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Given he celebrated his 80th birthday in 2023, there’s no better time than now to celebrate the remarkable acting career of the untouchable Robert De Niro. Born in 1943, his earliest film roles were in the mid to late 1960s, but it was the early 1970s that saw him become a breakout star. Ever since, he’s excelled in both leading and supporting roles across just about every genre out there, and is still active as an actor, with 2023 roles that include About My Father and Killers of the Flower Moon.
His name’s one of the few that’s always guaranteed to be brought up whenever it comes to discussing the greatest movie actors of all time. In addition, going through his decades-long filmography makes it apparent that few, if any, other actors have ever been in as many classic movies as Robert De Niro has. The following titles represent the best of the best within De Niro’s vast and impeccable body of work, and are ranked below from great to greatest.
25 ‘Ronin’ (1998)
Despite being called Ronin, this 1998 movie has nothing to do with samurai, so those hoping to see Robert De Niro cut through nameless bad guys with a sword might be disappointed. Those in the mood for a rock-solid and very much underrated action/crime/thriller movie, however, should make watching Ronin a priority.
It’s about a group of mercenaries being assembled for a dangerous task that sees them recovering an apparently valuable briefcase that’s fallen into the wrong hands. It benefits from solid action, a strong script written by David Mamet, and compelling direction from John Frankenheimer, who’s otherwise best known for the movies he made in the 1960s (including Seconds, The Manchurian Candidate, and The Train).
24 ‘Awakenings’ (1990)
There are plenty of titles that demonstrate De Niro’s capacity as an actor outside the gangster movie genre that made him famous, with Awakenings being one of the best examples in this regard. It focuses on the relationship that develops between a patient (De Niro) who’s just been awoken from a decades-long coma, and his doctor (Robin Williams).
The film’s set in the late 1960s, and is inspired by real-life people and events, including the encephalitis lethargica epidemic of 1919 to 1930, where those affected really were made catatonic for decades. As a film, Awakenings can be heavy-going at times, but it’s an effectively told story, with De Niro and Williams both giving excellent performances (the former receiving an Academy Award nomination, too).
23 ‘A Bronx Tale’ (1993)
Though Robert De Niro has acted in more than 100 movies throughout his career, the number of films he’s directed is considerably smaller. More specifically, he’s only directed two: one being the 2006 spy film The Good Shepherd, and the other being 1993’s A Bronx Tale, which is a coming-of-age crime/drama film.
The latter’s the better of the two, and he also has a supporting role in the film, playing the working-class and hard-nosed father of a young man who finds himself drawn to a life of crime as a way to break free of his otherwise humble life. A Bronx Tale doesn’t revolutionize the crime genre, but it’s very well-made and contains plenty of great performances, and is surprisingly good, considering it was De Niro’s first time directing.
22 ‘Midnight Run’ (1988)
The buddy comedy genre was probably at its peak during the 1980s, with the most well-known titles likely being those in the Lethal Weapon series, as well as 48 Hrs. One of the best that’s not quite as well-known, however, would be 1988’s Midnight Run, which stars De Niro and Charles Grodin as a bounty hunter and targeted criminal respectively.
The two find themselves thrust together, and needing to cooperate, to some extent, if they’re to have a chance at surviving numerous adversaries as well as each other. It’s a road movie, buddy comedy, action movie, and crime flick all rolled together, and it largely makes for a very entertaining and breezy watch.
21 ‘Stardust’ (2007)
Standing as a rare fantasy movie within Matthew Vaughn’s filmography, as well as a rare Robert De Niro fantasy movie, Stardust is a fun and underrated (funderrated?) 2000s cult classic. It revolves around a falling star who it turns out is actually a young woman, the appearance of whom sets off a wild and comedic adventure revolving around the numerous people who want to get their hands on her.
De Niro plays a supporting character named Captain Shakespeare who’s the lead pirate on a flying ship. He’s not in the movie a great deal, but steals the scenes he does appear in, with Stardust being not just a good time for those who like their fantasy movies light, but also a significant showcase for De Niro’s capacity to act in goofy, lighthearted roles.
20 ‘Cape Fear’ (1991)
One of many collaborations between Martin Scorsese as director and Robert De Niro as actor worth celebrating, Cape Fear is the rare remake that does justice to the original and then some. Its premise is the same as the first Cape Fear from 1962, with both movies following the terror a family experiences when a brutal criminal begins targeting them after being released from prison.
De Niro plays that criminal – the fearsome Max Cady – and it’s easily one of his most intense, uncomfortable, and ferocious performances. De Niro also engaged in somehow more method acting than usual for the role, putting on a ton of muscle and spending $25,000 to have his teeth sharpened/ground down before filming, and subsequently repaired after filming. There’s method acting, and then there’s doing what De Niro did for Cape Fear.
