AARP The Magazine’s Annual Impact Awards pay tribute to ten extraordinary people age 50 and over who have made the world a better place through their innovative thinking, passion, and perseverance. Meet some of the winners of the 2007 Impact Awards:
ROBERT DE NIRO Revitalizing a traumatized neighborhood
Robert De Niro was in midtown Manhattan on the morning of September 11, 2001, when he heard the World Trade Center had been hit. He raced downtown to his loft apartment ten blocks north of the towers, just in time to see them collapse. "I was watching them out of my window," he recalls, "and looking at CNN on my television to confirm what I was seeing with my own eyes. It was so unreal."
For the lifelong New Yorker, the terrorist attacks devastated not only his country but the community he loved. A pioneering resident of Tribeca, the once neglected warehouse district south of Canal Street where he had lived for 20 years, the iconic actor and filmmaker had helped transform the neighborhood into a booming destination of cool loft buildings, businesses, restaurants, and shops. He was the area's premier cultural tycoon, having established the Tribeca Film Center—a mecca of offices for New York film, television, and entertainment companies and home base of his own Tribeca Productions. He also owns the popular Tribeca Grill, where he displays canvases painted by his artist dad and frequently lunches with friends. "Bob felt personally insulted by what happened down here," says movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, De Niro's good friend.
A few months after the attacks, it was De Niro's business partner, Jane Rosenthal, with whom he has produced such films as Wag the Dog and Meet the Parents, who suggested they launch a project they had long discussed. "To help downtown, we felt that this would be the time to start a film festival, if we were ever going to do it," says De Niro. "We needed something to uplift the spirit of the community," adds Rosenthal. "Our neighborhood looked like a war zone—there were emergency vehicles all over, police with machine guns and combat gear, helicopters buzzing over, constant sirens, and the smell. We wanted to give people, particularly the kids in the neighborhood, a new memory."
De Niro and Rosenthal were joined as cofounders of the Tribeca Film Festival by Rosenthal's husband, real-estate investor Craig Hatkoff, who secured sponsors, including American Express, the festival's long-term partner. In May 2002, thanks to the heroic efforts of a team that included 1,300 volunteers, the Tribeca Film Festival came to life. Rosenthal oversaw planning details for a juried film competition, filmmaker panel discussions, and an all-day family festival, while De Niro made key phone calls to enlist heavyweight help. His longtime collaborator Martin Scorsese agreed to curate a Best of New York film series, while movie buff and friend Nelson Mandela accepted an invitation to speak about the healing power of movies at opening ceremonies on the steps of City Hall. De Niro also scored a coup by persuading George Lucas to let Tribeca host the premiere of Star Wars: Episode II—Attack of the Clones.
That first year, the festival was a hit critically and commercially, drawing 150,000 attendees and generating $10 million in revenues for local merchants, with stars including Susan Sarandon and Hugh Grant adding a frisson of glamour to the serious New York film crowd. Most gratifying for De Niro, Rosenthal, and Hatkoff, downtown residents embraced it as a celebration of renewal, turning out in droves for free events such as a family street fair, a concert, and open-air "drive-in" screenings of Grease on a pier overlooking the Hudson.
"The Tribeca Film Festival is an event that brought hope to Lower Manhattan in its darkest days," says New York City's mayor, Michael Bloomberg. It has grown every year since and developed a hip global identity that is more fun and fabulous than the New York Film Festival, with more grit and gravitas than Cannes. In 2006, 465,000 people came to see over 800 screenings of films from 40 countries, and Tom Cruise roared in on a motorcycle to unveil Mission: Impossible III.
One of the most respected screen actors in history, indelibly identified with New York through the street characters he has played in such films as Mean Streets and Taxi Driver, De Niro has fueled the success of the Tribeca festival, just as Robert Redford has defined Sundance. A meticulous Method actor who disappears into his characters, he is famously shy, a reluctant interview subject, and guarded about his private life. "I've never been one of those actors who has touted myself as a fascinating human being," De Niro has said. "I had to decide early on whether I was to be an actor or a personality." He relies on Rosenthal to guide him to festival functions, where he is a gracious if reserved presence. "Just tell me what you need me to do," he tells her.
Meanwhile, at 63, De Niro continues to take on new challenges. His latest film, The Good Shepherd, is the actor's first directorial effort since A Bronx Tale 13 years ago. An epic spy drama starring Matt Damon and Angelina Jolie—with an extended cameo by De Niro—the movie tells the story of the early days of the CIA by tracking a young spy, played by Damon, from his college days pre-World War II through the cold war and ending at the Bay of Pigs invasion. The tale's fictional locations range from Washington, D.C., to the Congo, Cuba, and Central America. "Being a kid raised during the cold war, it was always fascinating to me," says De Niro. As an elementary-school student, he was told to get under his desk in case of a nuclear attack. "Kind of ridiculous," he says. "I was fascinated by what the Soviet Union represented—the ominous, dangerous other side—the way we were supposed to perceive it. The propaganda."
