Ranking Robert De Niro's 7 Oscar Nominated Roles

Robert De Niro in Joy

Today marks the 73rd birthday of actor Robert De Niro. While it may be easy to ignore among his later and lesser films, he is an actor that so deftly earned the honor of being one of the greatest actors of his generation. One can easily see it in his impressive work between the 70's and 90's where he constantly embodied the roles with rigorous attention to detail and enough crazy stories to make Jared Leto look tame. Still, can you name all seven of his Oscar-nominated performances? Better yet, can you name the two of his that won? The following is a ranking of his nominations that reflect an actor at various stages of his career doing his work so well that lesser actors can only hope to achieve half of the level of gravitas.

At 40 Years Old, "Taxi Driver" is Still a Fascinating Look into Loneliness and War

Robert De Niro

Nowadays, it's easy to think of director Martin Scorsese as a visionary whose every film and every lecture and interview are worthy of dissection. However, it's harder to remember a time when he wasn't the king of gritty New York dramas where faith and violence were battling themes. Even then, there was a time when it didn't even look like he would make it out of the 70's. With a drug addiction to his credit and a screenplay by an equally depressed writer named Paul Schrader, Taxi Driver is the ultimate homage to loneliness and delusion in a New York that has since been gussied up. The film is a time capsule of 70's cynicism as well as featuring one of the most breathtaking performances of Robert De Niro's career as Travis Bickle: a Vietnam War veteran who drives to escape his sleeping problems. The times may have changed, but the impact of Taxi Driver remains just as immediate as it did 40 years ago.

The Directors Project: #3 - Martin Scorsese

Scene from Cinema Paradiso

With the many lists and essays written on the subject of film, there has been one thing that The Oscar Buzz has tried to understand: Who is my favorite of the film world? For 10 weeks this summer, I will be exploring this with a countdown of the Top 50 names based on a numerical ranking of ratings from various sources, the following is a list of directors who rank above everyone else. With occasional upsets, this is intended as both a discussion opener as well as a better understanding of me as a film critic and fan. Please enjoy and leave any comments you have regarding the entry's selection.