No. 3 Vito Corleone (The Godfather Pt. II, 1974)
The performance that won De Niro his first Oscar is still one of his most famous. Slipping into the iconic role of Vito Corleone after the inimitable Marlon Brando was no easy feat–yet De Niro shines as the young Vito, a Sicilian immigrant who rises to power in New York’s Little Italy during the 1920s.