Indeed, De Niro has been doing research on the world of espionage for the past decade (not including his hilarious turn as the ex-spy who gives his daughter's boyfriend a polygraph test "just for fun" in Meet the Parents). He has soaked up spy culture on trips to Russia and elsewhere with his friend Milt Bearden, a retired 30-year CIA veteran. "We have wandered into the hills of Afghanistan, disappeared with my old KGB enemies, who are now my friends, in Moscow," says Bearden. "Bob and I drank vodka and took saunas with these old guys, took a ride on a boat on the Moscow River." Although recognized around the world, De Niro stays as low-key as possible. "There's always a wonderful bit of mystery about De Niro," says Bearden. "It's part of what makes him a special guy. He wants it that way, and he's managed it remarkably well."
On the set of The Good Shepherd, De Niro was collaborative, doggedly perfectionistic—and modest about his relative inexperience. "There is never, as far as I'm concerned, much of an easy day," he says. "It's always not knowing, following instinct, being flexible. Because no matter how well you plan something, it never turns out that way when you are shooting. You always have to figure out on the spot what is the best thing to do with what you have." When he gets in a jam, does he ever think, "What would Marty [Scorsese] do?" "Yes, I've thought, 'What would Marty do?' " he says, laughing. "Sometimes I know exactly what he would do, and sometimes I'm not sure."
With the December 22 opening of The Good Shepherd approaching, De Niro admitted to anguishing over every last detail. "I'm fine-tuning this, reworking that," he says. "I keep having this image of the director being dragged from the editing room in a straitjacket."
As he gazes out his office window at the bustling activity around the World Trade Center site, he can take solace in one certainty: the film festival he and his partners founded has had a profound healing effect on Tribeca, pumping $325 million into the local economy. "It has been well received," says De Niro, with typical understatement. "People come from different parts of the world and want to be part of it. It has certainly contributed to revitalizing the neighborhood. Yes, I would hope that it has helped."
By Nancy Griffin
Photo by Peter Freed/Corbis Outline
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GOVERNOR JIM DOUGLASPutting health care before politics
Sometimes politicians can rise above politics. That certainly was the case this year in Vermont, where no one expected much from the state government. With a Republican governor and a Democratic legislature, gridlock seemed inevitable. But in May, after two years of negotiations, Governor Jim Douglas signed groundbreaking legislation that makes affordable health insurance available to everyone in the state. The new universal health care law, considered the most progressive in the country, also includes a series of cost-saving reforms. It is particularly important in the Green Mountain State, which has 61,000 uninsured citizens and a growing senior population. While the bill was clearly a bipartisan effort, much of the credit goes to Douglas, 55, for refusing to give up. "This was such a key issue," he says. "The need was so great in terms of containing costs and providing coverage to uninsured Vermonters that we just couldn't fail."
By Joe Treen
Photo by Melanie Dunea; grooming by Jenna Menard/Jump
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VALERIE HARPEREliminating hunger, empowering women
When Valerie Harper was working for passage of the Equal Rights Amendment in the late 1960s, she saw a poster of Golda Meir, then prime minister of Israel, on the wall at a chapter of the National Organization for Women. "The caption said, 'But Can She Type?' " recalls Harper, with a big laugh. Forty years later the 66-year-old actress still best known as Mary Tyler Moore's sassy sidekick, Rhoda, is following in Meir's footsteps in more ways than one, playing the feminist icon in a touring one-woman play, Golda's Balcony, and working tirelessly in her spare time to improve the welfare of women around the world. Since 1977 she has channeled much of her prodigious energy into The Hunger Project, a nonprofit organization dedicated to eradicating hunger, in part by empowering women. "The real issue holding hunger in place is the subjugation, marginalization, and disempowerment of women," says Harper. "Wherever you have abject hunger, you will see low status of women. But when there are resources in the hands of women, the kids eat." The Hunger Project, which has aided some 2.5 million people in 13 developing countries in Africa, South Asia, and Latin America, provides women with loans for small businesses and farms, promotes girls' education, and helps build food banks, health clinics, and schools. In the past year Harper has worked to raise consciousness about poverty and hunger by traveling to Africa, lobbying Congress, and hosting fundraisers. Activism springs from optimism, she says. "I believe I make a difference. I think we all do. I'm no special person." She pauses, then laughs. "And you know what? When you take action, you meet fabulous people."
