title: Nelson Mandela

text: Mandela's administration inherited a country with a huge disparity in wealth and services between white and black communities. Of a population of 40 million, around 23 million lacked electricity or adequate sanitation, and 12 million lacked clean water supplies, with 2 million children not in school and a third of the population illiterate. There was 33% unemployment, and just under half of the population lived below the poverty line. Government financial reserves were nearly depleted, with a fifth of the national budget being spent on debt repayment, meaning that the extent of the promised Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) was scaled back, with none of the proposed nationalisation or job creation. In 1996, the RDP was replaced with a new policy, Growth, Employment and Redistribution (GEAR), which maintained South Africa's mixed economy but placed an emphasis on economic growth through a framework of market economics and the encouragement of foreign investment; many in the ANC derided it as a neo-liberal policy that did not address social inequality, no matter how Mandela defended it. In adopting this approach, Mandela's government adhered to the "Washington consensus" advocated by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.


title: Nelson Mandela

text: Under Mandela's presidency, welfare spending increased by 13% in 1996/97, 13% in 1997/98, and 7% in 1998/99. The government introduced parity in grants for communities, including disability grants, child maintenance grants and old-age pensions, which had previously been set at different levels for South Africa's different racial groups. In 1994, free healthcare was introduced for children under six and pregnant women, a provision extended to all those using primary level public sector health care services in 1996. By the 1999 election, the ANC could boast that due to their policies, 3 million people were connected to telephone lines, 1.5 million children were brought into the education system, 500 clinics were upgraded or constructed, 2 million people were connected to the electricity grid, water access was extended to 3 million people, and 750,000 houses were constructed, housing nearly 3 million people.


title: Nelson Mandela

text: The Land Reform Act 3 of 1996 safeguarded the rights of labour tenants living on farms where they grew crops or grazed livestock. This legislation ensured that such tenants could not be evicted without a court order or if they were over the age of 65. Recognising that arms manufacturing was a key industry for the South African economy, Mandela endorsed the trade in weapons but brought in tighter regulations surrounding Armscor to ensure that South African weaponry was not sold to authoritarian regimes. Under Mandela's administration, tourism was increasingly promoted, becoming a major sector of the South African economy.


title: Nelson Mandela

text: Critics like Edwin Cameron accused Mandela's government of doing little to stem the HIV/AIDS pandemic in the country; by 1999, 10% of South Africa's population were HIV positive. Mandela later admitted that he had personally neglected the issue, in part due to public reticence in discussing issues surrounding sex in South Africa, and that he had instead left the issue for Mbeki to deal with. Mandela also received criticism for failing to sufficiently combat crime; South Africa had one of the world's highest crime rates, and the activities of international crime syndicates in the country grew significantly throughout the decade. Mandela's administration was also perceived as having failed to deal with the problem of corruption.


title: Nelson Mandela

text: Further problems were caused by the exodus of thousands of skilled white South Africans from the country, who were escaping the increasing crime rates, higher taxes and the impact of positive discrimination toward black people in employment. This exodus resulted in a brain drain, and Mandela criticised those who left. At the same time, South Africa experienced an influx of millions of illegal migrants from poorer parts of Africa; although public opinion toward these illegal immigrants was generally unfavourable, characterising them as disease-spreading criminals who were a drain on resources, Mandela called on South Africans to embrace them as "brothers and sisters".


title: Nelson Mandela

text: Mandela expressed the view that "South Africa's future foreign relations [should] be based on our belief that human rights should be the core of international relations". Following the South African example, Mandela encouraged other nations to resolve conflicts through diplomacy and reconciliation. In September 1998, Mandela was appointed secretary-general of the Non-Aligned Movement, who held their annual conference in Durban. He used the event to criticise the "narrow, chauvinistic interests" of the Israeli government in stalling negotiations to end the Israeli–Palestinian conflict and urged India and Pakistan to negotiate to end the Kashmir conflict, for which he was criticised by both Israel and India. Inspired by the region's economic boom, Mandela sought greater economic relations with East Asia, in particular with Malaysia, although this was prevented by the 1997 Asian financial crisis. He extended diplomatic recognition to the People's Republic of China (PRC), who were growing as an economic force, and initially also to Taiwan, who were already longstanding investors in the South African economy. However, under pressure from the PRC, he cut recognition of Taiwan in November 1996, and he paid an official visit to Beijing in May 1999.


title: Nelson Mandela

text: Mandela attracted controversy for his close relationship with Indonesian president Suharto, whose regime was responsible for mass human rights abuses, although on a July 1997 visit to Indonesia he privately urged Suharto to withdraw from the occupation of East Timor. He also faced similar criticism from the West for his government's trade links to Syria, Cuba and Libya and for his personal friendships with Castro and Gaddafi. Castro visited South Africa in 1998 to widespread popular acclaim, and Mandela met Gaddafi in Libya to award him the Order of Good Hope. When Western governments and media criticised these visits, Mandela lambasted such criticism as having racist undertones, and stated that "the enemies of countries in the West are not our enemies." Mandela hoped to resolve the long-running dispute between Libya and the United States and Britain over bringing to trial the two Libyans, Abdelbaset al-Megrahi and Lamin Khalifah Fhimah, who were indicted in November 1991 and accused of sabotaging Pan Am Flight 103. Mandela proposed that they be tried in a third country, which was agreed to by all parties; governed by Scots law, the trial was held at Camp Zeist in the Netherlands in April 1999, and found one of the two men guilty.


title: Nelson Mandela

text: Mandela echoed Mbeki's calls for an "African Renaissance", and he was greatly concerned with issues on the continent. He took a soft diplomatic approach to removing Sani Abacha's military junta in Nigeria but later became a leading figure in calling for sanctions when Abacha's regime increased human rights violations. In 1996, he was appointed chairman of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and initiated unsuccessful negotiations to end the First Congo War in Zaire. He also played a key role as a mediator in the ethnic conflict between Tutsi and Hutu political groups in the Burundian Civil War, helping to initiate a settlement which brought increased stability to the country but did not end the ethnic violence. In South Africa's first post-apartheid military operation, troops were ordered into Lesotho in September 1998 to protect the government of Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosisili after a disputed election had prompted opposition uprisings. The action was not authorised by Mandela himself, who was out of the country at the time, but by Buthelezi, who was serving as acting president during Mandela's absence, with the approval of Mandela and Mbeki.


title: Nelson Mandela

text: The new Constitution of South Africa was agreed upon by parliament in May 1996, enshrining a series of institutions to place checks on political and administrative authority within a constitutional democracy. De Klerk opposed the implementation of this constitution, and that month he and the National Party withdrew from the coalition government in protest, claiming that the ANC were not treating them as equals. The ANC took over the cabinet positions formerly held by the Nationalists, with Mbeki becoming sole Deputy President. Inkatha remained part of the coalition, and when both Mandela and Mbeki were out of the country in September 1998, Buthelezi was appointed "Acting President", marking an improvement in his relationship with Mandela. Although Mandela had often governed decisively in his first two years as president, he had subsequently increasingly delegated duties to Mbeki, retaining only a close personal supervision of intelligence and security measures. During a 1997 visit to London, he said that "the ruler of South Africa, the "de facto" ruler, is Thabo Mbeki" and that he was "shifting everything to him".


title: Nelson Mandela

text: Mandela stepped down as ANC President at the party's December 1997 conference. He hoped that Ramaphosa would succeed him, believing Mbeki to be too inflexible and intolerant of criticism, but the ANC elected Mbeki regardless. Mandela and the Executive supported Jacob Zuma, a Zulu who had been imprisoned on Robben Island, as Mbeki's replacement for Deputy President. Zuma's candidacy was challenged by Winnie, whose populist rhetoric had gained her a strong following within the party, although Zuma defeated her in a landslide victory vote at the election.


title: Nelson Mandela

text: Mandela's relationship with Machel had intensified; in February 1998, he publicly stated that he was "in love with a remarkable lady", and under pressure from Tutu, who urged him to set an example for young people, he organised a wedding for his 80th birthday, in July that year. The following day, he held a grand party with many foreign dignitaries. Although the 1996 constitution allowed the president to serve two consecutive five-year terms, Mandela had never planned to stand for a second term in office. He gave his farewell speech to Parliament on 29 March 1999 when it adjourned prior to the 1999 general elections, after which he retired. Although opinion polls in South Africa showed wavering support for both the ANC and the government, Mandela himself remained highly popular, with 80% of South Africans polled in 1999 expressing satisfaction with his performance as president.


title: Nelson Mandela

text: Retiring in June 1999, Mandela aimed to lead a quiet family life, divided between Johannesburg and Qunu. Although he set about authoring a sequel to his first autobiography, to be titled "", it remained unfinished and was only published posthumously in 2017. Mandela found such seclusion difficult and reverted to a busy public life involving a daily programme of tasks, meetings with world leaders and celebrities, and—when in Johannesburg—working with the Nelson Mandela Foundation, founded in 1999 to focus on rural development, school construction, and combating HIV/AIDS. Although he had been heavily criticised for failing to do enough to fight the HIV/AIDS pandemic during his presidency, he devoted much of his time to the issue following his retirement, describing it as "a war" that had killed more than "all previous wars"; affiliating himself with the Treatment Action Campaign, he urged Mbeki's government to ensure that HIV-positive South Africans had access to anti-retrovirals. Meanwhile, Mandela was successfully treated for prostate cancer in July 2001.


title: Nelson Mandela

text: In 2002, Mandela inaugurated the Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture, and in 2003 the Mandela Rhodes Foundation was created at Rhodes House, University of Oxford, to provide postgraduate scholarships to African students. These projects were followed by the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory and the 46664 campaign against HIV/AIDS. He gave the closing address at the XIII International AIDS Conference in Durban in 2000, and in 2004, spoke at the XV International AIDS Conference in Bangkok, Thailand, calling for greater measures to tackle tuberculosis as well as HIV/AIDS. Mandela publicised AIDS as the cause of his son Makgatho's death in January 2005, to defy the stigma about discussing the disease.


title: Nelson Mandela

text: Publicly, Mandela became more vocal in criticising Western powers. He strongly opposed the 1999 NATO intervention in Kosovo and called it an attempt by the world's powerful nations to police the entire world. In 2003, he spoke out against the plans for the United States to launch a war in Iraq, describing it as "a tragedy" and lambasting US president George W. Bush and British prime minister Tony Blair (whom he referred to as an "American foreign minister") for undermining the UN, saying, "All that (Mr. Bush) wants is Iraqi oil". He attacked the United States more generally, asserting that "If there is a country that has committed unspeakable atrocities in the world, it is the United States of America", citing the atomic bombing of Japan; this attracted international controversy, although he later improved his relationship with Bush. Retaining an interest in the Lockerbie suspect, he visited Megrahi in Barlinnie prison and spoke out against the conditions of his treatment, referring to them as "psychological persecution".


