It can be difficult sometimes to fully appreciate the fact that we still have a legend like Robert De Niro still with us. Part of it is that De Niro has been a constant for decades now, almost as long as our Modern Hollywood has existed: breaking out as the chief collaborator and muse of Martin Scorsese in the early ’70s with performances in “Mean Streets” and “Taxi Driver,” the two-time Oscar winner personified the grit and edge of the New Hollywood revolution, and remained a vibrant force on film through the ’80s and ’90s.
That said, not every film that De Niro stars in is a hit, and not every performance he gives is up to the (impossible, incredible) standards he’s often set for himself. Especially in his later years, De Niro has a reputation for sometimes coasting, particularly in films that don’t exactly measure up to the classics he’s made his name on. Sifting through his well over 100 credits, you can see him on autopilot in comedic fluff like “The Intern” or “The War With Grandpa,” practically sleepwalking through his scenes. And fair to him: the man has more than proven his greatness as an actor. And all the less-than-committed work makes the vital standouts he still occasionally pulls off all the more riveting.
With De Niro currently in theaters delivering a dual performance in “The Alto Knights,” we decided to spotlight the performances that made the actor an icon. Read on for the 10 best Robert De Niro film roles, ranked.
10. “The Untouchables” (1987)
Who De Niro plays: Al Capone, the most notorious American gangster of the 20th century and the boss of the legendary Chicago Outfit during the Prohibition Era. Brian De Palma’s pulpy crime drama “The Untouchables” details the federal plot to bring Capone to justice, led by Eliot Ness (Kevin Costner).
Why he’s great: De Niro became a legend for playing complex, difficult men with many sins but also many virtues. His work as Capone in “The Untouchables” is much simpler and more one-dimensional than his most iconic work, but that’s really just part of what makes it so fun. He’s a fantastic villain, charming in public and mustache-twirlingly evil in private, and De Niro is clearly having a lot of fun in the role, especially when the walls close in on Capone and the pressure causes an epic breakdown.
9. “The Deer Hunter” (1978)
Who De Niro plays: Mike Vronsky, a small-town Pennsylvania boy who leaves his community with his two best friends to fight in Vietnam. Idealistic and honorable, Mike endures horrific trauma when he’s imprisoned by the Viet Cong and struggles to readapt to society when he returns home.
Why he’s great: Michael Cimino’s gritty, unsparing horrors of war story offers a chance for De Niro to play in a slightly different register than he did at the time, when he was most famous as gangsters and criminals. In the beginning, he’s a practical, kind, and straightforward young man. He’s surprisingly convincing in this mode, and even better when Mike gets put through the ringer and comes out the other side as a shell-shocked husk of his former self. Many actors have portrayed this type of haunted soldier, but few have done it with the finesse of De Niro.
8. “Goodfellas” (1990)
Who De Niro plays: Jimmy Conway, a fictionalization of real-life gangster James Burke. Based on the book “Wiseguy” by screenwriter Nicholas Pileggi, Scorsese’s mafia epic details the rise and fall of Henry Hill (Ray Liotta), a member of the New York City Lucchese Crime Family from the ’50s to the ’80s. In the film, Conway is Hill’s boss and close friend, who eventually turns on him as their criminal enterprise falls apart.
Why he’s great: “Goodfellas” is loaded with actors giving career-best work, from Liotta to an Oscar-winning Joe Pesci as the hot-headed Tommy. With such great actors around him, De Niro is — unusually — sometimes overshadowed. But his performance as the coldly confident Conway is still an excellent part of the world Scorsese constructs, and De Niro underplays to excellent effects. He suffuses Conway with a calm that starts charming but becomes more sinister as he turns against Hill, a slippery ruthlessness that feels near devoid of empathy.
7. “Killers of the Flower Moon” (2023)
Who De Niro plays: William King Hale, a crime boss who became notorious in the 1920s when he organized a series of murders against the wealthy Osage people to gain control of the profits the indigenous tribe amassed through the oil on their Oklahoma land. At least 60 Osage people were murdered by Hale’s associates before he was eventually convicted in 1929. The tenth film that Scorsese made with De Niro, “Killers of the Flower Moon” recounts the Osage murders largely from the perspective of Hale’s nephew Ernest Burkhart (Leonardo DiCaprio), who carried out many of the killings himself and poisoned his own wife, Osage woman Mollie Kyle (Lily Gladstone).
Why he’s great: De Niro was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in “Killers of the Flower Moon,” but his inclusion in the awards race felt a bit like a namecheck: the actor never won a precursor or seemed to have the necessary industry passion behind him to become a serious contender in the race. A shame, because “Killers of the Flower Moon” features what is easily his best performance of the 21st century, a truly frightening portrayal of a manipulative, black-hearted vulture. Using his advanced age to good use, De Niro is a charmer playing the genial, friendly grandpa front Hale uses to befriend the Osage and ingratiate himself into their community. That makes the truly despicable acts he commits all the more upsetting, and watching De Niro in his full heel mode, bullying the weak and useless Ernest to do his bidding, is stomach-churning. It’s the closest to pure evil the actor had ever played.
6. “Heat” (1995)
Who De Niro plays: Neil McCauley, a career criminal and bank robber planning one last big job. Michael Mann’s influential crime thriller splits its focus between McCauley’s struggles to keep his operation going and an investigation led by police Lieutenant Vincent Hanna (played by Al Pacino) to take him down. As the two men circle each other, they eventually develop a mutual respect.
