Robert De Niro has lived a full life within the world of Hollywood showbiz. He is rightly seen as one of the greatest actors ever after having won numerous awards, including two Oscars.
At the same time as De Niro has been hugely successful on-screen, he has led a quiet private life. He’s been married twice and only split up with his second wife, Grace Hightower, in 2018.
Though their divorce seemed to be pretty routine at first, new information has now emerged courtesy of De Niro’s his ex-wife. Not only that, but if De Niro’s lawyer is to be believed, the well-known actor is being “forced to work” to finance Hightower’s luxurious lifestyle.
It’s pretty common for actors to marry other actors within the Hollywood celebrity sphere. In fact, it’s rarer that an actor marries a person who is nothing to do with the business.
Being together with another who knows exactly what it’s like to be recognized everywhere perhaps makes it all easier to deal with. Of course, though it might seem like the glamorous life of a Hollywood star should be straight forward, things are usually far from simple.
Just as with “regular people”, marriages within Hollywood can also collapse. For some, unions crash and burn within a couple of years or even months, though there are other examples where Hollywood marriages have worked out jJust look at Mark Harmon and his wife Pam Dawber, who have been married for over 30 years).
One other actor who has had longer marriages is Robert De Niro. The legendary film figure has been married twice – his second marriage to Grace Hightower, which lasted 21 years, ended in 2018.
In more recent times, it’s been rumored that De Niro has been dating another woman. But even though it’s been three years since his split from Hightower, it appears as though his ex-wife’s luxurious lifestyle is proving a problem for him.
But before we get to De Niro’s personal life, let’s take a look at his long and successful career.
Born on August 17, 1943, in New York City, De Niro’s parents were both successful artists. His mother was a gifted painter, while his father worked as a painter and a poet.
By a young age, De Niro loved the movies. He oftentimes went with his father, and was especially interested in films featuring Greta Garbo. Since his mother worked as a copyeditor for a dramatic workshop, De Niro got acting classes for free. At 10 years of age, he made his stage debut as the lion in The Wizard of Oz.
It didn’t take long before his talent was discovered.
De Niro was eventually accepted to the prestigious High School of Music and Art in New York. He felt unprepared, however, and so dropped out just days later.
At 16, De Niro realized that he wanted to pursue a career in acting after all. His mother took all the money she’d saved for his college tuition, and instead put it towards her son’s dream. He went on to study acting at the Conservatory of Acting, where he had famous actress Stella Adler as his teacher.
At the time, De Niro actually didn’t feel that he was a special talent.
“I was totally invisible in her class, I was a student that she, I don’t think, really remembered. I took a lot from her. But I was not a special student. I was there and learned a lot,” De Niro recalled, adding that he doesn’t feel as though he’s ever had a mentor.
“Stella Adler was really good. A bit full of herself, but, whatever. There were no mentors. There were people I liked, people like Brando, James Dean, Montgomery Clift. They all had something more… An intangible feeling… Heart, soul… It wasn’t just about interpreting your character, it was something so much more than that.”
In 1968, De Niro had his debut proper when he starred in the film Greetings. With some more work under his belt, his big breakthrough came in the 1973 film Bang the Drum Slowly.
Growing up in New York City, De Niro became friends with director Martin Scorsese at a young age. Their friendship would turn out to be a very important aspect of De Niro’s life, as he got the role in Scorsese’s Mean Streets. In 1974, his life changed forever and he became known as one of the best actors around.
De Niro starred as Vito Corleone in Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather: Part II – his legendary performance earned him an Academy Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role.
Read more