MENU
Movies

De Niro’s portrayal of Jake LaMotta in Raging Bull earned him the lone best actor award of his career

Full name
11 Jan 2022
5 min read
Question: robert de niro earned best actor in 1980 for his portrayal of this boxer...

Provided his iconic on-screen career, it’s almost a wonder to consider that Robert De Niro lays claim to but one “Best Actor” Oscar.  

While nominated in the category five times – along with two noms and one win (The Godfather Part II) in the “Best Supporting Actor” category -- De Niro’s 1980 portrayal of boxer Jake La Motta in Raging Bull (based on the boxer’s memoir, “Raging Bull: My Story”) proves the lone “Best Actor” win on his legendary mantle.

Per the awards, De Niro’s Godfather sequel win came in 1974; two years’ later, he was nominated as “Best Actor” for his disturbing role as Travis Bickle in director Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver, and, in 1978, De Niro was nominated again for his work in Vietnam film, The Deer Hunter (winner of “Best Picture” that year).  

Subsequent nominations would come for De Niro in 1990 for Awakenings and in 1991 for Cape Fear; in the “Supporting” category, he’d be nominated in 2012 for Silver Linings Playbook.

And yet, even considering the formidable body of work, no other role packs as much punch as De Niro’s portrayal of the complex, brutish and ultimately unlikeable World Middleweight Champion, La Motta over the course of multiple decades.

The connection between actor and director is palpable in the black and white film, just as the on-screen rapport of De Niro and co-star Joe Pesci (who plays his brother, Joey) is electric; that both connections would become film staples is evident via films’ both previous and following, as the tandem of Scorsese and De Niro have made nine features together (1990’s Goodfellas chief among them), while De Niro and Pesci have acted together seven times (again, Goodfellas chief among them), most recently in 2019’s Scorsese-directed, The Irishman.  

Among the remarkables of De Niro’s Raging Bull performance are the facts that the actor balanced approximately a thousand prep rounds with real boxing matches for training (winning two of three of them in Brooklyn), before gaining sixty pounds (reputed a then weight gain movie record) to play the elder version of La Motta.

As for the power of his punches, De Niro allegedly broke Pesci’s rib in one sparring scene (which made the movie’s final cut), and, as per famed “hit me” scene between the brothers . . . yep, De Niro and Pesci are really punching each other.

While Raging Bull may not have grabbed “Best Picture” despite the nod being one of its eight Oscar nominations (Ordinary People would earn that win), the film charted No. 4 in the American Film Institute’s 2007 list of “100 Years . . . 100 Movies,” trailing only Citizen Cane, The Godfather and Casablanca.

Share this post
No items found.