Robert De Niro Wins Best Actor: 1981 Oscars

since 1927 when these awards first began they have been 264 performances nominated as the best actor of the year the five performances this year will stand with the finest as Jake LaMotta a man whose violent career was only part of a violent life and who Sue's and whose success in and out of the ring were balanced by spectacular failures in the film Raging Bull Robert De Niro [Applause] [Music] [Music] for his performance as a husband and father who was unable to reconcile his obsession with military life with the deep needs of his family in the Great Santini Robert Duvall [Applause] [Music] for a role which combined the ugliest of exteriors with the gentlest of souls and which affirms the essential value of human dignity in the Elephant Man John Hurt [Applause] as Scotty Templeton a man alienated from him son and nearly powerless to change that alienation until his own illness brings understanding to them both in tribute Jack Lemmon [Music] for his performance as the egocentric film director who stops at nothing to achieve his concept of the ultimate effect in a profession where effect is everything in the stuntman Peter O'Toole [Applause] [Music] the winner is Robert De Niro [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] I forgot my line so the director wrote them down for me I I want to thank everyone sister said so often but it's it's true and it's what can I say I want to thank Bruno Richard Bruno for the terrific costumes Frank Warner mrs. Corman Pete Savage and if Pete wasn't involved in the film or had he wouldn't have gotten it started I'm a little nervous excuse me never would have the film never would have gotten started my quest more for the makeup Mary Keats the late gene Baur trial II Owen and Bob Irwin Winkler and bob charde off Vicky LaMotta and all the other wives and Joey LaMotta even though he's suing us I hope that settled soon enough so I can go to go over to his house and eat once in a while and Mark Martin and Paul Schrader who wrote the script and of course Jake LaMotta whose life [Music] it's all about Marty Scorsese who [Applause] [Music] gave me and all the other actors and everyone on the film all the love and trust that anyone could give anyone and it's just wonderful as a director and I want to thank my mother and father for having me and my grandmother and grandfather for having them and everyone else who involved in the film and and I hope that I can share this with it with anyone that it means anything to and the rest of the world and especially all those terrible things that are happening and I love everyone [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Channel: Oscars

Views: 6,538,157

Rating: 4.8997073 out of 5

Keywords: oscar, oscars, 53rd, academy, awards, robert, deniro, raging, bull, actor, martin, scorsese, joe, pesci, jake, lamotta

Id: sH5c-WeE07c

Length: 4min 54sec (294 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 02 2008

Reddit Comments

[u/3Dartwork]

Poor guy thought he'd just go sit back down in his chair with his award instead of going to the backstage party.

[u/moxy800]

IMO that was his last great AMAZING performance.

I always felt like the experience of that performance must have been so intense it kind of 'broke' DeNiro, he was never quite the same after it.