100 Facts About Martin Scorsese

Martin Charles Scorsese is an American film director, producer, screenwriter and actor.

Martin Scorsese is the recipient of many major accolades, including an Academy Award, four BAFTA Awards, three Emmy Awards, a Grammy Award, three Golden Globe Awards, and two Directors Guild of America Awards.

Martin Scorsese has been honored with the AFI Life Achievement Award in 1997, the Film Society of Lincoln Center tribute in 1998, the Kennedy Center Honor in 2007, the Cecil B DeMille Award in 2010, and the BAFTA Fellowship in 2012.

Martin Scorsese received an MA from New York University's Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development in 1968.

Martin Scorsese's 1973 crime film Mean Streets, dealing with machismo and violence, and exploring Catholic concepts of guilt and redemption, was a blueprint for his filmmaking styles.

Martin Scorsese won the Palme d'Or at Cannes with his 1976 psychological thriller Taxi Driver, which starred Robert De Niro, who became associated with Martin Scorsese through eight more films including New York, New York, Raging Bull The King of Comedy, Goodfellas, and Casino.

Martin Scorsese returned to crime films and reunited with De Niro with The Irishman.

Martin Scorsese is known for several rock music documentaries including The Last Waltz, No Direction Home, Shine a Light, and George Harrison: Living in the Material World.

Martin Scorsese was born on November 17,1942, in the Flushing area of New York City's Queens borough.

Martin Scorsese's family moved to Little Italy in Manhattan before he started school.

Martin Scorsese has cited Sabu and Victor Mature as his favorite actors during his youth.

Martin Scorsese developed an admiration for neorealist cinema at this time.

Martin Scorsese recounted its influence in a documentary on Italian neorealism, and commented on how Bicycle Thieves, Rome, Open City and especially Paisa inspired him and influenced his view or portrayal of his Sicilian roots.

Martin Scorsese attended the all-boys Cardinal Hayes High School in the Bronx, graduating in 1960.

Martin Scorsese initially desired to become a priest, attending a preparatory seminary but failed after the first year.

Martin Scorsese went on to earn his MA from New York University's School of Education in 1968, a year after the school was founded.

In 1967, Martin Scorsese made his first feature-length film, the black and white I Call First, which was later retitled Who's That Knocking at My Door, with his fellow students actor Harvey Keitel and editor Thelma Schoonmaker, both of whom were to become long-term collaborators.

Martin Scorsese became friends with the influential "movie brats" of the 1970s: Brian De Palma, Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg.

In 1972, Martin Scorsese made the Depression-era exploiter Boxcar Bertha for B-movie producer Roger Corman, who helped directors such as Francis Ford Coppola, James Cameron, and John Sayles launch their careers.

Martin Scorsese followed with Taxi Driver in 1976, which depicted a Vietnam veteran who takes the law into his own hands on New York's crime-ridden streets.

Martin Scorsese subsequently blamed his act on his obsession with Jodie Foster's Taxi Driver character.

The critical and financial success of Taxi Driver encouraged Martin Scorsese to move ahead with his first big-budget project: the highly stylized musical New York, New York.

Martin Scorsese helped provide footage for the documentary Elvis on Tour.

Visually, it was far less kinetic than the style Martin Scorsese had developed previously, often using a static camera and long takes.

Also, in 1983, Martin Scorsese made a brief cameo appearance in the film Anna Pavlova, originally intended to be directed by one of his heroes, Michael Powell.

Martin Scorsese made a brief venture into television, directing an episode of Steven Spielberg's Amazing Stories.

In 1983, Martin Scorsese began work on this long-cherished personal project.

In 1986, Martin Scorsese directed the 18 minute short film Bad featuring Michael Jackson and Wesley Snipes.

Martin Scorsese noted the influence of his own film Taxi Driver in Spike Lee's documentary about the 25th anniversary of the short titled, Bad 25.

