In 1991, De Niro scored yet another Best Actor Oscar nomination for his frightening performance as the murderous Max Cady in Scorsese’s remake of Cape Fear, co-starring Nick Nolte and Jessica Lange. De Niro made his directorial debut in 1993 with the critically acclaimed but underseen film A Bronx Tale. He also produced and acted in the film, playing the concerned father of a young man (played by Lillo Brancato) growing up in a Mafia-dominated neighborhood in New York. The film was based on a play written by Chazz Palminteri (who also co-starred as the neighborhood’s resident crime boss). In addition to his production work in film, De Niro also produced the short-lived television anthology series TriBeCa, which aired in 1993.

Even as De Niro began to build up his record as a producer and a director, he continued to work tirelessly as an actor—the realm in which he had found the greatest success. After a rare romantic turn in the offbeat Mad Dog and Glory (1993), co-starring Uma Thurman and Bill Murray, De Niro starred as “the Creature” in Kenneth Branagh’s ambitious adaptation of Mary Shelley’s classic novel, Frankenstein (1994). The much-hyped film was a critical and commercial failure. De Niro had more success returning to familiar territory in Heat, a slick crime drama that marked his first on-screen pairing with Al Pacino (the two had co-starred in The Godfather: Part II, but had no scenes together). The film, directed by Michael Mann, received good reviews, but was ultimately a commercial disappointment. In 1995, De Niro reunited yet again with Pesci and Scorsese in the violent Las Vegas gangster drama Casino, co-starring Sharon Stone.

The indefatigable De Niro continued to act in and produce a steady stream of films throughout the 1990s. In 1996, he starred as a psychotic man stalking a famous baseball player (played by Wesley Snipes) in the immensely forgettable The Fan. That same year, he turned in strong supporting performances in Sleepers and Marvin’s Room, a family drama starring Diane Keaton, Meryl Streep, and Leonardo DiCaprio (De Niro also produced the latter film). He had more success in 1997 with Jackie Brown, directed by Quentin Tarantino and co-starring Samuel L. Jackson, and Wag the Dog, a black comedy that De Niro produced and co-starred in alongside Dustin Hoffman. He also had a supporting role in Cop Land, starring Sylvester Stallone and Harvey Keitel.

After a small role in a critically-panned film adaptation of Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations and a high-intensity performance in the action-thriller Ronin (both 1998), De Niro scored a huge hit in 1999 with Analyze This, a comedy that he also produced with TriBeca Films.