Robert De Niro attends funeral of teen grandson who died of drug overdose
Academy award-winning actor Robert De Niro attended the funeral of his 19-year-old grandson who died after taking fentanyl-laced pills.
The ‘Goodfella’s actor, 79, was joined by his longtime friends Christopher Walken, 80, Harvey Keitel, 84, and music executive Tommy Mottola, as he attended the funeral of grandson Leandro De Niro in New York, Mirror.co.uk reported.
De Niro’s girlfriend Tiffany Chen was also in attendance with their baby daughter Gia bundled close in a carrier.
Leandro died last week after taking fentanyl-laced pills at his $1million Wall Street apartment. At the time his grandfather Robert De Niro said he was “deeply distressed” at the news.
The teenager was found sitting in a chair beside white powder in his one-bedroom apartment on Sunday. His mother Drena, adopted by De Niro after he married her mother Diahnne Abbott in 1976, announced his death on Monday.
The funeral took place at the Frank E. Campbell Funeral Chapel on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. The chapel is favoured by New York celebrities and has administered the ceremonies of stars including Judy Garland, Heath Ledger, John Lennon and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.
The family is expected to hold a graveside ceremony for Leandro at a cemetery in Valhalla, New York, where Robert’s father is buried.
At the funeral home Robert De Niro was supported by his longtime collaborator Christopher Walken. The pair have been friends for decades since they first worked together on epic war drama ‘The Deer Hunter’ in 1978 which won the Oscar for Best Picture in 1979. They reunited on screen 41 years later for Martin Scorsese’s ‘The Irishman’.
De Niro’s ‘Taxi Driver’ co-star and friend of 50 years Harvey Keitel also attended with his Canadian film director wife Daphna Kastner.
Earlier, Drena discussed her son Leandro’s passing in the comments section of her Instagram, replying to a user who asked what happened.
“Someone sold him fentanyl laced pills that they knew were laced yet still sold them to him, so for all these people still f****** around selling and buying this s****, my son is gone forever,” she wrote.