Robert De Niro, who turns 80 on August 17, has spent nearly 60 of those years as a working actor, becoming one of the most respected names in his profession in the process. The New York-born son of a noted abstract expressionist painter, the young De Niro was a serious student of the Method, studying at the Stella Adler Conservatory and Lee Strasberg’s Actors Studio. These immersive Method techniques would serve him well over the course of his long acting career, which includes nine films direct