Robert DeNiro Opens Up About His Gay Father

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Despite being famous for more than forty years, Academy Award winner Robert DeNiro has never been particularly open about his personal life. He hasn’t been a weirdo recluse either, but as huge celebrities go, we don’t know a whole lot about him. For example: his father, Robert DeNiro Sr, was apparently a gay artist.

DeNiro’s father never hid who he was or who he loved, but the actor hasn’t really talked extensively about his old man on the record. That changed during an interview with Out Magazine this week in which the legendary tough guy opened up and talked extensively about his father’s genius and his internal conflict over his profession and sexual orientation.

”I was not aware, much, of it. I wish we had spoken about it much more. My mother didn’t want to talk about things in general, and you’re not interested when you’re a certain age. Again, for my kids, I want them to stop and take a moment and realize that you sometimes have to do things now instead of later, because later may be 20 years from now — and that’s too late.”

It’ll change moving forward too because Robert DeNiro has commissioned a documentary about his father entitled Remembering The Artist. It will tackle his father’s work, the strange but loving relationship the two men shared and more about his life. You can check out the trailer below…

Remembering The Artist will air on HBO on Monday, June 9th. With the always magnetic Robert DeNiro on camera and acclaimed editor Thelma Schoonmaker involved, it should be an incredible watch.

Mack Rawden
Editor In Chief

Mack Rawden is the Editor-In-Chief of CinemaBlend. He first started working at the publication as a writer back in 2007 and has held various jobs at the site in the time since including Managing Editor, Pop Culture Editor and Staff Writer. He now splits his time between working on CinemaBlend’s user experience, helping to plan the site’s editorial direction and writing passionate articles about niche entertainment topics he’s into. He graduated from Indiana University with a degree in English (go Hoosiers!) and has been interviewed and quoted in a variety of publications including Digiday. Enthusiastic about Clue, case-of-the-week mysteries, a great wrestling promo and cookies at Disney World. Less enthusiastic about the pricing structure of cable, loud noises and Tuesdays.