title: Nelson Mandela

text: In June 2004, aged 85 and amid failing health, Mandela announced that he was "retiring from retirement" and retreating from public life, remarking, "Don't call me, I will call you." Although continuing to meet with close friends and family, the foundation discouraged invitations for him to appear at public events and denied most interview requests.


title: Nelson Mandela

text: He retained some involvement in international affairs. In 2005, he founded the Nelson Mandela Legacy Trust, travelling to the United States to speak before the Brookings Institution and the NAACP on the need for economic assistance to Africa. He spoke with US senator Hillary Clinton and President George W. Bush and first met the then-senator Barack Obama. Mandela also encouraged Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe to resign over growing human rights abuses in the country. When this proved ineffective, he spoke out publicly against Mugabe in 2007, asking him to step down "with residual respect and a modicum of dignity." That year, Mandela, Machel and Desmond Tutu convened a group of world leaders in Johannesburg to contribute their wisdom and independent leadership to some of the world's toughest problems. Mandela announced the formation of this new group, The Elders, in a speech delivered on his 89th birthday.


title: Nelson Mandela

text: Mandela's 90th birthday was marked across the country on 18 July 2008, with the main celebrations held at Qunu, and a concert in his honour in Hyde Park, London. In a speech marking the event, Mandela called for the rich to help the poor across the world. Throughout Mbeki's presidency, Mandela continued to support the ANC, usually overshadowing Mbeki at any public events that the two attended. Mandela was more at ease with Mbeki's successor, Zuma, although the Nelson Mandela Foundation was upset when his grandson, Mandla Mandela, flew him out to the Eastern Cape to attend a pro-Zuma rally in the midst of a storm in 2009.


title: Nelson Mandela

text: In 2004, Mandela successfully campaigned for South Africa to host the 2010 FIFA World Cup, declaring that there would be "few better gifts for us" in the year marking a decade since the fall of apartheid. Despite maintaining a low profile during the event due to ill health, Mandela made his final public appearance during the World Cup closing ceremony, where he received much applause. Between 2005 and 2013, Mandela, and later his family, were embroiled in a series of legal disputes regarding money held in family trusts for the benefit of his descendants. In mid-2013, as Mandela was hospitalised for a lung infection in Pretoria, his descendants were involved in an intra-family legal dispute relating to the burial place of Mandela's children, and ultimately Mandela himself.


title: Nelson Mandela

text: In February 2011, Mandela was briefly hospitalised with a respiratory infection, attracting international attention, before being re-admitted for a lung infection and gallstone removal in December 2012. After a successful medical procedure in early March 2013, his lung infection recurred and he was briefly hospitalised in Pretoria. In June 2013, his lung infection worsened and he was readmitted to a Pretoria hospital in serious condition. The Archbishop of Cape Town Thabo Makgoba visited Mandela at the hospital and prayed with Machel, while Zuma cancelled a trip to Mozambique to visit him the following day. In September 2013, Mandela was discharged from hospital, although his condition remained unstable.


title: Nelson Mandela

text: After suffering from a prolonged respiratory infection, Mandela died on 5 December 2013 at the age of 95, at around 20:50 local time at his home in Houghton, surrounded by his family. Zuma publicly announced his death on television, proclaiming ten days of national mourning, a memorial service held at Johannesburg's FNB Stadium on 10 December 2013, and 8 December as a national day of prayer and reflection. Mandela's body lay in state from 11 to 13 December at the Union Buildings in Pretoria and a state funeral was held on 15 December in Qunu. Approximately 90 representatives of foreign states travelled to South Africa to attend memorial events. It was later revealed that 300 million rand (about 20 million dollars) originally earmarked for humanitarian development projects had been redirected to finance the funeral. The media was awash with tributes and reminiscences, while images of tributes to Mandela proliferated across social media. His US$4.1 million estate was left to his widow, other family members, staff, and educational institutions.


title: Nelson Mandela

text: Mandela identified as both an African nationalist, an ideological position he held since joining the ANC, and as a socialist. He was a practical politician, rather than an intellectual scholar or political theorist. According to biographer Tom Lodge, "for Mandela, politics has always been primarily about enacting stories, about making narratives, primarily about morally exemplary conduct, and only secondarily about ideological vision, more about means rather than ends."


title: Nelson Mandela

text: The historian Sabelo J. Ndlovu-Gatsheni described Mandela as a "liberal African nationalist–decolonial humanist", while political analyst Raymond Suttner cautioned against labelling Mandela a liberal and stated that Mandela displayed a "hybrid socio-political make-up". Mandela adopted some of his political ideas from other thinkers—among them Indian independence leaders like Gandhi and Nehru, African-American civil rights activists, and African nationalists like Nkrumah—and applied them to the South African situation. At the same time he rejected other aspects of their thought, such as the anti-white sentiment of many African nationalists. In doing so he synthesised both counter-cultural and hegemonic views, for instance by drawing upon ideas from the then-dominant Afrikaner nationalism in promoting his anti-apartheid vision.


title: Nelson Mandela

text: His political development was strongly influenced by his legal training and practice, in particular his hope to achieve change not through violence but through "legal revolution". Over the course of his life, he began by advocating a path of non-violence, later embracing violence, and then adopting a non-violent approach to negotiation and reconciliation. When endorsing violence, he did so because he saw no alternative, and was always pragmatic about it, perceiving it as a means to get his opponent to the negotiating table. He sought to target symbols of white supremacy and racist oppression rather than white people as individuals, and was anxious not to inaugurate a race war in South Africa. This willingness to use violence distinguishes Mandela from the ideology of Gandhism, with which some commentators have sought to associate him.


title: Nelson Mandela

text: Although he presented himself in an autocratic manner in several speeches, Mandela was a devout believer in democracy and abided by majority decisions even when deeply disagreeing with them. He had exhibited a commitment to the values of democracy and human rights since at least the 1960s. He held a conviction that "inclusivity, accountability and freedom of speech" were the fundamentals of democracy, and was driven by a belief in natural and human rights. Suttner argued that there were "two modes of leadership" that Mandela adopted. On one side he adhered to ideas about collective leadership, although on the other believed that there were scenarios in which a leader had to be decisive and act without consultation to achieve a particular objective.


title: Nelson Mandela

text: According to Lodge, Mandela's political thought reflected tensions between his support for liberal democracy and pre-colonial African forms of consensus decision making. He was an admirer of British-style parliamentary democracy, stating that "I regard the British Parliament as the most democratic institution in the world, and the independence and impartiality of its judiciary never fail to arouse my admiration." In this he has been described as being committed to "the Euro-North American modernist project of emancipation", something which distinguishes him from other African nationalist and socialist leaders like Nyerere who were concerned about embracing styles of democratic governance that were Western, rather than African, in origin. Mandela nevertheless also expressed admiration for what he deemed to be indigenous forms of democracy, describing Xhosa traditional society's mode of governance as "democracy in its purest form". He also spoke of an influential African ethical tenet, Ubuntu, which is a Ngnuni term meaning "A person is a person through other persons" or "I am because we are."


title: Nelson Mandela

text: Mandela advocated the ultimate establishment of a classless society, with Sampson describing him as being "openly opposed to capitalism, private land-ownership and the power of big money". Mandela was influenced by Marxism, and during the revolution he advocated scientific socialism. He denied being a communist at the Treason Trial, and maintained this stance both when later talking to journalists, and in his autobiography, where he outlined that the cooperation with the SACP was pragmatic, asking rhetorically, "who is to say that we were not using them?" According to the sociologist Craig Soudien, "sympathetic as Mandela was to socialism, a communist he was not." Conversely, the biographer David Jones Smith stated that Mandela "embraced communism and communists" in the late 1950s and early 1960s, while the historian Stephen Ellis commented that Mandela had assimilated much of the Marxist–Leninist ideology by 1960.


title: Nelson Mandela

text: Ellis also found evidence that Mandela had been an active member of the South African Communist Party during the late 1950s and early 1960s, something that was confirmed after his death by both the ANC and the SACP, the latter of which claimed that he was not only a member of the party, but also served on its Central Committee. His membership had been hidden by the ANC, aware that knowledge of Mandela's former SACP involvement might have been detrimental to his attempts to attract support from Western countries. Mandela's view of these Western governments differed from those of Marxist–Leninists, for he did not believe that they were anti-democratic or reactionary and remained committed to democratic systems of governance.


title: Nelson Mandela

text: The 1955 Freedom Charter, which Mandela had helped create, called for the nationalisation of banks, gold mines and land, to ensure equal distribution of wealth. Despite these beliefs, Mandela initiated a programme of privatisation during his presidency in line with trends in other countries of the time. It has been repeatedly suggested that Mandela would have preferred to develop a social democratic economy in South Africa but that this was not feasible as a result of the international political and economic situation during the early 1990s. This decision was in part influenced by the fall of the socialist states in the Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc during the early 1990s.


title: Nelson Mandela

text: Mandela was widely considered a charismatic leader, described by biographer Mary Benson as "a born mass leader who could not help magnetizing people". He was highly image conscious and throughout his life always sought out fine quality clothes, with many commentators believing that he carried himself in a regal manner. His aristocratic heritage was repeatedly emphasised by supporters, thus contributing to his "charismatic power". While living in Johannesburg in the 1950s, he cultivated the image of the "African gentleman", having "the pressed clothes, correct manners, and modulated public speech" associated with such a position. In doing so, Lodge argued that Mandela became "one of the first media politicians ... embodying a glamour and a style that projected "visually" a brave new African world of modernity and freedom". Mandela was known to change his clothes several times a day, and he became so associated with highly coloured Batik shirts after assuming the presidency that they came to be known as "Madiba shirts".


title: Nelson Mandela

text: For political scientists Betty Glad and Robert Blanton, Mandela was an "exceptionally intelligent, shrewd, and loyal leader". His official biographer, Anthony Sampson, commented that he was a "master of imagery and performance", excelling at presenting himself well in press photographs and producing sound bites. His public speeches were presented in a formal, stiff manner, and often consisted of clichéd set phrases. He typically spoke slowly, and carefully chose his words. Although he was not considered a great orator, his speeches conveyed "his personal commitment, charm and humour".