19 ‘Meet the Parents’ (2000)
One of the most accessible (and overall funniest) movies Robert De Niro ever starred in, Meet the Parents is an essential early 2000s comedy. Its sequels – Meet the Fockers (2004) and Little Fockers (2010) – are largely skippable, but the original still holds up as a genuinely funny and very easy-to-watch comedy about the difficulty of meeting a partner’s parents for the first time.
De Niro’s the father who clashes with his potential future son-in-law, played by Ben Stiller, with their dynamic largely carrying the movie. Like any comedic film featuring De Niro, it’s nice to see him out of his usual element and excelling nonetheless, with Meet the Parents ranking as one of his best movies of the 21st century so far.
18 ‘American Hustle’ (2013)
American Hustle is a darkly comedic crime movie that’s loosely based on real-life events. It takes place towards the end of the 1970s and into the early 1980s, following two people who are forced to cooperate with an aggressive FBI agent who makes them enter a criminal underworld, interacting with various people who are affiliated with the mafia along the way.
Those expecting a ton of De Niro might be disappointed, because he’s really just in this as an extended cameo, playing a mafia boss who still manages to be intimidating despite his small amount of screen time. Thankfully, the pace, energy, and star power of American Hustle keeps it engaging overall, even during its predominantly De Niro-free runtime.
17 ‘Casino’ (1995)
Casino was the last collaboration between Robert De Niro and Martin Scorsese for close to a quarter of a century, at one point in time standing as an impressive “end” to the string of films they made together. It’s a dark and very violent look at how the mob ran Las Vegas during the 1970s, considering gangsters controlled the city’s numerous lucrative casinos.
It’s not quite the greatest crime movie the two cinematic legends made together, but it has a ton to offer, with a fast-paced epic narrative, plenty of stylish and memorable images, and great performances from the likes of De Niro, Sharon Stone, and Joe Pesci, to name a few. It’s a long and sometimes challenging film, but still stands as an essential 1990s gangster movie.
16 ‘Joker’ (2019)
Filmmaker Todd Phillips wasn’t shy about referencing certain Martin Scorsese movies in his 2019 movie, Joker, and perhaps some of this borrowing was mitigated by casting frequent Scorsese collaborator Robert De Niro. He has a supporting role as a talk show host idolized by the film’s main character, Arthur Fleck.
But the narrative does belong to Fleck, with the film ultimately belonging to Joaquin Phoenix, too, who plays Fleck and convincingly portrays his breakdown and re-emergence as the titular character well-known for being Batman’s arch-nemesis. Overall, Joker might not win many points for originality, but it does earn a good number for the quality of its acting, and the stomach-churning, consistently nerve-wracking story it tells.
15 ‘Mean Streets’ (1973)
The first of many Scorsese + De Niro collaborations, Mean Streets was arguably the film that put both the director and his favorite actor on the map. It’s a loosely plotted film about a group of young men living in New York City, and the things they do while attempting to move up within both the world at large and the mobster lifestyle they find themselves in.
Harvey Keitel (also known for his numerous Scorsese collaborations) is the closest thing to a main character here, with De Niro proving impressive in a star-making supporting role. The energy and vibrancy on offer in Mean Streets ensure it still feels gripping and even somewhat fresh to this day, with its various qualities – and the fact it helped boost the profiles of numerous people involved – ensuring it stands as one of the most historically significant crime movies of all time.
14 ‘Silver Linings Playbook’ (2012)
A romantic dramedy about a troubled young man (Bradley Cooper) moving back in with his parents, Silver Linings Playbook is a movie that manages to be feel-good and also quite realistic/grounded. Robert De Niro and Jacki Weaver are featured as the parents, while Jennifer Lawrence (in an Oscar-winning role) plays a young woman Cooper’s character begins a relationship with.
It tackles mental illness in a surprisingly thoughtful way, which is a good thing obviously, because the mishandling of something so delicate could’ve made Silver Linings Playbook a disaster. Narratively and visually it’s sound, but it’s the kind of film you watch for the performances, and thankfully, all the main ones on offer here are very strong.
13 ‘Brazil’ (1985)
Dystopian science-fiction movies rarely get funnier (or darker) than the cult classic 1985 film Brazil. It’s about a low-level bureaucrat who frequently daydreams to escape the mundanity of his existence in a strange futuristic world, only for the lines between his reality and his dreams to begin crossing in disorientating and, eventually, tragic ways.
If that doesn’t make Brazil sound wonderfully wild enough, it’s also a movie where De Niro occasionally pops up as a resistance fighter/freelance heating engineer named Archibald Tuttle, with him stealing every scene he appears in. It’s one of the strangest movie De Niro’s been in, and one of his most unusual roles, but nevertheless, Brazil’s still up there with the best movies he’s appeared in.
