Robert Anthony De Niro is an American actor, producer, and director who holds both American and Italian citizenship. He is particularly known for his collaborations with filmmaker Martin Scorsese. He 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, he received the Kennedy Center Honor and in 2016, he received a Presidential Medal of Freedom from U.S. President Barack Obama.Born in Manhattan in New York City, De Niro studied acting at HB Studio, Stella Adler Conservatory, and Lee Strasberg's Actors Studio. His first major onscreen appearance was in Greetings. He soon gained recognition with his role as a baseball player in the sports drama Bang the Drum Slowly. His first collaboration with Scorsese was in Mean Streets, in which he played the small-time criminal "Johnny Boy". Stardom followed soon after with his role as the young Vito Corleone in Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather Part II, which won him the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. For his portrayal of Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver, and a soldier in the Vietnam War drama The Deer Hunter, he earned two Academy Award nominations for Best Actor.