Robert De Niro, widely regarded as one of the greatest actors of his generation, has revealed the seven performers who influenced his craft the most – featuring legendary names such as James Dean, Marlon Brando, and Greta Garbo.
The two-time Academy Award winner, known for his iconic roles in Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, and Goodfellas, named his favourite actors in an interview with Kenneth Branagh in 1994, shedding light on the stars who shaped his approach to acting.
While many would assume his influences came solely from American cinema, De Niro surprisingly pointed to British actors as a big source of inspiration.
Speaking about the films that first captured his imagination, De Niro mentioned Karel Reisz’s Saturday Night and Sunday Morning starring Albert Finney and Lindsay Anderson’s This Sporting Life featuring Richard Harris.
“I was thinking actually some early English films like Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, Albert Finney. There was This Sporting Life with Richard Harris,” De Niro said in the interview.
He explained that these films were seen as “art films” in America at the time and were considered gritty and realistic compared to Hollywood productions.
Finney’s raw and rebellious performance particularly stood out to him, influencing his own intense on-screen presence in films such as Taxi Driver and Cape Fear.
Alongside his admiration for British cinema, De Niro credited some of Hollywood’s most legendary actors for inspiring his work.
“In America, the actors I thought were the most interesting were James Dean, Marlon Brando, Montgomery Clift, Kim Stanley and Greta Garbo,” he said.
Brando, often considered one of the greatest method actors of all time, left a lasting impression on De Niro.
He specifically mentioned Brando’s performances in On the Waterfront and A Streetcar Named Desire as among the finest ever seen in cinema.
“When you saw James Dean do East of Eden, he was great, but you can’t do what he could do,” De Niro added.
Meanwhile, Montgomery Clift, known for his nuanced and introspective performances, also made a strong impression on De Niro, who built his career on playing deeply complex characters.
The list also included Kim Stanley, a celebrated stage actress often referred to as “the female Brando” for her intense method acting, and Greta Garbo, whose screen presence set her apart as one of the most captivating actors of early Hollywood.
While discussing his influences, De Niro also touched on his collaborative process with Martin Scorsese, one of the most important partnerships in film history.
“Some directors like to rehearse, like with Scorsese sometimes we videotape certain scenes, we rehearse and we improvise and we fool around to see if we can get anything else out of the scene,” he explained.
This exploratory approach – which often involves improvisation – has been a hallmark of De Niro’s acting, allowing him to craft some of the most memorable characters in cinema.
Robert De Niro’s 7 favourite actors:
- Marlon Brando (On the Waterfront, The Godfather)
- Montgomery Clift (A Place in the Sun, From Here to Eternity)
- James Dean (Rebel Without a Cause, East of Eden)
- Greta Garbo (Camille, Grand Hotel)
- Albert Finney (Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, Tom Jones)
- Richard Harris (This Sporting Life, Gladiator)
- Kim Stanley (The Goddess, Seance on a Wet Afternoon).
