Robert De Niro turns 83: 5 must-watch films that made him a Hollywood legend, from Taxi Driver to Casino

There are actors you watch. And then there is Robert De Niro.

He can barely say a word and still make a room feel dangerous. He can play a gangster without raising his voice. He can turn a boxer into a broken man. He can make a character terrifying, funny, lonely or all three at once.

Today, August 17, De Niro turns 83. He has built one of the most celebrated film careers in Hollywood — including two Academy Awards, for The Godfather Part II and Raging Bull. But where should you begin if you want to experience the De Niro phenomenon?

Here are five films that are a must-watch!

1. Taxi Driver (1976): Where the legend became impossible to ignore

Imagine being alone in New York at night, driving through streets that seem increasingly alien to you. That is Travis Bickle. De Niro's performance as the mentally troubled Vietnam veteran turned taxi driver is one of the defining performances of 1970s American cinema. The film follows Bickle's descent into isolation and obsession, with Martin Scorsese behind the camera.

It earned four Oscar nominations, including Best Picture and Best Actor for De Niro.

What makes the performance unforgettable is how little De Niro needs to do. The character's silence, stare and growing instability do much of the work.

Watch it for: De Niro at his most unsettling.

2. The Godfather Part II (1974): Before Vito became Don Corleone

Two timelines. One crime family. And De Niro playing a younger version of one of cinema's most iconic characters. In The Godfather Part II, De Niro takes on the role of young Vito Corleone, originally played by Marlon Brando in the first film. His story follows Vito's rise from an immigrant in New York to the man who will eventually become the head of the Corleone family.

The performance won De Niro his first Oscar, for Best Supporting Actor.

It is also a fascinating lesson in restraint. De Niro speaks mostly in Sicilian, yet the character's authority comes through almost entirely in his body language and presence.

Watch it for: The performance that announced De Niro could own a film without needing to dominate its screen time.

3. Raging Bull (1980): The performance that won him an Oscar

This is De Niro without the safety net. He plays Jake LaMotta, the volatile real-life boxer whose talent inside the ring is matched by his destructive behaviour outside it.

The physical transformation alone became legendary. But the real achievement is psychological. De Niro takes LaMotta from a powerful young fighter to an older man confronting the wreckage of his life.

The Academy awarded De Niro the Best Actor Oscar for the role.

The film is also one of the great collaborations between De Niro and Scorsese — a partnership that would produce some of American cinema's most memorable films.

Watch it for: The rawest, most physically demanding performance on this list.

4. Goodfellas (1990): De Niro goes back into the mob

By now, De Niro had already played some of cinema's most memorable criminals. Then came Jimmy Conway. Martin Scorsese's Goodfellas follows Henry Hill and his life inside the world of organised crime. De Niro's Jimmy is charming one moment and frightening the next — precisely the kind of character who can make you wonder whether the room is safe.

The film was selected for preservation in the U.S. National Film Registry, alongside The Godfather Part II and other landmark American films. And while the film belongs to a superb ensemble, De Niro's controlled performance provides one of its anchors.

Watch it for: De Niro proving that the quietest man in the room can be the most dangerous.

5. Casino (1995): When De Niro's gangster gets a suit and a casino

If Goodfellas showed De Niro inside the mob, Casino puts him at the centre of a glittering Las Vegas empire. He plays Sam "Ace" Rothstein, a casino operator whose carefully constructed world begins to unravel amid organised crime, money and personal chaos.

Once again, it is a Scorsese-De Niro collaboration. But this time, the character is different from the hot-headed criminals De Niro had become associated with.

Ace is controlled. Professional. Almost obsessively organised. And that makes watching his eventual unraveling even more compelling.

Watch it for: De Niro in full control — until he isn't.

So, which one should you watch first?

If you want the iconic De Niro, start with Taxi Driver.

Want the Oscar-winning masterclass? Go for The Godfather Part II or Raging Bull.

Want gangsters, violence and Scorsese at full speed? Goodfellas is the obvious choice.

And if you want Las Vegas, organised crime and a De Niro character slowly losing control, put on Casino.

Five films. Five very different men. And that may be the most remarkable thing about Robert De Niro's career. For more than five decades, audiences have kept walking into his films expecting to see Robert De Niro.

Instead, they keep meeting somebody else.