12 ‘The Untouchables’ (1987)
Very loosely based on a true story, The Untouchables is a classic crime/thriller movie expertly directed by Brian De Palma at the height of his filmmaking powers. It centers on Eliot Ness (Kevin Costner) and the team he assembles to target infamous gangster Al Capone (De Niro) in order to take down his bootleg liquor empire during the Prohibition Era.
De Niro really gets to ham it up in the few scenes he appears in as the film’s central villain, with him engaging in more method acting by gaining considerable weight for the role, and also going to great lengths to wear the same silk underwear Al Capone wore. All in a day’s work for the ever-committed Robert De Niro, it seems.
11 ‘The King of Comedy’ (1982)
Despite the title containing the word “Comedy,” it’s hard to define The King of Comedy as one, unless you happen to like your humor very dark and extremely uncomfortable. It’s a tense film where De Niro stars as a man who’s desperate for fame, and will go to great lengths to impress – and replicate the successes of – his idol, a talk show host played by Jerry Lewis.
It was also directed by Martin Scorsese, and ends up being one of his most surprisingly dark and twisted movies. De Niro’s commitment to the lead role is scarily good, and the film offers a persistently queasy and uncompromising watch for those brave enough to handle some very (intentionally) awkward sequences.
10 ‘The Mission’ (1986)
Ranking as one of the best movies of 1986, The Mission is a period drama/adventure movie about redemption, religion, and the human spirit. Robert De Niro stars as an ex-mercenary seeking forgiveness for his misdeeds, which sees him eventually working with Jesuit missionaries at a mission in the South American jungle.
Also starring Jeremy Irons and a very young Liam Neeson, the film sees their characters clashing with various military forces who want the land, despite the missionaries and the Guaraní people they live with wanting to be left alone. It’s a movie featuring amazing visuals and beautiful music (composed by Ennio Morricone), making for an overwhelmingly emotional film that sticks with you long after it’s over.
9 ‘The Deer Hunter’ (1978)
When it comes to ranking the greatest and most acclaimed war movies of all time, The Deer Hunter will frequently be considered up there among the very best. A three-hour movie distinctly split into three acts, it follows a group of men before, during, and after they serve in the Vietnam War.
It contrasts their lives before and after fighting overseas to devastating effect, with the relatively brief Vietnam-set scenes being uncompromising in their approach to depicting the horrors of warfare. It’s a tragic and difficult movie to watch, but contains phenomenal performances from Robert De Niro, Meryl Streep, and Christopher Walken, with Walken winning an Academy Award for his performance.
8 ‘Jackie Brown’ (1997)
Jackie Brown marks the only time Quentin Tarantino and Robert De Niro worked together, but at least it proved to be a memorable collaboration. The film’s a darkly comedic and very stylish crime/thriller, largely centered around a flight attendant who gets caught smuggling cash for a gun runner, and finds herself forced to collaborate with the police.
De Niro’s far from the only actor to make an impression here, because the cast is filled with talented people, including Pam Grier, Samuel L. Jackson, Robert Forster, Bridget Fonda, and Michael Keaton. It’s an underrated and very enjoyable Tarantino film, and also feels notable for being a little slower, less violent, and perhaps more mature than the other movies he made during his first decade or so as a filmmaker.
7 ‘Heat’ (1995)
Two actors as beloved as Robert De Niro and Al Pacino appearing in the same movie is always going to be an exciting prospect, which leads to high expectations. Heat’s a movie starring the two that ultimately lives up to the hype, seeing the former playing a calm, collected, and skilled bank robber, and the latter playing a hot-headed and very intense police detective on his trail.
The two great actors get a legendary one-on-one scene in a diner, where their two characters discuss their different outlooks on life and respective professions, shortly before another great scene plays out: a large-scale bank heist that turns into a massive shootout on the streets. Even with just these two scenes, Heat would be a classic, but just about everything else in this nearly three-hour movie also happens to be very compelling, making it an outstanding film from director Michael Mann.
6 ‘The Irishman’ (2019)
The longest of all the collaborations between Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro, The Irishman is an epic that shows both still have it in them to make excellent crime movies. It was also the first feature film they’d worked on together since 1995’s Casino, and the nearly 25-year-long wait ended up being worth it.
De Niro stars as an aging hitman named Frank Sheeran, with the film being largely comprised of flashbacks to the death-filled and alienated life he lived, with his various actions in his younger days continuing to haunt him in old age. Like Heat, it also stars Al Pacino (Joe Pesci is here too, stealing scenes as always), and is a phenomenally well-acted slow burn of a movie, expertly building to one of the most devastating and memorable final acts in recent memory.
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