10 Times An Actor Went On An Insane Streak Of Great Movies

2. Robert De Niro, 1978-1984

The Streak: The Deer Hunter, Raging Bull, The King of Comedy, Once Upon a Time in America. While we could've also went for the earlier Robert De Niro streak of 1973-1976 - Mean Streets, The Godfather Part II, Taxi Driver - where, respectively, he burst onto the scene, won an Oscar, and gave his most iconic performance, it's this one that stands out more, if not in terms of iconography, then at least in terms of sheer performance quality. Book-ended by his torturing work in The Deer Hunter and his great turn in Sergio Leone's epic, four-hour+ sprawl, Once Upon a Time in America, it's the central performances of Raging Bull and The King of Comedy - both for Scorsese - that represents his finest hours, the former a bullish, brutish display that ranks as one of cinema's most visceral, the latter a blackly-comic masterpiece. (In-between he'd star in True Confessions opposite Robert Duvall, a decent performance and one nowhere near bad enough to halt the streak). De Niro won the Best Actor in a Leading Role Oscar for Raging Bull, and he should've been nominated for The King of Comedy, too - the performances a perfect encapsulation of De Niro's uneasy duality as an actor, with Bull showing his startling power and Comedy displaying his puny, freakish alter-ego.