De Niro also hosted 9/11, a documentary about the September 11, 2001 attacks, shown on CBS and centering on video footage made by Jules and Gedeon Naudet, that focused on the role of firefighters following the attacks.

Filmography[link]

Awards and nominations[link]

Academy Award[link]

• Won: Best Supporting Actor, The Godfather Part II (1974)
• Nominated: Best Actor, Taxi Driver (1976)
• Nominated: Best Actor, The Deer Hunter (1978)
• Won: Best Actor, Raging Bull (1980)
• Nominated: Best Actor, Awakenings (1990)
• Nominated: Best Actor, Cape Fear (1991)

BAFTA Award[link]

• Nominated: Best Newcomer, The Godfather Part II (1976)
• Nominated: Best Actor, Taxi Driver (1977)
• Nominated: Best Actor, The Deer Hunter (1979)
• Nominated: Best Actor, Raging Bull (1982)
• Nominated: Best Actor, The King of Comedy (1984)
• Nominated: Best Actor, Goodfellas (1990)

Sources[link]

• Baxter, John (2002). De Niro: A Biography. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-00-257196-8.
• Dougan, Andy (2003). Untouchable: a biography of Robert De Niro. Da Capo Press. ISBN 1-56025-469-6.

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Robert De Niro

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Robert De Niro

• Robert De Niro at the Internet Movie Database
• Robert De Niro Videography by NIAF