This person was born on the 17 th August 1943 in New York. Raised in Greenwhich Village he discovered his love for acting at the age of 10 when he played The Cowardly Lion in a local production of The Wizard Of Oz. He quit high school at the age of 16 to pursue his acting career, studying at Stella Adler under the teacher Lee Straburg he also worked in theatre workshops and off Broadway productions trying to break into the movies. His luck finally changed in 1968 when he got his first small film role as Jon Rubin in the film Greetings , and then two more roles followed straight after as Sam Nicoletti - Sam's Song & Lloyd Baker - Bloody Mama.

After these films he ended up back doing off broadway shows for a short while, but finally his big break came in the early 70's when he played the character John Civello - Mean Streets and this made his career take off. The big movie roles then started coming in thick and fast playing such characters as, Alfredo Berlinghieri - 1900, Monroe Stahr - The Last Tycoon, Jimmy Doyle - New York, New York, Des Spellacy - True Confessions & Rupert Pumpkin - The King Of Comedy.

His wide variety of classic movies makes him one of the best actors of all time. he has won 2 Oscars and 1 Golden Globe. Some of the other roles in which he has played are Louis Cyphre - Angel Heart, Jack Walsh - Midnight run, Stanley Everett Cox - Stanley & Iris, Donald Rimgale - Backdraft & Jake Le Motta - Raging Bull. He has always been a very private person, and in 1998 when he was accused of being caught up in a Paris prostitution ring investigation his private life was very much publicized. He denied any involvement but vowed never to go back to France!!

In 1989 he founded Manhatten's Tribeca film center , which houses the company Miramax also huis own production company Tribeca Productions . The center also contains a restaurant which he part owns. Another Oscar nomination came in 1990 for the role as Leonard Lowe - Awakenings. After that the big roles still kept coming playing characters such as Max Cady - Cape Fear, Sam 'Ace' Rothstein - Casino, Neil McCauley - Heat, Father Bobby - Sleepers, Paul Vitti - Analyze This & Louis Gara - Jackie Brown.

He had many famous roles in the 70's, 80's & 90's, some of these roles were Travis Bickle - Taxi Driver, Michael Vronsky - The Deer Hunter & Al Capone - The Untouchables. But one of his greatest roles was as Mafia family member Don Vito Corleone . His most recent roles were as the over protective dad Jack Byrnes also as Don Lino the head of the shark family in the Animated film Shark Tale . He is of course…