Robert De Niro Plays Paul Dano’s Dad

Robert De Niro plays Jonathan Flynn in “Being Flynn,” an absentee dad with delusions of grandeur who shows up looking for a place to sleep at the homeless shelter where his son, Nick (Paul Dano) works.

When you think about it (and we thought about it today because it’s the 40th Anniversary of the Godfather and AMC is running a marathon), De Niro has been playing fathers on screen even before he became one himself. Although Marlon Brando had the lion’s share of screen time with the Corleone children, Sonny, Fredo and Michael, they show that he is a father when De Niro plays the younger Vito Corleone.

In 1981’s “True Confessions,” he played a father of a different sort — a priest.

Didn’t he have children in “Goodfellas” (1990)?  Lorraine Bracco’s character mentions family gatherings with De Niro’s character Jimmy and his wife Mickey (Julie Garfield). Billy L. Sullivan, who was around 10 years old then, is an actor listed in the IMDB cast as uncredited in the role of “Jimmy’s son.”

In “This Boy’s Life” (1993), De Niro played such a bad husband to Ellen Barkin and a rotten stepdad to Leonardo DiCaprio that they ran away.

In “Casino” (1995), De Niro played Ace Rothstein and Sharon Stone played his wife, Ginger. They had a daughter named Amy, played by Darla House as a baby, and by Erika von Tagen as a child. (Remember when Ginger ties Amy to the bed so she can go out.)

In “Meet the Parents” (2000), Ben Stiller wants to marry one of De Niro’s children and reprises his role as Jack Byrne in Meet the Fockers (2004) .

Al Pacino, meantime, who is actually 3 years older than De Niro, played a grandfather in “Two Bits” (1995).