Why he’s great: “Heat” could feel gimmicky, an excuse to finally bring two iconic ’70s Hollywood stars, who had already led “The Godfather: Part II” together, on screen in the same room for the first time. But Mann had greater ambitions than a mere stunt (the original draft of the eventual film was written a good decade prior in 1979), and “Heat” is an all-timer crime drama, one more interested in sitting with and examining these two radically different men than generating cheap thrills. Pacino and De Niro are key to making the sizzling tension of “Heat” work, and De Niro is dynamite as the charming, intimidating, but painfully lonely master criminal. And while he’s only on-screen with Pacino for a few minutes, De Niro kills the iconic diner meeting that lives on as the film’s most famous moment.
5. “The Godfather: Part II” (1974)
Who De Niro plays: Vito Corleone, the iconic mafioso made legendary by Marlon Brando’s portrayal in the original 1972 “Godfather.” The sequel casts De Niro, then 30, as a younger version of Vito, cutting between his life as a Sicilian immigrant and eventual rise to power and the reign of his son Michael (Al Pacino) as he replaces his father as the leader of their family.
Why he’s great: It would be difficult for any actor to follow up a titan like Marlon Brando in one of his most acclaimed roles. And yet, De Niro more than delivers in “The Godfather: Part II,” believably portraying the man who would eventually become Brando’s stern, yet sensitive authority figure. He particularly excels in playing Vito’s hunger, as this young man descends into darkness to rise to the power he desperately desires.
4. “Mean Streets” (1973)
Who De Niro plays: De Niro first broke out, and cemented himself as Scorsese’s go-to leading man, as Johnny Boy in the director’s third feature “Mean Streets.” An energetic, violent slice-of-life, the film follows the fraying relationship between small-time gambler Johnny Boy and his best friend, the more responsible Charlie (Harvey Keitel). Reckless and often liable to go off the handle, Johnny Boy constantly gets himself and the loyal but frustrated Charlie in trouble, which becomes outright deadly when Johnny borrows too much money from Mafia loan sharks.
Why he’s great: It’s not hard to understand how De Niro shot to stardom off the strength of his “Mean Streets” performance. Disheveled, spontaneous, and capable of shifting moods within seconds, the actor is genuinely stressful to watch in his first major film role, possessing a wired, crazed look in his eyes that makes it difficult to tell what he’ll do next. There’s plenty of pathos to screw up Johnny Boy, but you can’t help but be wary of him, and every time De Niro strolls onto screen, you can feel the time-bomb ticking, waiting to go off.
3. “Taxi Driver” (1976)
Who De Niro plays: Arguably the most iconic role of De Niro’s career — and the peak of an all-time ’70s run — Travis Bickle, the troubled hero of Martin Scorsese’s “Taxi Driver” is a Vietnam War veteran supporting himself working late nights around New York City. As his mental health slowly collapses, Travis grows deluded about saving the world from the filth and depravity he sees around him.
Why he’s great: De Niro is very hot and cool in ‘Taxi Driver,’ which has caused many viewers to forget that he’s not necessarily sane. Maybe that’s a feature, not a bug; Scorsese’s masterpiece is a lot of things, but it particularly thrives as a character study. De Niro makes you root for, even love Travis through his sheer movie star charisma — that “You talking to me” scene served as pure proof of his star power — while still sowing the seeds for his psychological unraveling. He’s unsettling perfection.
2. “Raging Bull” (1980)
Who De Niro plays: Jake LaMotta, a middleweight boxer who was world champion from 1949 to 1951. Scorsese’s acclaimed biopic adapts LaMotta’s autobiography and follows both his rise to fame and his quick downward spiral brought on by anger issues and a turbulent personal life.
Why he’s great: One of the original transformation roles to pick up an Oscar, the part of Jake LaMotta required De Niro to bulk up for the scenes set in the boxer’s heyday and pack on 60 pounds to portray him at his lowest. And while those types of physical tricks are often used by actors who struggle to embody their parts on a more spiritual level, in “Raging Bull” it’s arguably the least impressive part of De Niro’s work. He plays LaMotta like a swirling cauldron of self-loathing and bitterness, constantly eating himself alive with the rage that makes him such a force in the ring. It’s a staggering performance that resists the tendency to flatten — an issue that plagues many biopic leads — instead bringing LaMotta’s greatness and ugliness to vivid life.
1. “The King of Comedy” (1983)
Who De Niro plays: Rupert Pupkin, an aspiring, more than slightly delusional stand-up comedian obsessed with a famous talk-show host (Jerry Lewis). Scorsese’s ’80s classic follows Rupert as he spirals into insanity and goes to increasingly criminal acts to get on the talk show and hit the big time.
Why he’s great: When Joaquin Phoenix won the Oscar for “Joker,” he should have thanked De Niro in his speech, because Todd Phillips’ film riffed so heavily on “The King of Comedy” that it might as well qualify as a loose remake. And De Niro emphatically deserved the Oscar for his work on the original; he’s funny, charming, and a little sympathetic as Rupert, but also terrifying and unpredictable. He brings a live-wire intensity to the role that charges the queasy black comedy, while still making his character’s delusions feel concrete and real. It’s maybe not the most iconic role of De Niro’s career, but it’s the most unforgettable and unique role in the actor’s storied career.
