Born on August 17, 1943, in Greenwich Village, New York, Robert de Niro is the child of two artists; Robert De Niro, Sr, an abstract expressionist, and Virginia Admiral, a painter. His Irish mother, despite her strict Catholic upbringing, was a practicing Jew for most of Robert’s childhood. His father came out of the closet as a homosexual after Robert was born, and eventually divorced his mother. As a child, Robert was an avid reader of playwrights, and he discovered his love of acting at the age of ten when he portrayed the Cowardly Lion in a local production of … Continue reading →