title: Nelson Mandela

text: Mandela was a private person who often concealed his emotions and confided in very few people. Privately, he lived an austere life, refusing to drink alcohol or smoke, and even as president made his own bed. Renowned for his mischievous sense of humour, he was known for being both stubborn and loyal, and at times exhibited a quick temper. He was typically friendly and welcoming, and appeared relaxed in conversation with everyone, including his opponents. A self-described Anglophile, he claimed to have lived by the "trappings of British style and manners". Constantly polite and courteous, he was attentive to all, irrespective of their age or status, and often talked to children or servants. He was known for his ability to find common ground with very different communities. In later life, he always looked for the best in people, even defending political opponents to his allies, who sometimes thought him too trusting of others. He was fond of Indian cuisine, and had a lifelong interest in archaeology and boxing.


title: Nelson Mandela

text: He was raised in the Methodist denomination of Christianity; the Methodist Church of Southern Africa claimed that he retained his allegiance to them throughout his life. On analysing Mandela's writings, the theologian Dion Forster described him as a Christian humanist, although added that his thought relied to a greater extent on the Southern African concept of Ubuntu than on Christian theology. According to Sampson, Mandela never had "a strong religious faith" however, while Elleke Boehmer stated that Mandela's religious belief was "never robust".


title: Nelson Mandela

text: Mandela was very self-conscious about being a man and regularly made references to manhood. He was heterosexual, and biographer Fatima Meer said that he was "easily tempted" by women. Another biographer, Martin Meredith, characterised him as being "by nature a romantic", highlighting that he had relationships with various women. Mandela was married three times, fathered six children, and had seventeen grandchildren and at least seventeen great-grandchildren. He could be stern and demanding of his children, although he was more affectionate with his grandchildren. His first marriage was to Evelyn Ntoko Mase in October 1944; they divorced in March 1958 under the multiple strains of his adultery and constant absences, devotion to revolutionary agitation, and the fact that she was a Jehovah's Witness, a religion requiring political neutrality. Mandela's second wife was the social worker Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, whom he married in June 1958. They divorced in March 1996. Mandela married his third wife, Graça Machel, on his 80th birthday in July 1998.


title: Nelson Mandela

text: By the time of his death, within South Africa Mandela was widely considered both "the father of the nation" and "the founding father of democracy". Outside of South Africa, he was a "global icon", with the scholar of South African studies Rita Barnard describing him as "one of the most revered figures of our time". One biographer considered him "a modern democratic hero". Some have portrayed Mandela in messianic terms, in contrast to his own statement that "I was not a messiah, but an ordinary man who had become a leader because of extraordinary circumstances." He is often cited alongside Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. as one of the 20th century's exemplary anti-racist and anti-colonial leaders. Boehmer described him as "a totem of the totemic values of our age: toleration and liberal democracy" and "a universal symbol of social justice".


title: Nelson Mandela

text: Mandela's international fame emerged during his incarceration in the 1980s, when he became the world's most famous political prisoner, a symbol of the anti-apartheid cause, and an icon for millions who embraced the ideal of human equality. In 1986, Mandela's biographer characterised him as "the embodiment of the struggle for liberation" in South Africa. Meredith stated that in becoming "a potent symbol of resistance" to apartheid during the 1980s, he had gained "mythical status" internationally. Sampson commented that even during his life, this myth had become "so powerful that it blurs the realities", converting Mandela into "a secular saint". Within a decade of the end of his presidency, Mandela's era was widely thought of as "a golden age of hope and harmony", with much nostalgia being expressed for it. His name was often invoked by those criticising his successors like Mbeki and Zuma. Across the world, Mandela earned international acclaim for his activism in overcoming apartheid and fostering racial reconciliation, coming to be viewed as "a moral authority" with a great "concern for truth". Mandela's iconic status has been blamed for concealing the complexities of his life.


title: Nelson Mandela

text: Mandela generated controversy throughout his career as an activist and politician, having detractors on both the right and the radical left. During the 1980s, Mandela was widely labelled a terrorist by prominent political figures in the Western world for his embrace of political violence. According to Thatcher, for instance, the ANC was "a typical terrorist organisation". The US government's State and Defense departments officially designated the ANC as a terrorist organisation, resulting in Mandela remaining on their terrorism watch-list until 2008. On the left, some voices in the ANC—among them Frank B. Wilderson III—accused him of selling out for agreeing to enter negotiations with the apartheid government and for not implementing the reforms of the Freedom Charter during his presidency. According to Barnard, "there is also a sense in which his chiefly bearing and mode of conduct, the very respect and authority he accrued in representing his nation in his own person, went against the spirit of democracy", and concerns were similarly expressed that he placed his own status and celebrity above the transformation of his country. His government would be criticised for its failure to deal with both the HIV/AIDS pandemic and the high levels of poverty in South Africa. Mandela was also criticised for his friendship with political leaders such as Castro, Gaddafi, and Suharto—deemed dictators by critics—as well as his refusal to condemn their governments' human rights violations.


title: Nelson Mandela

text: Over the course of his life, Mandela was given over 250 awards, accolades, prizes, honorary degrees and citizenships in recognition of his political achievements.


title: Nelson Mandela

text: Among his awards were the Nobel Peace Prize, the US Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Soviet Union's Lenin Peace Prize, and the Libyan Al-Gaddafi International Prize for Human Rights. In 1990, India awarded him the Bharat Ratna, and in 1992 Pakistan gave him their Nishan-e-Pakistan. The same year, he was awarded the Atatürk Peace Award by Turkey; he at first refused the award, citing human rights violations committed by Turkey at the time, but later accepted the award in 1999. He was given the Fulbright Prize for International Understanding by the Fulbright Association in 1993. He was appointed to the Order of Isabella the Catholic and the Order of Canada, and was the first living person to be made an honorary Canadian citizen. Queen Elizabeth II appointed him as a Bailiff Grand Cross of the Order of St. John and granted him membership in the Order of Merit.


title: Nelson Mandela

text: In 2004, Johannesburg granted Mandela the Freedom of the City, and in 2008 a Mandela statue was unveiled at the spot where Mandela was released from prison. On the Day of Reconciliation 2013, a bronze statue of Mandela was unveiled at Pretoria's Union Buildings.


title: Nelson Mandela

text: In November 2009, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed Mandela's birthday, 18 July, as "Mandela Day", marking his contribution to the anti-apartheid struggle. It called on individuals to donate 67 minutes to doing something for others, commemorating the 67 years that Mandela had been a part of the movement. In 2015 the UN General Assembly named the amended Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners as "the Mandela Rules" to honour his legacy.


title: Nelson Mandela

text: The first biography of Mandela was authored by Mary Benson, based on brief interviews with him that she had conducted in the 1960s. Two authorised biographies were later produced by friends of Mandela. The first was Fatima Meer's "Higher Than Hope", which was heavily influenced by Winnie and thus placed great emphasis on Mandela's family. The second was Anthony Sampson's "Mandela", published in 1999. Other biographies included Martin Meredith's "Mandela", first published in 1997, and Tom Lodge's "Mandela", brought out in 2006.


title: Nelson Mandela

text: Since the late 1980s, Mandela's image began to appear on a proliferation of items, among them "photographs, paintings, drawings, statues, public murals, buttons, t-shirts, refrigerator magnets, and more", items that have been characterised as "Mandela kitsch". In the 1980s he was the subject of several songs, such as The Specials' "Free Nelson Mandela", Hugh Masekela's "Bring Him Back Home (Nelson Mandela)", and Johnny Clegg's "Asimbonanga (Mandela)", which helped to bring awareness of his imprisonment to an international audience.


title: Nelson Mandela

text: Following his death, many internet memes appeared featuring images of Mandela with his inspirational quotes superimposed onto them. Mandela has also been depicted in films on multiple occasions. Some of these, such as the 2013 feature film "", the 2017 miniseries "Madiba" and the 1996 documentary "Mandela", have focused on covering his adult life in entirety or until his inaugural as president others, such as the 2009 feature film "Invictus" and the 2010 documentary "The 16th Man", have focused on specific events in his life. It has been argued that in "Invictus" and other films, "the America film industry" has played a significant part in "the crafting of Mandela's global image".


title: Robert De Niro

text: Robert Anthony De Niro Jr. ( , ; born August 17, 1943) is an American actor. Known for his collaborations with Martin Scorsese, he is considered to be one of the best actors of his generation. De Niro is the recipient of various accolades, including two Academy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, the Cecil B. DeMille Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award. In 2009, De Niro received the Kennedy Center Honor, and earned a Presidential Medal of Freedom from U.S. President Barack Obama in 2016.


title: Robert De Niro

text: Born in Manhattan in New York City, De Niro studied acting at HB Studio, Stella Adler Conservatory, and Lee Strasberg's Actors Studio. His first major role was in "Greetings" (1968), and he gained early recognition with his role as a baseball player in the sports drama "Bang the Drum Slowly" (1973). De Niro's first collaboration with Scorsese was "Mean Streets" (1973), where he played small-time crook "Johnny Boy". Stardom followed with his role as young Vito Corleone in Francis Ford Coppola's crime epic "The Godfather Part II" (1974), which earned De Niro an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. For his portrayal of Travis Bickle in "Taxi Driver" (1976), and a soldier in the Vietnam War drama "The Deer Hunter" (1978), he earned two Academy Award nominations for Best Actor.


title: Robert De Niro

text: De Niro won an Academy Award for Best Actor for portraying middleweight boxing champion Jake LaMotta in Scorsese's biographical drama "Raging Bull" (1980), his first Oscar in this category. He soon diversified to other roles, playing a stand-up comic in "The King of Comedy" (1982), and gained further recognition for his performances in Bernardo Bertolucci's epic "1900" (1976), Sergio Leone's "Once Upon a Time in America" (1984), Terry Gilliam's dystopian satire "Brazil" (1985), the religious epic "The Mission" (1986), and the comedy "Midnight Run" (1988)"." De Niro portrayed gangster Jimmy Conway in "Goodfellas" (1990), a catatonic patient in "Awakenings" (1990), and a criminal in the psychological thriller "Cape Fear" (1991). All three films received praise for De Niro's performances. He then starred in "This Boy's Life" (1993), and directed his first feature film with 1993's "A Bronx Tale." His other critical successes include "Heat" (1995) and "Casino" (1995).


