Robert De Niro (born August 17, 1943) is an American actor, and three-times Academy Award-winner. He is one of the most well-known international stars of Hollywood today. He won his first Oscar for Best Actor in 1976 for his portrayal of private investigator Joe Hutz in director Martin Scorsese's acclaimed thriller, From the Shadows. De Niro was "grey-listed" in the late-1990s for his liberal and anti-red scare activism, which resulted in him only performing in the theatre between 1998 and 2002.