De Niro On 'The Godfather:' It Changed My Life
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- "The Godfather" movies are one of the most notable film series of all time.
For legendary actor Robert De Niro, his portrayal of a young Vito Corleone led to his first Academy Award.
"It helped me a lot, it probably changed my life," De Niro told CBS2's Mary Calvi.
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This weekend, he'll bring the cast and creators of the movie together again all in one place for a discussion to close out the Tribeca Film Festival, which was founded by De Niro and Jane Rosenthal.
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De Niro is credited with helping to change the life of the Tribeca neighborhood. The New York actor, who was born in Greenwich Village and hung out in Little Italy, dedicated himself to helping his hometown come back from devastation following the Sept. 11 terror attacks.
Calvi: "I was here for the very first film festival and remember the raw emotion of it all and I would love to speak for a moment if you could about why you started this experience."
De Niro: "When 9/11 happened of course we did talk seriously about it and decided let's do it for the neighborhood."
Rosenthal: "We weren't the steel workers, the firefighters, we were the filmmakers so what we knew how to do was to put on a great event, to put on a show."
They put the first festival together in less than 120 days, and today, it's one of the most anticipated entertainment events of the year.
De Niro will be joined by director Francis Ford Coppola and actors James Caan, Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton, and Talia Shire for a conversation following a back-to-back screening of "The Godfather" and "The Godfather Part II" at Radio City Music Hall on Saturday.