title: Robert De Niro

text: De Niro is also known for his comic roles in "Wag the Dog" (1997), "Analyze This" (1999), and "Meet the Parents" (2000). After appearing in several critically and commercially unsuccessful films, he earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in David O. Russell's 2012 romantic comedy "Silver Linings Playbook". In 2017, De Niro portrayed Bernie Madoff in "The Wizard of Lies", earning a Primetime Emmy Award nomination. More recently, he starred in the psychological thriller "Joker" (2019) and Scorsese's crime epic "The Irishman" (2019).


title: Robert De Niro

text: De Niro and producer Jane Rosenthal founded the film and television production company TriBeCa Productions in 1989, which has produced several films alongside his own. Also with Rosenthal, he founded the Tribeca Film Festival in 2002. Six of De Niro's films have been inducted into the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".


title: Robert De Niro

text: Robert Anthony De Niro Jr. was born in the Manhattan borough of New York City on August 17, 1943, the only child of painters Virginia Admiral and Robert De Niro Sr. His father was of Irish and Italian descent, while his mother had Dutch, English, French, and German ancestry. His parents, who had met at the painting classes of Hans Hofmann in Provincetown, Massachusetts, separated when he was two years old after his father announced that he was gay. He was raised by his mother in the Greenwich Village and Little Italy neighborhoods of Manhattan. His father lived nearby, and remained close with De Niro during his childhood. Nicknamed "Bobby Milk" because of his pale complexion, De Niro befriended many street kids in Little Italy, much to the disapproval of his father. Some, however, have remained his lifelong friends. His mother was raised Presbyterian but became an atheist as an adult, while his father had been a lapsed Catholic since the age of 12. Against his parents' wishes, his grandparents had De Niro secretly baptized into the Catholic Church while he was staying with them during his parents' divorce.


title: Robert De Niro

text: De Niro attended PS 41, a public elementary school in Manhattan, through the sixth grade. He began acting classes at the Dramatic Workshop and made his stage debut in school at age 10, playing the Cowardly Lion in "The Wizard of Oz". He later went to Elisabeth Irwin High School, the upper school of the Little Red School House, for the seventh and eighth grades. He was then accepted into the High School of Music and Art for the ninth grade, but attended for only a short time before transferring to a public junior high school: IS 71, Charles Evans Hughes Junior High School. De Niro attended high school at McBurney School and later, Rhodes Preparatory School. He found performing as a way to relieve his shyness, and became fascinated by cinema, so he dropped out of high school at 16 to pursue acting. He later said, "When I was around 18, I was looking at a TV show and I said, 'If these actors are making a living at it, and they're not really that good, I can't do any worse than them.'" He studied acting at HB Studio and Lee Strasberg's Actors Studio. De Niro also studied with Stella Adler, of the Stella Adler Conservatory, where he was exposed to the techniques of the Stanislavski system. As a young actor, De Niro was inspired by the work of Marlon Brando, Montgomery Clift, James Dean, Greta Garbo, Geraldine Page, and Kim Stanley.


title: Robert De Niro

text: De Niro's had minor film roles in "Encounter, Three Rooms in Manhattan" (both released in 1965) and "Les Jeunes Loups" (1968). Shortly afterwards, De Niro landed a major role in "Greetings" (1968), a satirical film about men avoiding the Vietnam War draft. The film marked the first of a series of early collaborations between De Niro and director Brian De Palma. A year later, De Niro appeared in the drama "Sam's Song" in which he portrays a New York City filmmaker. Also in 1969, he appeared in De Palma's comedy "The Wedding Party"; although it was filmed in 1963, it was kept unreleased for six years. De Niro, who was still unknown at the time, gained a favorable review from "The New York Times" Howard Thompson: "This farcical comedy, modestly produced by a trio of young people and utilizing some unfamiliar faces, is great fun".


title: Robert De Niro

text: He then appeared in Roger Corman's low-budget crime drama "Bloody Mama" (1970), a loose adaptation of Ma Barker's life, who was the mother of four American criminals, of which De Niro portrayed one: Lloyd Barker. Thompson praised the film and thought the cast gave "fine performances". Next, De Niro starred in De Palma's comedy "Hi, Mom!" (1970), a sequel to "Greetings." Writing for "The" "New Yorker", Richard Brody opined that De Niro "brings unhinged spontaneity" to his character. He also had a small role in "Jennifer on My Mind" (1971) and in Ivan Passer's "Born to Win" (1971). His last film appearance of 1971 was in "The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight", a crime-comedy based on the 1969 novel by Jimmy Breslin.


title: Robert De Niro

text: In 1972, De Niro starred in two performances at The American Place Theatre, directed by Charles Maryan. He then returned to the big screen with "Bang the Drum Slowly" (1973), in which he played the lead role as Bruce Pearson, a Major League Baseball player with Hodgkin disease. His co-stars were Michael Moriarty and Vincent Gardenia. Adapted from the 1956 novel of the same name by Mark Harris, the film received critical acclaim and helped De Niro gain further recognition. "The Hollywood Reporter" wrote, "De Niro proves himself to be one of the best and most likable young character actors in movies with this performance". "Variety" magazine's Alex Belth also took note of De Niro's "touching" portrayal, while Gardenia was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Harris later wrote about De Niro, "He learned only as much baseball as he needed for his role [...] I doubt that he ever cared to touch a baseball again".


title: Robert De Niro

text: In 1973, De Niro began collaborating with Martin Scorsese when he appeared in the crime film "Mean Streets" (1973), co-starring Harvey Keitel. Although De Niro was offered a choice of roles, Scorsese wanted De Niro to play "Johnny Boy" Civello, a small time criminal working his way up into a local mob. While De Niro and Keitel were given freedom to improvise certain scenes, assistant director Ron Satlof recalls De Niro was "extremely serious, extremely involved in his role and preparation", and became isolated from the rest of the cast and crew. "Mean Streets" debuted at the Cannes Film Festival, followed by the New York Film Festival five months later, to a generally warm response. Film critic Roger Ebert thought De Niro gave a "marvelous performance, filled with urgency and restless desperation". Pauline Kael of "The New York Times" was equally impressed by De Niro, writing he is "a bravura actor, and those who have registered him only as the grinning, tobacco-chewing dolt of that hunk of inept whimsey "Bang the Drum Slowly" will be unprepared for his volatile performance. De Niro does something like what Dustin Hoffman was doing in "Midnight Cowboy", but wilder; this kid doesn’t just act – he takes off into the vapors". In 1997, "Mean Streets" was selected for preservation in the U.S. National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".


title: Robert De Niro

text: De Niro had a pivotal role in Francis Ford Coppola's crime epic "The Godfather Part II" (1974), playing the young Vito Corleone. De Niro had previously auditioned for the first installment, "The Godfather" (1972), but quit the project in favor of doing "The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight". Coppola, having remembered him, gave De Niro a role in "Part II" instead. To portray his character, De Niro spoke mainly in several Sicilian dialects, although he delivered a few lines in English. The film was a commercial success and grossed $48 million at the worldwide box office. "The Godfather Part II" received eleven nominations at the 47th Academy Awards, winning six, including one for De Niro as Best Supporting Actor. It was De Niro's first Academy win; Coppola accepted the award on his behalf as he did not attend the ceremony. De Niro and Marlon Brando, who played the older Vito Corleone in the first film, were the first pair of actors to win Academy Awards for portraying the same fictional character.


title: Robert De Niro

text: After working with Scorsese in "Mean Streets", De Niro collaborated with him again for the psychological drama "Taxi Driver" (1976). Set in gritty and morally bankrupt New York City following the Vietnam War, the film tells the story of Travis Bickle, a lonely taxi driver who descends into insanity. In preparation for the role, De Niro spent time with members of a U.S. army base to learn their Midwestern accent and mannerisms. He also lost 30 pounds (13 kg) in weight, took firearm training and studied the behavior of taxi drivers. The film was critically acclaimed, in particular for De Niro's performance; "The Washington Post" critic hailed it as his "landmark performance", and the "San Francisco Chronicle" wrote "De Niro is dazzling in one of his signature roles". Despite controversy for Jodie Foster being cast as a child prostitute, the film was nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Actor for De Niro. His "You talkin' to me?" quote, which he improvised, was selected as the 10th most memorable quote in the AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes by the American Film Institute. In 2005, the film was chosen by "Time" magazine as one of the 100 best films of all time.


title: Robert De Niro

text: De Niro had two other film releases in 1976. He starred in "1900", a historical drama directed by Bernardo Bertolucci. Starring an ensemble cast, the film is set in the Emilia region of Italy, and tells the story of two men, the landowner Alfredo Berlinghieri (De Niro) and the peasant Olmo Dalcò (Gérard Depardieu), as they witness and participate in the political conflicts between fascism and communism in the first half of the twentieth century. Next, he played a CEO in "The Last Tycoon", based on F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel of the same name, as adapted by British screenwriter Harold Pinter. De Niro lost 42 pounds (19 kg) for the role, and director Elia Kazan observed that De Niro would rehearse on Sundays, adding "Bobby and I would go over the scenes to be shot. Bobby is more meticulous... he's very imaginative. He's very precise. He figures everything out both inside and outside. He has good emotion. He's a character actor: everything he does he calculates. In a good way, but he calculates". The film received mixed reviews; "Variety" magazine critic opined that the film was "unfocused" and called De Niro's performance "mildly intriguing". Film critic Marie Brenner wrote, "it is a role that surpasses even his brilliant and daring portrayal of Vito Corleone in "The Godfather Part II"... his performance deserves to be compared with the very finest".


title: Robert De Niro

text: For De Niro's sole project of 1977, he starred in Scorsese's musical drama "New York, New York" opposite Liza Minnelli. De Niro learned to play the saxophone from musician Georgie Auld, to portray saxophonist Jimmy, who falls in love with a pop singer (Minnelli). The film received generally mixed reception, although critics were kinder to De Niro. The film was nominated for four Golden Globe awards including Best Actor in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for De Niro. In 1978, De Niro starred in Michael Cimino's epic war film "The Deer Hunter," in which he played a steelworker whose life was changed after serving in the Vietnam War. He co-starred with Christopher Walken, John Savage, John Cazale, Meryl Streep, and George Dzundza. The story takes place in Clairton, Pennsylvania, a working-class town on the Monongahela River south of Pittsburgh, and in Vietnam. Producer Michael Deeley pursued De Niro for the role, because the fame of his previous films would help make a "gruesome-sounding storyline and a barely known director" marketable. De Niro, impressed by the script and director's preparation, was among the first to sign on to the film. Reviews for "The Deer Hunter" were generally positive, and the cast attracted strong praise for their performances. The film received nominations at the Academy Awards, Golden Globes and British Academy Film Awards (BAFTAs), and earned De Niro a nomination for Best Actor at the Academy Awards. In 2007, the American Film Institute ranked it as the 53rd-greatest American film of all time in their 10th Anniversary Edition of the AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies list.


