Robert Anthony De Niro (/də ˈnɪəroʊ/ də NEER-roh, Italian: [de ˈniːro]; born August 17, 1943) is an American actor. Known for his collaborations with Martin Scorsese, he is considered to be one of the most influential 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.
De Niro studied acting at HB Studio, Stella Adler Conservatory, and Lee Strasberg's Actors Studio. His first collaboration with Scorsese was with the 1973 film Mean Streets. De Niro earned two Academy Awards, one for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Vito Corleone in Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather Part II (1974) and the other for Best Actor portraying Jake LaMotta in Scorsese's drama Raging Bull (1980). His other Oscar-nominated roles were for Taxi Driver (1976), The Deer Hunter (1978), Awakenings (1990), Cape Fear (1991), and Silver Linings Playbook (2012).
He has also acted in the films 1900 (1976), The King of Comedy (1982), Once Upon a Time in America (1984), Brazil (1985), The Mission (1986), Goodfellas (1990), This Boy's Life (1993), Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1994), Heat (1995), Casino (1995), Jackie Brown (1997), Joker (2019), The Irishman (2019), and Killers of the Flower Moon (2023). He directed and acted in both A Bronx Tale (1993) and The Good Shepherd (2006). His comedic roles include Midnight Run (1988), Wag the Dog (1997), Analyze This (1999), the Meet the Parents films (2000–2010), and The Intern (2015).
Also known for his television roles, De Niro portrayed Bernie Madoff in the HBO film The Wizard of Lies (2017), earning a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie nomination. He received further Emmy Award nominations for producing the Netflix limited series When They See Us (2019), and for portraying Robert Mueller on Saturday Night Live.
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".
De Niro is a 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 78-acre estate in Gardiner, New York, which serves as his primary residence.
In 1998, De Niro lobbied U.S. Congress against impeaching President Bill Clinton.
In October 2003, De Niro was diagnosed with prostate cancer. He underwent surgery at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in December 2003.
If you want to read a whole lot more, go here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_De_Niro
- 5 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 5 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 cup vegetable oil
- 1 cup milk
- Pinch of salt
- 1 teaspoon lemon or almond extract
- 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
- 2 eggs
Glaze- 3 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
- 4 tablespoons milk
- Rainbow sprinkles and decorating sugar for topping (optional)
- Preheat oven to 350º. Coat baking sheets with nonstick cooking spray.
- In a large bowl, combine flour, granulated sugar, baking powder, oil, milk, salt, extract, lemon juice, and eggs. Roll dough into 1-inch balls and place on prepared baking sheets.
- Bake 12 to 15 minutes, until cookies are set but not brown. Let sit 5 minutes then transfer to wire rack to cool completely.
- In a medium bowl, combine glaze ingredients and stir until smooth.
- Dip tops of cooled cookies in glaze and place on wire rack then immediately decorate as desired.
Makes about 3 dozen cookies.
1959 – Florence Griffith Joyner, American sprinter (d. 1998)
He's got the longest name of anyone I ever heard of! Kiefer William Frederick Dempsey George Rufus Sutherland!
The winter solstice is the shortest day and longest night of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. It occurs annually between December 20th and December 23rd.
The winter solstice is marked by the point at which the North Pole is at its farthest from the sun during its yearly orbit around the sun. It will be approximately 23 degrees away from the sun. Despite the temperature outside, the winter solstice is considered the astronomical beginning of winter. Meteorological winter begins December 1st and lasts until the end of February. It’s marked by the coldest average temperatures during the year.
Depending on how far north a person is in the Northern Hemisphere during the winter, their day can range from 9.5 hours to absolutely no sunrise at all. On the bright side, the days will gradually become longer in the Northern Hemisphere until the summer solstice in June. In the Southern Hemisphere, this same day marks the summer solstice and the Southern Hemisphere’s longest day of the year.
The vernal equinox and the autumnal equinox conventionally mark the beginning of spring and fall respectively and occur when night and day are approximately equal in length.
Around the world since ancient times to modern-day, celebrations, festivals, rituals and holidays recognizing the winter solstice have varied from culture to culture.
HOW TO OBSERVE
Winter lovers, enjoy the shortest day of the year. Those longing for more sunlight, prepare to celebrate. Longer days are ahead.
WINTER SOLSTICE HISTORY
Since the marking of time and the earliest calendars, this day marked the hardest time of the year for early people. Survival was paramount when food and heat are not reliable. In all corners of the Earth, there are ancient remains that seem to have been built around marking the winter solstice.
- Probably the most famous of these is Stonehenge, England. Every year when the sun sets on the winter solstice, the sun’s rays align with two of the giant stones known as the central Altar and the Slaughter stone.
- As the sun rises the day of the winter solstice, its rays illuminate the main chambers of the monument dating back to 3200 B.C. at Newgrange, Ireland.
- In Tulum, Mexico an ancient Mayan city stands deserted. At the top of one of these buildings, a small hole casts a starburst when the sun rises on the winter and summer solstices.
