What is the best Robert De Niro performance of all time?

Few actors have shaped American cinema as definitively as Robert De Niro. From Travis Bickle's mirror monologue to Jake LaMotta's brutal self-destruction, his career contains some of cinema's greatest moments — and it extends far beyond his Scorsese collaborations. Which De Niro performance is the greatest of all time?

1

Travis Bickle

The iconic, unraveling Vietnam veteran-turned-vigilante whose 'You talkin' to me?' became cinema's most quoted line in Taxi Driver (1976).

2

Jake LaMotta

The self-destructive heavyweight boxer portrayed with terrifying physicality — including a 60-pound weight gain — in Raging Bull (1980), earning De Niro an Oscar.

3

Young Vito Corleone

The Corleone patriarch's immigrant rise to power in 1920s New York in The Godfather Part II (1974), earning De Niro his first Oscar.

4

Rupert Pupkin

A delusional aspiring comedian who kidnaps a talk show host to land his big break in The King of Comedy (1982).

5

Jimmy Conway

The charming, volatile wiseguy ringleader whose warmth masks a terrifying willingness for murder in Goodfellas (1990).

6

Michael Vronsky

A working-class steelworker whose bonds of friendship are shattered by the horrors of Vietnam in The Deer Hunter (1978).

7

Neil McCauley

A calculating master thief unable to walk away from one last score, facing off against Al Pacino's detective in Heat (1995).

8

Sam Rothstein

A meticulous mob-connected casino operator whose empire is undone by greed and a volatile wife in Casino (1995).

9

Al Capone

A flamboyantly menacing take on the Chicago mob boss, terrifying in a baseball bat scene for the ages in The Untouchables (1987).

10

Frank Sheeran

An aging hitman recounting his decades of mob work including the alleged murder of Jimmy Hoffa in The Irishman (2019).

11

Max Cady

An ex-convict seeking terrifying revenge on the lawyer he blames for his imprisonment in Cape Fear (1991).

12

Johnny Boy

A reckless, self-destructive young hood whose unpaid debts put his friends in danger in Mean Streets (1973).

13

Lorenzo Anello

A principled Bronx bus driver trying to save his son from a charismatic mobster's influence in A Bronx Tale (1993), a film De Niro also directed.

14

Jack Walsh

A wisecracking bounty hunter trying to transport a bail jumper cross-country in the legendary buddy comedy Midnight Run (1988).

15

Pat Solitano Sr.

A superstitious Philadelphia Eagles fan navigating his son's complicated road to recovery in Silver Linings Playbook (2012).

16

Young Noodles

A Jewish gangster in 1920s New York in the epic decades-spanning crime saga Once Upon a Time in America (1984).