title: Robert De Niro

text: The fourth collaboration between De Niro and Scorsese was in 1980, with the biographical drama "Raging Bull." Adapted from Jake LaMotta's memoir "," De Niro portrays LaMotta, the Italian-American middleweight boxer whose violent behavior and temper destroyed his relationship with his wife and family. Co-starring Joe Pesci and Cathy Moriarty, De Niro later said it was one of the toughest roles to prepare for because he had to gain 60 pounds (27 kg), and had to learn to box. "The book’s not great literature, but it’s got a lot of heart", De Niro told Scorsese at the time. Although the film received critical acclaim, some reviewers were divided and criticized its "exceedingly violent" content; however, De Niro garnered praise for his realistic portrayal. The critic from "The Hollywood Reporter" declared that "De Niro is incredible and makes the actor almost unrecognizable as himself; he looks amazingly like La Motta. De Niro's appearance is also astonishing in the final scenes". Michael Thomson of the BBC observed "the power of Scorsese is matched by the intensity of De Niro who delves deep into the soul of the boxer". At the 53rd Academy Awards, the film received eight nominations, including Best Actor for De Niro for which he won. "Raging Bull" has since been regarded as one of the greatest films of the 1980s by American critics. De Niro was strongly considered for the role of Jack Torrance in Stanley Kubrick's "The Shining", but it ended up going to Jack Nicholson, the director's first choice for the role.


title: Robert De Niro

text: De Niro returned to the crime genre with "True Confessions" (1981), adapted from the 1977 novel of the same name by John Gregory Dunne. Less challenging than his previous film, De Niro played a priest who clashes with his brother (Robert Duvall), a detective investigating the murder of a prostitute. Vincent Canby of "The New York Times" thought the plot was hard to follow at times but praised the actors who "work so beautifully together it sometimes seems like a single performance". To expand his range of acting roles and to prove his acting abilities, De Niro sought out films with a comedic tone throughout the 1980s. He found it in "The King of Comedy" (1982), in which he played the struggling stand-up comedian Rupert Pupkin. De Niro was first to bring the script to the attention of Scorsese, who then gave it a New York setting and darker tone. The film failed to find an audience, and was a box office disappointment, grossing only $2.5 million from a budget of $19 million. However, most critics praised De Niro's performance. His next film credit was in Sergio Leone's "Once Upon a Time in America" (1984), in which he plays David "Noodles" Aaronson, a New York City Jewish gangster. The theatrical cut, with a runtime of 229 minutes, premiered at the 1984 Cannes Film Festival and received a 15-minute standing ovation. The film was shortened for theaters in the U.S. (139 minutes), but this proved to be highly unpopular with critics. After seeing the full cut, Kenneth Turan of the "Los Angeles Times" described the film "excessive as well as tightly controlled" with the actors showing "impressive restraint and power".


title: Robert De Niro

text: "Falling in Love", a romantic comedy starring opposite Meryl Streep, was his last release of 1984. One year later, De Niro starred in a science fiction for the first time, "Brazil," about a daydreaming man living in a dystopian society. Although the film was unsuccessful at the box office, "Brazil" was included in The Criterion Collection. In May 1986, De Niro returned to the stage at Longacre Theatre, playing the lead role in the production "Cuba and His Teddy Bear." For his next feature film, he co-starred in "The Mission" (1986) with Jeremy Irons, a period drama about the experiences of a Jesuit missionary in eighteenth century South America. Vincent Canby reviewed the film negatively, and was critical of De Niro's casting: "De Niro, who was very fine as the street-wise priest in "True Confessions", is all right here until he opens his mouth". However, the film won an Academy Award for Best Cinematography, three BAFTAs, including Best Editing, and two Golden Globes for Best Screenplay and Best Original Score.


title: Robert De Niro

text: In 1987, De Niro had two minor film roles. In the first, he was cast as Louis Cyphre in Alan Parker's horror "Angel Heart", an adaptation of William Hjortsberg's 1978 novel "Falling Angel." In the second, he portrayed Al Capone in De Palma's crime drama, "The Untouchables." While Pauline Kael opined that De Niro was "lazy" for undertaking small roles, De Palma defended him by saying he was "experimenting with those characters". In July 1987, he traveled to Russia to serve as President of the Jury at the 15th Moscow International Film Festival. Finally that year, he provided a voice-over for the documentary "." The buddy cop film, "Midnight Run", was his next effort in 1988. Starring opposite Charles Grodin, De Niro played bounty hunter Jack Walsh. The film received amicable reception and was a commercial success, grossing $81 million worldwide. In his mixed review, Hal Hinson of "The Washington Post" wrote of De Niro:


title: Robert De Niro

text: De Niro has reduced himself in scale here, too, and it's a relief to see him drop the great-actor mantle, and the theatricality. As a result, he hasn't seemed as fresh since "Mean Streets" or "New York, New York." Walsh is more of a character role than the ones he played in those films; there's less specificity in the conception – he's more of a type – but the actor fits into him snugly, effortlessly, and the chance to play comedy, particularly opposite a comic foil as ideal as Grodin, appears to have revitalized him.He turned down an opportunity to play Jesus Christ in Scorsese's "The Last Temptation of Christ" (1988), although he told the director that he would do it as a favor if needed. Scorsese cast Willem Dafoe instead. In 1989, De Niro starred in several films that were not widely seen. He starred alongside Ed Harris and Kathy Baker in the drama "Jacknife." The film revolves around the complex relationship between a Vietnam veteran, his sister and fellow army buddy. Next, he starred in the crime comedy "We're No Angels" (1989) with Sean Penn, a remake of the 1955 film of the same name. The pair play escaped convicts who go on the run towards Canada. A year later, he starred in the romantic drama "Stanley & Iris" opposite Jane Fonda. Film critics did not receive "We're No Angels" or "Stanley & Iris" positively; modern review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gives them approval ratings of 47% and 33%, respectively.De Niro and Scorsese soon reunited for their sixth collaboration in 1990, with the crime film "Goodfellas." It is an adaptation of the 1985 non-fiction book "Wiseguy" by Nicholas Pileggi. The film narrates the life of mob associate Henry Hill (Ray Liotta) and his friends and family from 1955 to 1980. De Niro played James Conway, an Irish truck carjacker and gangster. "Goodfellas" premiered at the 47th Venice International Film Festival to an "enthusiastic" response from Italian critics, although it grossed a moderate $46 million upon its wider release. Writing for "Rolling Stone" magazine, Peter Travers, praised the cast performances, and called De Niro's character "a smooth killer acted with riveting restraint". "Chicago Tribune" Gene Siskel was equally impressed by their improvised performances and concluded "easily one of the year's best films". In the awards season, the film was nominated for six Academy Awards, and De Niro was nominated for Best Actor at the BAFTAs. In 2007, the American Film Institute ranked it as the 92nd-greatest American film of all time in their 10th Anniversary Edition of the AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies list. Also in 1990, De Niro appeared in the lead role for "Awakenings", directed by Penny Marshall. The drama, based on Oliver Sacks' 1973 book of the same title, tells the story of Dr. Malcolm Sayer (Robin Williams), who discovers benefits of the drug L-Dopa in 1969 and administers it to catatonic patients. The film was nominated for three Academy Awards, including Best Actor for De Niro. Sacks later remarked of the film: "I was pleased with a great deal of it. I think in an uncanny way, De Niro did somehow feel his way into being Parkinsonian. [...] At other levels I think things were sort of sentimentalized and simplified somewhat".


title: Robert De Niro

text: De Niro's next film project was the drama "Guilty by Suspicion" (1991) in which he plays David Merrill, a fictitious film director, returning to the U.S. during the McCarthy era and Hollywood blacklist. The film received generally favorable reviews. He then had a minor role in the mystery drama "Backdraft" (1991), playing a veteran fire inspector. De Niro's biggest success of 1991 was "Cape Fear", his seventh film with Scorsese and a remake of the 1962 film of the same name. De Niro portrays convicted rapist Max Cady, who seeks revenge against a former public defender who originally defended him. De Niro's performance was widely lauded. David Ansen of "Newsweek" remarked that De Niro "dominates the film with his lip-smacking, blackly comic and terrifying portrayal of psychopathic self-righteousness". The film grossed a successful $182 million and earned De Niro a Best Actor nomination at the 64th Academy Awards.


title: Robert De Niro

text: In 1992, De Niro appeared in two films. The first, "Mistress," is a comedy-drama in which he played ruthless businessman Evan Wright. Of his performance, the critic from "The Independent" called De Niro "more urbane and coherent than we've seen him for a while". Irwin Winkler's "Night and the City" was his second release, a crime drama remake of the 1950 film noir of the same name. He was cast as New York lawyer Harry Fabian. Owen Gleiberman of "Entertainment Weekly" gave the film a rating of "B−" and was critical of De Niro: "The actor who once got so far inside his roles that he just about detonated the screen – now plays characters who don’t seem to have any inner life at all". Next, he served as a producer for the mystery thriller "Thunderheart" (1992)"." In 1993, he played crime scene photographer Wayne Dobie in the comedy drama "Mad Dog and Glory" with co-stars Uma Thurman and Bill Murray. The feature received reasonable reviews and was lauded for the chemistry between De Niro and Murray; "The Washington Post" critic noted that their "real-life friendship spills over into this jittery, very funny look at the male bonding experience". Next, De Niro starred in the coming-of-age film "This Boy's Life" (1993), based on the memoir of the same name by Tobias Wolff. It features Ellen Barkin and Leonardo DiCaprio. Playing stepfather Dwight Hansen of Wolff (DiCaprio), the film was mostly well received, although "Timeout" magazine believed that "DiCaprio steals the show".