By Nancy Griffin
Photo by Nigel Parry; styling by Naomi DeLuce Wilding/Cloutier Agency; makeup by Jeanne Townsend/Celestine Agency; hair by Heather Lloyd
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JACK McCONNELL, M.D.Curing a clinic shortage
A renowned physician and researcher, Jack McConnell proved to be a terrible retiree. "I never got so bored in my life," says McConnell, whose career achievements include directing the development of the tuberculosis tine test, Tylenol tablets, and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technology. "I sat around thinking, 'Is this all I got left?' " It wasn't: after retiring to Hilton Head, South Carolina, to play golf, the pediatrician quickly noticed that a large number of the resort island's low-income residents had no health care. So he started a free medical clinic to serve them, luring recently retired physicians and nurses off the golf course and back to work. "We offer them a way to practice medicine the way they were taught to practice," says McConnell in his honeyed East Tennessee drawl—an unhurried, personal approach that dates to an era before managed care. The success of the Volunteers in Medicine Clinic, which opened in 1994 and last year tallied nearly 30,000 patient visits, speaks both to Hilton Head's doctor-heavy demographics and to the persuasive powers of its founder. (McConnell persuaded South Carolina lawmakers to waive licensing procedures, obtained blanket malpractice coverage for a fraction of the normal rate, and even coaxed local contractors to donate their construction services.) Now, the Volunteers in Medicine Institute is using McConnell's model to build a network of free clinics nationwide; so far it's opened 50 clinics from Washington to Georgia. "Every community in this country has all the resources it needs to operate a facility like ours," says the intrepid physician, who at 81 is in the process of starting a clinic in Africa. "But someone has to step up and take the risk."
By David Dudley
Photo by Melanie Dunea; grooming by Jenna Menard/Jump
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CORDELIA TAYLORCordelia TaylorRethinking nursing home care
Cordelia Taylor, a registered nurse and administrator at a large nursing home in Milwaukee, didn’t like the way her patients lived: residents were roused before dawn and sometimes left in restraints for hours. When her boss balked at her suggested improvements, she decided to open her own facility. That meant quitting her job, selling her house in the suburbs, and renovating a house in a decaying neighborhood on Milwaukee’s north side to accommodate eight elderly residents. She had moments of doubt: “I didn’t want my husband to know I was afraid I’d made a mistake,” she says. “At night I’d go into the bathroom and cry and pray.” But she didn’t give up. After opening her first home, she and several members of her family bought a few vacant houses nearby, transforming a troubled block into an innovative long-term care complex called Family House. Now, the block functions as a powerful force for community revitalization, providing disabled and elderly people with a place to live, employing local residents, and even offering afterschool programs for neighborhood kids. Via a partnership with the Medical College of Wisconsin, Family House now operates a medical clinic; up next is a community center to be built a few blocks away. For Taylor, 72, the project has more than lived up to its name: six of her eight children have worked alongside her at various times, and granddaughter Joi Jackson is being groomed to take over Taylor’s role—someday. “Until I feel things are the way I want them to be, I’ll be here,” Taylor says. “A lot of people who do this see it as a business. What we do is a mission.”
By David Dudley
Photo by Melanie Dunea
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DAVID HYDE PIERCESpotlighting Alzheimer's
Actor David Hyde Pierce's heartfelt commitment to his role as spokesperson for the Alzheimer's Association comes from his own family history. Alzheimer's claimed the lives of both his father and grandfather and was a contributing factor in the deaths of his mother and grandmother, who cared for them. "This is what's hardest to explain to people who haven't experienced Alzheimer's in their lives," says Pierce, 47, whose hilarious portrayal of the prissy and pretentious psychiatrist Niles Crane on the hit television show Frasier belies his quiet, unassuming nature in real life. "Not only are caregivers dealing with a spouse or a partner or a parent who has a terminal illness, but someone who has less and less recognition of them." Since 1994 the actor has appeared at fundraisers, testified before Congress, and loaned his celebrity to increase awareness of the disease that affects some 5 million Americans. A four-time Emmy winner who recently won raves for his Broadway run in Monty Python's Spamalot, Pierce is set to take a new play, Curtains, to Broadway this spring. But he continues to make time to spread his message. "This is a disease that affects all of us, whether we get it or not, because more and more people have it," he says. "It's not going away." —Elizabeth Enright
Photo by Melanie Dunea; styling by Christine Hahn; prop styling by Denise Feltham/Sydney Represents; grooming by Jenna Menard/Jump
Source: AARP The Magazine
