Reports from the 2017 New York filming of The Irishman said Robert De Niro wore platform shoe lifts to appear taller as Frank Sheeran, his character in Martin Scorsese’s film. The footwear was described as a costume choice for the character—not as a confirmed brand or model, and not as proof that De Niro wore the shoes in every scene.
Why did De Niro wear platform shoes?
A 2017 Yahoo Entertainment report said the lifts were intended to reflect Frank Sheeran’s greater height. The article attributed the explanation to De Niro’s appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, quoting the fragment: “they made the shoes to give him more inches in height.” That is a reported quotation; the original interview clip has not been independently verified here.
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Yahoo also described Sheeran as 6 ft 4 in, but that characterization is not independently established by the sources cited here. The figure should be understood as the report’s description, not a verified measurement of De Niro or a production specification.
What kind of shoes were they?
A later Jezebel fashion article described the photographed footwear as black platform Oxfords. A 2018 Cineplex Magazine caption also identified platform shoes in a set photograph. These descriptions support calling them platform shoes, but none of the cited sources identifies a brand, model, maker, or exact replica.
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What the set photos do—and don’t—show
The reports concern photographs from The Irishman’s 2017 New York filming. They document a costume detail visible on set, but do not establish that the shoes were used in every scene or explain the footwear’s construction. The most grounded conclusion is that De Niro was reported to wear height-adding platforms for the role, with no confirmed product identification.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.The film’s source material
Yahoo’s report names Charles Brandt’s 2004 nonfiction book I Heard You Paint Houses as source material for the film’s story. Readers interested in the book behind the film can look for Brandt’s I Heard You Paint Houses; that connection is separate from the shoes, for which no exact match has been established.
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- The true story of Danny Greene, a tough Irish thug working for mobsters in Cleveland during the 1970's.
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