In the movies, Robert De Niro once beat a man to death with a baseball bat.

His characters have killed men with their bloody fists, their guns and even their shoes. This is a guy who played the devil in “Angel Heart” but turned down a chance to play Jesus for his pal Martin Scorsese in “The Last Temptation of Christ.”

So it may be unexpected to see the 68-year-old Oscar winner — known for portraying violent, explosive people — dress in a cap and gown Sunday at Bates College’s 2012 commencement in Lewiston.

But a little Sun Journal research found lots of sweet-natured, even timid roles in De Niro’s 91-movie filmography.

One of his first big parts was in the baseball drama, “Bang the Drum Slowly.” The 1973 movie finds De Niro tugging at heartstrings as he gets sicker and sicker. The role was followed by a run of tough guys in such movies as “The Godfather: Part II,” “Taxi Driver” and “Raging Bull.”

He didn’t soften up again until the 1980s. He played two priests, in “True Confessions” and “We’re No Angels,” and an illiterate cook opposite Jane Fonda in “Stanley & Iris.” In 1990, he played an encephalitis victim opposite Robin Williams in “Awakenings.”

The same guy who played Russian roulette with Christopher Walken in “The Deer Hunter” proved he could get an Oscar nomination while wearing pajamas.

By the end of the 1990s, he’d begun spoofing his tough-guy persona in comedies such as “Anaylze This” with Billy Crystal, “The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle” in which he played Fearless Leader and in “Meet the Parents” with Ben Stiller.

But he’s still tough.

Among the seven De Niro titles headed to theaters in the next year or two are a wilderness fight movie, “The Killing Season,” and the rogue cop drama, “Freelancers.”

Let’s hope an honorary degree from Bates College doesn’t change him.

The commencement is scheduled for 10 a.m. Only students and invited guests can attend the event, but the school is planning a live webcast at http://www.bates.edu/commencement/live/.

Molecular biologist Bonnie Brassler and PBS reporter Gwen Ifill also are scheduled to speak to graduates at Sunday’s ceremony.

Bates College commencement Sunday

Bates College’s commencement is scheduled for 10 a.m. Sunday. Actor Robert De Niro, molecular biologist Bonnie Brassler and PBS reporter Gwen Ifill are scheduled to speak to graduates at the ceremony.

Only Bates students and invited guests can attend the event, but the school is planning a live webcast at http://www.bates.edu/commencement/live/.

Test your knowledge of Robert De Niro

1. Where is he from?

2. What was his first movie role?

3. In 1977, De Niro made a big-budget musical that flopped at the box office. What was it?

4. How much weight did De Niro gain to play Jake LaMotta’s later years in “Raging Bull?”

5. How many movies has De Niro made with director Martin Scorsese?

6. In “The King of Comedy,” De Niro played Rupert Pupkin, a nerdy, wannabe talk show host who kidnaps a Johnny Carson-like figure. Who played that character?

7. When De Niro played the devil in “Angel Heart,” he was given a particularly devilish name. What was it?

8. In what film did he utter the eternal insult, “You slime ball in a sea of pus?”

9. In 2004, De Niro lent his voice to an animated movie. What kind of creature did he play?

10. How many Oscars has he won?

Answers

1. New York City

2. The nephew in 1965’s “Encounter”

3. “New York, New York”

4. 60 pounds

5. Eight. “Mean Streets,” “Taxi Driver,” “New York, New York,” “Raging Bull,” “The King of Comedy,” “Good Fellas,” “Cape Fear” and “Casino”

6. Jerry Lewis

7. Louis Cypher

8. “Midnight Run”

9. A shark in “A Shark’s Tale”

10. Four nominations and two wins, for “The Godfather: Part II” and “Raging Bull”

Noted Bates College commencement speakers

Robert De Niro joins a long list of Bates College commencement honorees. Here are some other notables:

1920 — Calvin Coolidge, then Massachusetts governor, soon to be U.S. vice president and then president

1936 — Poet Robert Frost

1947 — Benjamin Elijah Mays, 1920 Bates grad, an important mentor to Martin Luther King Jr. and longtime president of Morehouse College

1955 — Edmund Muskie, 1936 Bates grad, then-Maine governor and later a U.S. senator and secretary of state

1963 — William S. Paley, CBS chief executive

1967 — Maine stateswoman Margaret Chase Smith

1969 — Richard Buckminster Fuller, the great designer and visionary

1971 — Coretta Scott King, widow of Martin Luther King Jr.

1985 — Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, U.S. Sen. George Mitchell and famed Maine painter Neil Welliver

1986 — Broadcaster and former “Today Show” host Bryant Gumbel, a 1970 Bates grad

1987 — Painter Andrew N. Wyeth

1998 — Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, author John Updike, newsman Daniel Schorr and Sen. Olympia J. Snowe

2000 — Bishop Desmond Tutu

2005 — NBC news anchor Brian Williams

2009 — Actress Geena Davis

2010 — Journalist Jane Pauley

Source: Bates College

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