Born August 17, 1943, Robert De Niro turns 60 today. Happy birthday, and please don't hurt me.

Not only is De Niro an outstanding actor, but more importantly he's been in some great, landmark movies, such as The Godfather. He's most noted for playing heavy dramatic roles, gangsters and killers, but he has proven himself in recent years as a worthy comic actor, most notably in Meet the Parents.

Perhaps his most noteworthy one performance has been as Travis Bickle, the unhinged Vietnam vet Taxi Driver.

I want to give special praise, however, to his somewhat less noted performance in Wag the Dog. His fixer for the powerful character Conrad Brean is a considerably more frightening character than the taxi driver. Bickle is more of a master thespian turn, with the overwhelming angst and agitation versus Brean's calm, unflappable demeanor.

Brean, however, is much more dangerous. Bickle might go off the deep end in a weak moment and end up killing one or two people. Brean, however, might carefully and consciously- with regret and a sad sigh- have any number of people killed. Starting a real war might be the unavoidable price of taking care of the personal political problems of his employer. The quietly cold calculations going on under the rumpled and friendly professional comportment should be more chilling than the personal anxieties of Bickle.