title: Robert De Niro

text: De Niro starred in his directorial debut, "A Bronx Tale" (1993), a coming-of-age story about an Italian-American boy who is torn between the temptations of organized crime, racism in his community, and the values of his decent father. The film also stars Chazz Palminteri, who wrote the play of the same name, and is based on his childhood. "A Bronx Tale" premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival to a positive response; Marjorie Baumgarten of "The Austin Chronicle" wrote "De Niro's choices as a director all seem prudent and un-showy, designed to draw attention to the characters and the story rather than its technical assemblage and much-lauded star". "Variety" magazine Todd McCarthy took issue with the film's slow start but complimented De Niro's "impressive sensitivity to the irrational roots of racism and violence". A year later, De Niro was cast in the lead role of "Mary Shelley's Frankenstein", an adaptation of Mary Shelley's 1818 novel "Frankenstein." Although the film was commercially successful, earning $112 million worldwide, the general consensus of reviews were largely negative. Film critic James Berardinelli opined that it was entertaining and De Niro gave a strong performance, despite the film's "frantic" pace.


title: Robert De Niro

text: "Casino" (1995) marked De Niro's return to the crime genre with Scorsese in their eighth collaboration. Co-starring Sharon Stone and Joe Pesci, the film is based on the book "" by Nicholas Pileggi. De Niro portrays Sam "Ace" Rothstein, a mob-connected casino operator in Las Vegas. The film's themes revolve around greed, betrayal, wealth, status, and murder that occur between two mobsters, Sam "Ace" Rothstein (De Niro) and Nicky Santoro (Pesci), and a trophy wife (Stone) over a gambling empire. "Casino" was released to mostly positive critical reception, and was a success at the worldwide box office. Roger Ebert was impressed with the lead performers' abilities to "inhabit their roles with unconscious assurance", and "The Globe and Mail"'s critic thought "De Niro does an extraordinarily subtle job of capturing the paradox [...] that lie at the heart of this picture". Shortly afterwards, he starred in 1995's crime thriller "Heat", about a group of professional bank robbers. Art Linson, who had previously produced films starring De Niro, sent him the script first. "It was very good, very strong, had a particular feel to it, a reality and authenticity," De Niro said. Co-starring Al Pacino and Val Kilmer, the film was released to wide acclaim; Michael Wilmington of the "Chicago Tribune" wrote: De Niro and Pacino redeem everything. In "Heat", they represent a high postwar tradition for movie actors – the ones inspired by Marlon Brando, John Cassavetes and James Dean – who aren't afraid of emotion, who run right into the jaws of a scene to grab it. Like others from their generation – Jack Nicholson, Gene Hackman, Harvey Keitel – they have a keener slant on machismo. They easily explore its darker strata. In 1995, De Niro had minor roles in the French comedy "One Hundred and One Nights" and in the drama "Panther." In 1996, De Niro starred in the sports thriller "The Fan", based on the novel of the same name by Peter Abrahams. De Niro plays Gil Renard, a baseball fanatic who loses his sanity. His fiftieth film credit was in the crime drama "Sleepers" (1996), about four boys who become involved with crime, and are sentenced to a detention center where they are abused by guards, and seek vengeance upon release. De Niro plays priest Bobby Carillo, a father figure to the four boys. Afterwards, he appeared in "Marvin's Room" (1996) as Dr. Wallace Carter, who treats a woman (Diane Keaton) with leukemia. Writing for the British "Empire" magazine, Bob McCabe opined that "Performances are all eminently watchable [...] but the truncated feel robs the film of anything more than perfunctory pleasures". Also in 1996, De Niro co-produced the crime-comedy "Faithful".


title: Robert De Niro

text: The following year, he appeared in James Mangold's "Cop Land" (1997), a crime-drama co-starring Sylvester Stallone, Harvey Keitel and Ray Liotta. De Niro plays Internal Affairs investigator Lt. Moe Tilden, who explores police corruption in a New Jersey town. The film opened to a generally warm response, although Barbara Shulgasser of "San Francisco Examiner" criticized De Niro's acting in certain scenes, suggesting Mangold put De Niro in a "manufactured situation", preventing him from realizing his full potential. De Niro co-starred and co-produced "Wag the Dog" (1997). The film is a political satire about a biased publicist (De Niro) and a Hollywood producer (Dustin Hoffman) who fabricate a war in Albania to cover up a U.S. president's sex scandal. In January 1998, a month after its release, the Clinton–Lewinsky scandal dominated the headlines, which helped the film generate publicity. As a result, "Wag the Dog" was well-received and made the list of Roger Ebert's ten best films of 1997. De Niro also had a supporting role in Quentin Tarantino's "Jackie Brown" in that same year.


title: Robert De Niro

text: De Niro began 1998 with an appearance in "Great Expectations", a modern adaptation of Charles Dickens’ 1861 novel of the same name, in which he played Arthur Lustig. Later that year, his next major role came in "Ronin" (1998), about a team of former special operatives that are hired to steal a mysterious briefcase while navigating a maze of shifting loyalties. De Niro plays Sam, an American mercenary formerly associated with the CIA. "Ronin" premiered at the 1998 Venice Film Festival to favorable response; Janet Maslin of "The New York Times" praised De Niro's confident portrayal as an action hero. In 1999, De Niro ventured back into crime-comedy; he was cast as an insecure mob boss opposite Billy Crystal and Lisa Kudrow in Harold Ramis' "Analyze This." The film was a box office hit, earning $176 million worldwide, and De Niro was nominated for Best Actor at the Golden Globes. In "Flawless" (1999), De Niro appeared as a homophobic police officer, who suffers a stroke, and is assigned to a rehabilitative program with a gay singer. The critic from the BBC gave the film 3 out of 5 stars, and thought De Niro gave a "refreshingly low-key" performance, in comparison to his previous work.


title: Robert De Niro

text: In 2000, De Niro produced and starred in his first live-action animation comedy, "The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle." He voiced the character Fearless Leader, who is a dictator and employer of two mobsters. The film was critically panned, with Rotten Tomatoes giving the film a 43% approval rating. De Niro played Master Chief 'Billy' Sunday in the biographical drama "Men of Honor" (2000), based on the life of Carl Brashear, the first African-American to become a U.S. Navy Master Diver. Although the film garnered mixed reviews, Bob Thomas of the "Associated Press" wrote "De Niro infuses the role with all his dynamism. It is his best performance in years". That same year, he starred in the comedy "Meet the Parents" opposite Ben Stiller as Jack Byrnes, a former CIA operative who takes a dislike to Stiller's character. De Niro, who had been seeking comic roles at the time, was encouraged by his producing partner Jane Rosenthal, to take on the role. The film was a high earner at the box office, with $330 million in receipts. Film critics welcomed De Niro's transition as a comic actor and ability to make audiences laugh.


title: Robert De Niro

text: After several comedies, De Niro landed a lead role in the crime thriller "15 Minutes" (2001), a story about a homicide detective (De Niro) and a fire marshal (Edward Burns) who join forces to apprehend a pair of Eastern European murderers. The film's reception was generally unfavorable; William Arnold of the "Seattle Post-Intelligencer" took issue with the "in-your-face exaggeration", but he thought De Niro delivered "his usual edgy flair, [...] on the mean streets of his native Manhattan". De Niro followed up with a heist, in Frank Oz's "The Score" (2001), starring Edward Norton, Angela Bassett and Marlon Brando. He plays a retiring thief when a young man (Norton) persuades him into doing one last heist together. Upon release, "The Score" fared well with critics, although Peter Rainer of "New York" magazine did not think the film challenged De Niro or fully utilize his talents. The next year, he played an LAPD detective opposite Eddie Murphy in the action-comedy "Showtime". The reviewer from "LA Weekly" remarked "De Niro isn't actually playing a part but riffing on his own legend", and thought the references to "Taxi Driver" were "cheap".Also in 2002, he collaborated with Michael Caton-Jones in "City by the Sea", who had previously directed De Niro in "This Boy's Life". Starring opposite Frances McDormand and James Franco, he portrayed another police detective in the drama. The film received mixed reviews and under-performed at the theaters. He appeared in "Analyze That" (2002)"," a sequel to 1999's "Analyze This." Filming began in New York City, seven months after the September 11 attacks. De Niro insisted on filming there, stating "It's a New York story, a New York movie. We always intended to keep it there and I'm glad we were able to do it". Upon release, most critics thought the sequel was weak; CNN's Paul Clinton remarked "Unfortunately the result is just a bunch of one-liners strung together, of which some work and some don't. The actual story never gets off the ground". Despite these failures, De Niro served as a producer for the critically acclaimed romantic-comedy "About a Boy" (2002), and appeared in "9/11" (2002), a CBS documentary about the September 11 attacks, told from the New York City fire department's point of view.


title: Robert De Niro

text: Several critics consider De Niro's career as having begun to slump in the early 2000s, with De Niro starring in roles that were less dramatic than those in the previous decade. He returned to the screen in 2004, playing a doctor in the fantasy drama "Godsend". As of 2020, the film is De Niro's poorest-performing work; Rotten Tomatoes gave the film an approval rating of 4% based on 139 critic reviews. He voiced a character in DreamWorks' animation of "Shark Tale" (2004). Most critics were also unimpressed, but it was a high earner at the box office. After co-producing "Stage Beauty" (2004), De Niro reprised his role of Jack Byrnes in 2004's "Meet the Fockers," the sequel to "Meet the Parents". In a scathing review of De Niro, the critic from "Slant Magazine" wrote "In self-parody mode for the umpteenth time, De Niro mugs for the camera with a series of overblown grimaces and faux-menacing glares". "The Bridge of San Luis Rey", was De Niro's last release of 2004, based on Thornton Wilder's novel of the same name. It was also critically panned.


title: Robert De Niro

text: In 2005, De Niro starred in the horror "Hide and Seek" opposite Dakota Fanning, playing Dr. David Callaway who leaves the city with his traumatized daughter after the mother's suicide. Although the film was a financial success, some critics thought De Niro had been miscast, and queried his decision to star in a mediocre feature. In 2006, De Niro turned down a role in "The Departed" to direct his second film, the spy thriller "The Good Shepherd", a fictional account about the growth of the CIA during its formative years"." The film reunited him onscreen with Joe Pesci, co-star from "Raging Bull", "Goodfellas", "A Bronx Tale", "Casino", among others"." Based on the screenplay by Eric Roth, the project was personal for De Niro, who was raised during the Cold War and fascinated by it. Despite starring some of Hollywood's leading actors; Matt Damon, Angelina Jolie and Alec Baldwin, the film garnered a mixed reception. Writing for "The" "Sydney Morning Herald", Sandra Hall noted its slow pace, stating "There's a potentially fascinating slice of American history here, but De Niro has carved it up with an excruciatingly dull knife". The critic from "USA Today" found the plot initially hard to follow, but praises De Niro for "creating a stirring personal tale". "The Good Shepherd" was nominated for Best Art Direction at the 79th Academy Awards. Finally in 2006, he voiced the character Emperor Sifrat XVI in "Arthur and the Invisibles."


