Robert De Niro will get a lifetime achievememnt award at next year’s Golden Globes

Robert De Niro is to be given a lifetime achievement award at the Golden Globes 2011. The veteran actor will be given the Cecile B. DeMille award in recognition of his career, which has spanned almost 50 years and seen him appear in over 70 films , at the ceremony on January 16 next year.

Fellow actor Kevin Spacey announced that Robert will receive the award — his first Golden Globe win – in Los Angeles this evening.

Robert has had a hugely successful career, gaining early acclaim for his intense and emotionally charged roles as gangsters and outsiders in films such as Mean Streets, Taxi Driver and The Godfather: Part II in the late 70s. He won his first Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in the latter role, before scooping the coveted Best Actor Oscar in 1980 for his portrayal of boxer Jake LaMotta in Raging Bull.

The actor last week talked about his aims in this stage of his career at the Doha Tribeca film festival.

“I want to make movies that have an impact; my letter to the world if you will. But there are movies I’ve done over the years where the reaction could have been that way. When we did Taxi Driver, we had no idea that the reaction would be what it was,” he said.

“You don’t have an idea of that stuff. If it touches a nerve or something in the audience, that’s OK — that’s how it should be. I hope to do, and am doing, movies that I feel have that.”

Robert has previously received nominations for eight Golden Globe Awards during his career.

Though he is typically thought of as taking brooding ‘tough guy’ roles, Robert has also received acclaim for comic turns in films such as Analyze This and Meet The Parents.

Robert’s next film Little Fockers is in cinemas from December 22.