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60 free Robert De Niro trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Robert De Niro trivia quiz covers six decades of transformation. It opens with the boy called Bobby Milk in Little Italy, the painter parents, the Cowardly Lion at age ten, and the classes with Stella Adler and Lee Strasberg. Then it works through the films that made him: Bang the Drum Slowly, Mean Streets and the start of the Scorsese partnership, the Sicilian-language Oscar for young Vito Corleone, the 30 pounds lost for Taxi Driver and the 60 gained for Raging Bull, The Deer Hunter, The King of Comedy, Once Upon a Time in America, Goodfellas, Cape Fear, Casino and the diner scene in Heat. A second strand covers the later career and the man himself: A Bronx Tale and The Good Shepherd as director, Meet the Parents and the comedy turn, Silver Linings Playbook, Joker, The Irishman and Killers of the Flower Moon, TriBeCa Productions and the Tribeca Film Festival, Nobu, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Honorary Palme d'Or, the seven children, and the roles he turned down, from Jesus to Jack Torrance. Difficulty runs from easy to expert and is shown on every question. Every answer was checked against a reference page and each question carries its citation. Try our Al Pacino and Martin Scorsese quizzes next.
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Q 01What was the profession of both of Robert De Niro's parents?
Painters
Virginia Admiral and Robert De Niro Sr. met at Hans Hofmann's painting classes in Provincetown; a 2014 HBO documentary remembered his father's art.
Q 02What childhood nickname did De Niro earn for his pale complexion?
Bobby Milk
He ran with street kids in Little Italy, to his father's disapproval; some remain lifelong friends.
Q 03De Niro's stage debut at age 10 was as which character in The Wizard of Oz?
The Cowardly Lion
He later dropped out of high school at 16, having found performing a way to relieve his shyness.
Q 04Which teacher exposed De Niro to the Stanislavski system at her own conservatory?
Stella Adler
He also studied at HB Studio and Lee Strasberg's Actors Studio, and idolised Brando, Clift and James Dean.
Q 05Greetings (1968), De Niro's first major role, was the first of several early films with which director?
Brian De Palma
It satirised draft dodging; Hi, Mom! (1970) was its sequel, and De Palma later directed him as Al Capone.
Q 06In Bang the Drum Slowly (1973), De Niro played a baseball player suffering from what?
Hodgkin disease
Novelist Mark Harris said he learned only as much baseball as the role needed and doubted he 'ever cared to touch a baseball again'.
Q 07What was the name of De Niro's small-time hood in Mean Streets (1973)?
Johnny Boy
Pauline Kael wrote that 'this kid doesn't just act – he takes off into the vapors'.
Q 08For The Godfather Part II, De Niro delivered most of his lines in what?
Sicilian dialects
He became the first man to win an Oscar for a performance in Italian, and Coppola collected the award as he did not attend.
Q 09De Niro and Marlon Brando were the first pair of actors to win Oscars for playing which same character?
Vito Corleone
Coppola remembered De Niro from his audition for the first film, which he quit to make The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight.
Q 10How much weight did De Niro lose to play Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver?
30 pounds
He also studied Midwestern accents at an army base, took firearms training and watched real cabbies; 'You talkin' to me?' was improvised.
Q 11Where does 'You talkin' to me?' rank on the AFI's list of 100 greatest movie quotes?
10th
The Washington Post called Taxi Driver his 'landmark performance'.
Q 12In Bertolucci's 1900 (1976), De Niro's landowner Alfredo grows up alongside a peasant played by whom?
Gerard Depardieu
The epic follows the two men through the fascist-communist conflicts of the first half of the century.
Q 13Which director of The Last Tycoon (1976) noted that De Niro rehearsed on Sundays and 'calculates everything'?
Elia Kazan
He lost 42 pounds to play the Fitzgerald-inspired studio boss.
Q 21In Angel Heart (1987), De Niro played a character with which devilishly punning name?
Louis Cyphre
Pauline Kael called him 'lazy' for taking small roles that year; De Palma said he was 'experimenting'.
Q 22In Midnight Run (1988), De Niro played bounty hunter Jack Walsh opposite which comic foil?
Charles Grodin
The Washington Post said the chance to play comedy 'appears to have revitalized him'.
Q 23Whom did Scorsese cast as Jesus in The Last Temptation of Christ after De Niro passed?
Willem Dafoe
De Niro had told Scorsese he would still do it as a favour if needed.
Q 14Which instrument did De Niro learn from Georgie Auld for New York, New York (1977)?
Saxophone
He played Jimmy, who falls for Liza Minnelli's singer, and earned a Golden Globe nomination.
Q 15The Deer Hunter (1978) is set in Vietnam and in Clairton, a working-class town in which state?
Pennsylvania
De Niro's steelworker earned him a Best Actor nomination alongside Walken, Streep, Savage and Cazale.
Q 16How much weight did De Niro gain to play the ageing Jake LaMotta in Raging Bull?
60 pounds
He also had to learn to box; the role won him the Best Actor Oscar.
Q 17De Niro was strongly considered for which role in The Shining, which went to Kubrick's first choice?
Jack Torrance
He also turned down Jesus in The Last Temptation of Christ, telling Scorsese he would do it as a favour if needed.
Q 18What was the name of De Niro's struggling stand-up comedian in The King of Comedy (1982)?
Rupert Pupkin
De Niro brought the script to Scorsese; the film grossed only $2.5 million on a $19 million budget.
Q 19How long was the theatrical cut of Once Upon a Time in America that got a 15-minute ovation at Cannes?
229 minutes
The US release was hacked down to 139 minutes, which critics hated; De Niro played the Jewish gangster 'Noodles' Aaronson.
Q 20Which 1985 dystopian film was De Niro's first venture into science fiction?
Brazil
Terry Gilliam's daydreamer's tale flopped at the box office but joined the Criterion Collection.
Q 24Goodfellas was adapted from which non-fiction book by Nicholas Pileggi?
Wiseguy
De Niro played the Irish truck hijacker James Conway; the film premiered at Venice.
Q 25Awakenings (1990), with De Niro as a catatonic patient, was based on a book by which neurologist?
Oliver Sacks
Sacks said De Niro 'did somehow feel his way into being Parkinsonian'; Penny Marshall directed.
Q 26What was the name of De Niro's vengeful ex-convict in Cape Fear (1991)?
Max Cady
Newsweek praised his 'lip-smacking, blackly comic and terrifying' psychopath; the film grossed $182 million.
Q 27De Niro's directorial debut, A Bronx Tale (1993), was based on a play by which co-star?
Chazz Palminteri
The coming-of-age story drew on Palminteri's own childhood.
Q 28In the 1995 Vegas film with Stone and Pesci, what was De Niro's Sam Rothstein nicknamed?
Ace
It was his eighth film with Scorsese, again from a Nicholas Pileggi book.
Q 29Which producer sent De Niro the script for Heat first?
Art Linson
Linson's Hollywood experiences later became the basis of What Just Happened (2008), which De Niro also starred in.
Q 30De Niro's 50th film credit was which 1996 drama about four boys abused in a detention centre?
Sleepers
He played Father Bobby Carillo, a father figure to the boys.