Robert De Niro De Niro went on to have a successful working relationship with him in films such as "Taxi Driver" (1976), "New York, New York" (1977), "Raging Bull" (1980), "The King of Comedy" (1983), "Goodfellas" (1990), "Cape Fear" (1991), and "Casino" (1995). They also acted together in "Guilty by Suspicion" (1991) and provided their voices for the animated feature "Shark Tale" (2004). "Taxi Driver" was particularly important to De Niro's career. His iconic performance as Travis Bickle catapulted him to stardom and forever linked his name with Bickle's famous "You talkin' to me?" monologue, which De Niro largely improvised. The role of
Cape Fear (1991 film) play the part instead. Ford, however, agreed to do the film only if he was going to portray Max Cady. Nolte, who was interested in portraying Bowden, managed to convince Scorsese to cast him for the part. In addition, Drew Barrymore and Reese Witherspoon both auditioned for the part of Danielle Bowden and Spielberg reportedly wanted Bill Murray to portray Cady. Nick Nolte is taller than Robert De Niro, but for the movie, Nolte lost weight and De Niro developed muscles until De Niro appeared to be the stronger man. De Niro reportedly took his body fat down to 4%.