title: Robert De Niro

text: His sole project in 2007 was Matthew Vaughn's "Stardust", a fantasy adventure, based on Neil Gaiman's 1999 novel of the same name. He plays Captain Shakespeare, the leader of a ship. The film was generally well received, although one critic from "New York" magazine thought De Niro's performance was "god-awful – yet his gung-ho spirit wins him Brownie points". The following year, he starred in the police procedural thriller "Righteous Kill" opposite Al Pacino, both playing New York City detectives who investigate serial executions of criminals who escaped justice. The film's response was mainly disappointing; Peter Hartlaub of "San Francisco Chronicle" thought the story was unoriginal and De Niro lacked energy. The film grossed $78 million from a budget of $60 million. Next, he starred in "What Just Happened" (2008), a satirical comedy based on Art Linson's experiences as a producer in Hollywood. The film was screened at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival as an out-of-competition entry. "The Sydney Morning Herald" opined that most reviewers gave the film a lukewarm reception because of the character he plays, which is "sympathetic" and quieter than his earlier roles. In 2009, he was cast as Frank Goode in the drama "Everybody's Fine", a remake of Giuseppe Tornatore's Italian film of the same name. Although the film's response was equally mixed, "The Guardian" critic praised De Niro for a "his first decent, watchable performance in quite a while".


title: Robert De Niro

text: In 2010, he had a minor part as Senator John McLaughlin in the action film "Machete". That same year, he starred in "Stone" opposite Milla Jovovich and Edward Norton, co-star from "The Score". It is a crime drama where De Niro plays a manipulated parole officer. The film was met with a divided reception; "Toronto Star" critic thought De Niro delivered a respectable performance due to Jovovich's support. Another critic, Jesse Cataldo from "Slant Magazine" noted the film's restraint and thought De Niro is repeating himself by playing the same basic characters. Next he starred in "Little Fockers" (2010), the third sequel to "Meet the Parents" and "Meet the Fockers". Despite universally negative reviews from critics, the film was a box office success, grossing over $310 million worldwide. In one review, "The Daily" "Telegraph" wrote "Despite the farcical script, De Niro in particular has his paterfamilias character sensitively tuned". That year, De Niro was cast in "Edge of Darkness", but he left the project citing creative differences. He was replaced by Ray Winstone.


title: Robert De Niro

text: In 2011, De Niro starred in the Italian comedy "Manuale d'amore 3". He also appeared in three other films: "Killer Elite", "Limitless", and "New Year's Eve". Except for "Limitless", which received an approval rating of 69% from Rotten Tomatoes, the other two films were met with mixed-to-negative reviews. De Niro was also appointed President of the Jury for the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, making it the second time he has served. Continuing into 2012, he starred in the drama "Being Flynn," based on "Another Bullshit Night in Suck City," a memoir by Nick Flynn. It was met with a mixed response; critic A. O. Scott complimented De Niro's ability for playing an estranged father (opposite Paul Dano), calling him "unpredictable and subtle", despite an uncertain plot. De Niro also appeared in the thrillers "Red Lights" and "Freelancers" (both 2012).


title: Robert De Niro

text: De Niro made his first appearance in a David O. Russell film, in the romantic comedy "Silver Linings Playbook" (2012), as the father of Pat Solatano (Bradley Cooper), who is released from a psychiatric hospital and moves back in with his parents to rebuild his life. The film was a critical and commercial success, earning eight Academy Award nominations, including Best Supporting Actor for De Niro. The film grossed $236 million worldwide. Critics lauded the entire cast; "Variety" magazine Justin Chang noted De Niro's calm performance, writing "it’s hard to remember the last time De Niro was this effortlessly endearing and relaxed onscreen". In 2012, De Niro served as an executive producer for the television series "NYC 22."


title: Robert De Niro

text: Next, he was cast in 2013's "The Big Wedding", "Killing Season", and "The Family"; all three were met with mainly a negative response. His other 2013 release, "Last Vegas," received some respectable reviews. Co-starring Michael Douglas, Morgan Freeman, Kevin Kline and Mary Steenburgen, the film is about three retirees who travel to Las Vegas to have a bachelor party for their last remaining single friend. In a harsh assessment of De Niro's performance, the "A.V. Club" critic considered it "arguably the low point of De Niro’s career". Shortly afterwards, he starred in "Grudge Match" (2013) opposite Sylvester Stallone, as aging boxers stepping into the ring for one last match. They had previously worked together in 1997's "Cop Land". That same year he starred in the crime thriller, "The Bag Man". In 2014, De Niro appeared in a documentary about his father, Robert De Niro Sr., titled "Remembering the Artist Robert De Niro Sr." which aired on HBO. In 2015, he starred in Nancy Meyers' comedy "The Intern" alongside Anne Hathaway. The latter fared better with critics; Mark Olsen of the "Los Angeles Times" cordially remarked "De Niro brings a fresh, relaxed lightness to his performance, tinged with the gruff charm of Spencer Tracy". His performance won him a nomination from the Critics Choice Movie Awards for Best Actor in a Comedy.


title: Robert De Niro

text: Also in 2015, he appeared in two short films, Scorsese's "The Audition" and JR's "Ellis". Returning to the heist genre, he starred in "Heist", playing Francis "The Pope" Silva, a gangster casino owner who is targeted by criminals. The film was not a box office success. He starred in the biographical drama "Joy" (2015), opposite Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper, about an American inventor Joy Mangano; it gained generally mixed reviews. In 2016, he co-starred in "Dirty Grandpa," playing a grandfather who goes to Florida during spring break with his grandson (Zac Efron). Upon release, the film received a polarized reception for its reputedly distasteful content, and appeared in several critics' lists of worst films of 2016. He also appeared in "Hands of Stone" (2016)"," a biographical sports drama about the career of Panamanian former professional boxer Roberto Durán. His last release of the year was "The Comedian", which premiered at the AFI Fest, a film festival celebrating filmmakers' achievements.


title: Robert De Niro

text: In 2017, De Niro starred as Bernie Madoff in Barry Levinson's HBO film "The Wizard of Lies", a performance which earned him critical praise and a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Television Movie. In 2019, De Niro won acclaim for portraying Robert Mueller alongside Alec Baldwin's Donald Trump in various episodes of "Saturday Night Live," earning him an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series. He received another Emmy nomination for his work as a producer on Ava DuVernay's acclaimed limited series "When They See Us".


title: Robert De Niro

text: In 2019, De Niro returned to the screen by playing talk show host Murray Franklin in Todd Phillips' ""Joker"", a possible origin story for the Batman character The Joker (Joaquin Phoenix). The film was a commercial success, and earned eleven nominations at the Academy Awards. Also that year, De Niro reunited with Scorsese for "The Irishman", based on the 2004 book "I Heard You Paint Houses" by Charles Brandt. It is their ninth feature film together and the first since 1995's "Casino," and co-stars Al Pacino, Harvey Keitel, and Joe Pesci. The film received critical acclaim; Robbie Collin of "The Daily Telegraph," praised De Niro's "sensational" performance and the chemistry between his co-stars, whom he has worked with in earlier films. "Variety" magazine critic also noted the chemistry, calling him "superb", despite perceived weaknesses in the film's special effects.


title: Robert De Niro

text: In September 2020, De Niro appeared in Nancy Meyers' comedy short film "Father of the Bride Part 3(ish)". The short co-starred Diane Keaton, Steve Martin, Kieran Culkin, Martin Short and Florence Pugh. Also in that year, De Niro appeared in "The Comeback Trail", a crime comedy directed by George Gallo. De Niro was cast in James Gray's period drama "Armageddon Time", but he dropped out of the project by the time production began. In January 2021, De Niro signed on for the historical comedy "Amsterdam", playing an army veteran. Released in October 2022, the ensemble includes Christian Bale, Margot Robbie, John David Washington, Michael Shannon, Mike Myers, Timothy Olyphant and Anya-Taylor Joy. The reviewer from "South China Morning Post" thought De Niro "brings just the right gravitas to his decorated general".


title: Robert De Niro

text: De Niro will appear in "Savage Salvation" as Sheriff Church; it is set for release on December 2, 2022. In 2023, De Niro will play cattleman William Hale in "Killers of the Flower Moon", an adaptation of the book of the same name by David Grann. He will star alongside Leonardo Di Caprio and Lily Gladstone. Directed by Scorsese, it was reported that the film's budget of $200 million had prompted him to seek Netflix or Apple TV+ for production and distribution. In May 2020, Apple TV was announced to co-finance and co-distribute the film with Paramount. In 2023, De Niro will appear in the comedy "About My Father", and in the television series "Nada." In August 2022, De Niro signed on to star in the Warner Bros. mob drama "Wise Guys", directed by Barry Levinson.


title: Robert De Niro

text: Several journalists consider De Niro to be among the best actors of his generation. John Naughton of "GQ" magazine believes that De Niro has "redefined what we can expect of an actor". A. O. Scott said that De Niro "was transforming himself – physically, vocally, psychologically – with each new role. And in the process, before our eyes, reinventing the art of acting." As early as 1977, "Newsweek" remarked that the actor "gives you the shock of becoming, of a metamorphosis that can be thrilling, moving, or frightening." Biographer Douglas Brode praises De Niro's versatility and ability to inhabit any role, although Pauline Kael once said in 1983 that she did not like how the actor was "disfiguring" himself in films such as "Raging Bull". When asked why he undertook such roles, De Niro responded, "To totally submerge into another character and experience life through him, without having to risk the real-life consequences—well it's a cheap way to do doing things that you would never dare to do yourself."


title: Robert De Niro

text: In 2009, he was announced as one of the Kennedy Center Honorees with the commemoration: "One of America's greatest cinematic actors, Robert De Niro has demonstrated a legendary commitment to his characters and has co-founded one of the world's major film festivals". Martin Scorsese and Meryl Streep honored him at the event. In 2016, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama. Obama said “Everybody on this stage has touched me in a very powerful, very personal way [...] These are folks who have helped make me who I am". White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest added, "There is no arguing that the individuals who will be honored today are richly deserving," he said.


title: Robert De Niro

text: Many De Niro's films have become classics of American cinema, in which six of them have been inducted into the U.S. National Film Registry as of 2022. Five films are featured on the American Film Institute's (AFI) list of the 100 greatest American films of all time. De Niro and James Stewart share the title for the most films represented on the AFI list. "Timeout" magazine's list of 100 best movies included seven of De Niro's films, as chosen by actors in the industry. In 2006, De Niro donated his collection of film-related materials, such as scripts, wardrobe pieces and props, to the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin. The collection, which took more than two years to process and catalog, opened to the public in 2009.


title: Robert De Niro

text: Fan songIn 1984, the English girl group Bananarama's fan song "Robert De Niro's Waiting..." reached the third place of the UK Singles Chart, remaining on the charts for 12 weeks.


title: Robert De Niro

text: In 1989, De Niro and partner Jane Rosenthal co-founded the film production company TriBeCa Productions, which also organizes the Tribeca Film Festival. De Niro owns Tribeca Grill (co-owned with Broadway producer Stewart F. Lane), a New American restaurant located at 375 Greenwich Street (at Franklin Street) in Tribeca, Manhattan. It opened in 1990. He is also the owner of the Greenwich Hotel in Tribeca. De Niro co-owns Nobu restaurants and hotels with partners Meir Teper and Chef Nobu Matsuhisa. The first Nobu Hotel opened inside Caesars Palace, Las Vegas, in 2013. Two years later, the second Nobu Hotel opened at City of Dreams in Manila, Philippines. In 2015, De Niro partnered with James Packer after the billionaire acquired a 20 percent stake in Nobu for $100 million. He is a stakeholder in Paradise Found Nobu Resort, a company planning to build a luxury resort on the island of Barbuda. The plan for a luxury resort on the island of Barbuda has been criticized by many residents of Barbuda and the Barbuda People's Movement, as it is in violation of the Barbuda Land Act.


title: Robert De Niro

text: In 1998, De Niro lobbied U.S. Congress against impeaching President Bill Clinton. While promoting the film "The Good Shepherd" in December 2006, De Niro appeared on the show "Hardball with Chris Matthews," where he voiced support for two Democrats. "Well, I think of two people: Hillary Clinton and Obama". On February 4, 2008, De Niro supported Barack Obama at a rally at the Izod Center in New Jersey before Super Tuesday.


title: Robert De Niro

text: De Niro is an outspoken critic of President Donald Trump. During the 2016 U.S. presidential election, De Niro called Trump "blatantly stupid" and said, "He wants to punch people in the face?! I'd like to punch him in the face." This was in reference to the similar desire Trump expressed towards protesters at one of his rallies. On June 10, 2018, while introducing Bruce Springsteen to the stage at the 72nd Tony Awards, De Niro denounced Trump by saying, "I'm gonna say one thing. Fuck Trump. It's no longer 'down with Trump'. It's 'fuck Trump'." De Niro opined that Trump is a racist, and admits that he was "naive" about Obama's presidency and race relations in America: "I felt we were on a new thing. I didn't realize how against him certain people were – racially against him, offended that he was there." In December 2019, De Niro clarified his views again on Trump and his family in an interview with "The New York Times": "He is a person who, to me, has no morals, no ethics, no sense of right and wrong, is a dirty player. He has not one speck of redeemability in him. The president is supposed to set an example of trying to do the right thing. [...] There's not one thing that I see in him or his family, not any redeeming qualities. They're out on the take. It's like a gangster family." In 2020, he defended himself by saying, "As a citizen, I have as much right as anybody – an actor, an athlete, a musician, anybody else – to voice my opinion, if I have a bigger voice because of my situation, I am going to use it whenever I see a blatant abuse of power."


title: Robert De Niro

text: De Niro endorsed Democrat Pete Buttigieg in the 2020 U.S. presidential election, and then switched to Joe Biden after Buttigieg dropped out of the race.


title: Robert De Niro

text: De Niro married actress Diahnne Abbott in 1976. They have a son, Raphael, a former actor who works in New York real estate. De Niro also adopted Abbott's daughter Drena De Niro from a previous relationship. He and Abbott divorced in 1988. Afterwards, he was in a relationship with model Toukie Smith between 1988 and 1996. De Niro has twin sons, Julian and Aaron, conceived by "in vitro" fertilization and delivered by a surrogate mother in 1995.


title: Robert De Niro

text: In 1997, De Niro married actress Grace Hightower. 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. In December 2011, their daughter was born via surrogate. In 2014, he and Hightower moved into a 6,000-square-foot, five-bedroom apartment at 15 Central Park West. Four years later, it was reported De Niro and Hightower had separated after 20 years of marriage. De Niro has four grandchildren; one from his daughter Drena, and three from his son Raphael. On April 19, 2021, De Niro's lawyer argued in a virtual divorce hearing presided by a Manhattan judge that he is "working at an unsustainable pace" in order "to support Hightower and pay off all his back taxes". Hightower's lawyer claimed that since the pair filed for divorce in 2018, De Niro had been "unfairly decreasing" the agreed-upon payments to her.


title: Robert De Niro

text: In October 2003, De Niro was diagnosed with prostate cancer. He underwent surgery at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in December 2003.


title: Robert De Niro

text: De Niro is long-term resident of New York City, and has been investing in Manhattan's Tribeca neighborhood since 1989. He has properties on the east and west sides of Manhattan. He also has a estate in Gardiner, New York, which serves as his primary residence.


title: Robert De Niro

text: In 2006, De Niro received Italian citizenship, despite opposition by the Sons of Italy, who believe that De Niro damaged the public image of Italians by portraying criminals.


title: Robert De Niro

text: In 2016, De Niro initially defended the inclusion of a controversial documentary, "Vaxxed", at the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival. He explained that his interest in the film was from his personal experience with his autistic son, Elliot. The film was withdrawn from the schedule after consultation with the festival organizers and scientific community. In February 2017, De Niro took part in a joint presentation with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., chairman of the anti-vaccine non-profit Children's Health Defense, to discuss their concerns with vaccine safety. De Niro has stated that he is not anti-vaccination, but does question their efficacy.


title: Robert De Niro

text: In October 2018, De Niro was targeted by an explosive device. The device was found at the Tribeca Grill, which also houses his production company in Manhattan. According to the FBI, similar devices were sent to high-profile politicians including Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, former Attorney General Eric Holder, and former CIA Director John Brennan.


title: Robert De Niro

text: In February 1998, De Niro was held for questioning by French police in connection with an international prostitution ring. De Niro denied any involvement, and later filed a complaint against the examining magistrate for "violation of secrecy in an investigation". He stated he would not return to France, but has since traveled there several times including for the 2011 Cannes Film Festival.


title: Robert De Niro

text: In 1999, De Niro threatened to sue the owners of "De Niro’s Supper Club" in Vancouver, under section 3 of the BC Privacy Act. The restaurant subsequently changed its name to "Section (3)".


title: Robert De Niro

text: In 2006, the trust that owns De Niro's Gardiner estate sued the town to have its property tax assessment reduced, arguing that $6 million was too high and should be compared only with similar properties in Ulster County, where Gardiner is located. The town, which had been comparing its value to similar estates in Dutchess County, across the Hudson River, and Connecticut's Litchfield County, where many other affluent New York residents maintain estates on large properties, won in State Supreme Court. In 2014, the trust's lawyers appealed the decision and the town was unsure if it should continue to defend the suit because of financial limitations (it would have earned far less in payments on the increased taxes than it had spent on legal costs). This angered many residents, who initially sympathized with De Niro, and some proposed to raise money privately to help the town continue the suit. The dispute was publicized by "The New York Times". "When he [De Niro] read about it on Election Day, he went bananas," due to the negative publicity, said Gardiner town councilman Warren Wiegand. He was unaware that a lawsuit was filed; the trust's accountants took responsibility citing fiduciary duty. Shortly afterwards, De Niro directed his lawyer, Tom Harvey, to withdraw the suit and reimburse the town's legal bills of $129,000. Harvey conveyed to Wiegand that "De Niro didn't want to screw the town".


title: Robert De Niro

text: In August 2019, De Niro's company Canal Productions filed a $6-million lawsuit against former employee Graham Chase Robinson, for breaching her fiduciary duties and violating New York's faithless servant doctrine by misusing company funds and watching hours of Netflix during work hours. In October 2019, Robinson filed a lawsuit against De Niro, claiming harassment and gender discrimination.


title: Robert De Niro

text: Prolific in film since the 1970s, De Niro's most critically acclaimed films, according to the review aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes, include "Bang the Drum Slowly" (1973), "Mean Streets" (1973), "The Godfather Part II" (1974), "Taxi Driver" (1976), "The Deer Hunter" (1978), "Raging Bull" (1980), "The King of Comedy" (1983), "Once Upon a Time in America" (1984), "Brazil" (1985), "The Mission" (1986), "Midnight Run" (1988), "Goodfellas" (1990), "Casino" (1995), "Heat" (1995), "Meet the Parents" (2000), "Silver Linings Playbook" (2012), and "The Irishman" (2019).


title: Robert De Niro

text: De Niro has been recognized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for the following performances:


title: Robert De Niro

text: De Niro has won two Golden Globe Awards: Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama for "Raging Bull" and a Cecil B. DeMille Award for "outstanding contributions to the world of entertainment". He was also the 56th recipient of Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award; Leonardo DiCaprio, who co-starred with De Niro in "This Boy's Life", presented him the award, citing him as an inspiration and influence.


title: The Handmaid's Tale (TV series)

text: The Handmaid's Tale is an American dystopian television series created by Bruce Miller, based on the 1985 novel of the same name by Canadian author Margaret Atwood. The series was ordered by the streaming service Hulu as a straight-to-series order of 10 episodes, for which production began in late 2016. The plot features a dystopia following a Second American Civil War wherein a theonomic, totalitarian society subjects fertile women, called "Handmaids", to child-bearing slavery.


title: The Handmaid's Tale (TV series)

text: The first three episodes of the series premiered on April 26, 2017; the subsequent seven episodes were released every Wednesday. In July 2019, the series was renewed for a fourth season, which premiered on April 27, 2021. In September 2019, it was announced that Hulu and MGM were developing a sequel series, to be based on Atwood's 2019 novel "The Testaments". In December 2020, ahead of the fourth season premiere, the series was renewed for a fifth season, which premiered on September 14, 2022. In September 2022, ahead of the fifth season premiere, the series was renewed for a sixth and final season.