That year, he had signed a deal with upstart major The Walt Disney Studios to produce and direct features, following the success of The Color of Money, and the company is currently soliciting material for possible development, and decided not to decide on projects he had hoped to produce under the company's two-year agreement with the studio, and the decision Martin Scorsese wants to hire established directors like Elia Kazan and Arthur Penn.

The film was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director, and Martin Scorsese earned his third Best Director nomination but again lost to a first-time director, Kevin Costner.

The film marked the first time Martin Scorsese used wide-screen Panavision with an aspect ratio of 2.39:1.

In 1990, Martin Scorsese acted in a small role as Vincent van Gogh in the film Dreams by Japanese director Akira Kurosawa.

Martin Scorsese produced a wide range of films, including major Hollywood studio productions, low-budget independent films, and even the foreign film.

Martin Scorsese was interested in doing a "romantic piece", and he was strongly drawn to the characters and the story of Wharton's text.

Martin Scorsese wanted his film to be as rich an emotional experience as the book was to him rather than the traditional academic adaptations of literary works.

Comparisons were drawn to his earlier film Goodfellas, and Martin Scorsese admitted Casino bore a superficial resemblance to it, but he maintained that the story was significantly larger in scope.

Not only a departure in subject matter, Kundun saw Martin Scorsese employing a fresh narrative and visual approach.

On various occasions Martin Scorsese has been asked to present the Honorary Academy Award during the Oscar telecast.

In 1998, at the 70th Academy Awards, Martin Scorsese presented the award to film legend Stanley Donen.

In 1999, Martin Scorsese directed a documentary on Italian filmmakers titled Il Mio Viaggio in Italia, known as My Voyage to Italy.

Originally filmed for a release in the winter of 2001, Martin Scorsese delayed the final production of the film until after the beginning of 2002; the studio consequently delayed the film until its release in the Oscar season of late 2002.

Martin Scorsese produced several documentaries, such as The Soul of a Man and Lightning in a Bottle.

Martin Scorsese's film The Aviator is a lavish, large-scale biopic of eccentric aviation pioneer and film mogul Howard Hughes and reunited Martin Scorsese with actor Leonardo DiCaprio.

Martin Scorsese lost again, this time to director Clint Eastwood for Million Dollar Baby.

Martin Scorsese returned to the crime genre with the Boston-set thriller The Departed, based on the Hong Kong police drama Infernal Affairs.

The Departed opened to widespread critical acclaim, with some proclaiming it as one of the best efforts Martin Scorsese had brought to the screen since 1990's Goodfellas, and still others putting it at the same level as Martin Scorsese's most celebrated classics Taxi Driver and Raging Bull.

On October 22,2007, Daily Variety reported that Martin Scorsese would reunite with Leonardo DiCaprio on a fourth picture, Shutter Island.

In 2010, The Wall Street Journal reported that Martin Scorsese was supporting the David Lynch Foundation's initiative to help 10,000 military veterans overcome posttraumatic stress disorder through Transcendental Meditation; Martin Scorsese has publicly discussed his own practice of TM.

Martin Scorsese directed a television commercial for Chanel's then-new men's fragrance, Bleu de Chanel, starring French actor Gaspard Ulliel.

Martin Scorsese directed the series premiere for Boardwalk Empire, an HBO drama series, starring Steve Buscemi and Michael Pitt, based on Nelson Johnson's book Boardwalk Empire: The Birth, High Times and Corruption of Atlantic City.

Martin Scorsese directed the three-and-a-half-hour documentary George Harrison: Living in the Material World about the life and music of former Beatles' member George Harrison, which premiered in the United States on HBO over two parts on October 5 and 6,2011.

Martin Scorsese's next film Hugo is a 3D adventure drama film based on Brian Selznick's novel The Invention of Hugo Cabret.

Martin Scorsese's 2013 film, The Wolf of Wall Street, is an American biographical black comedy based on Jordan Belfort's memoir of the same name.

Martin Scorsese directed the pilot for Vinyl written by Terence Winter and George Mastras, with Mick Jagger producing and Mastras as showrunner.

Martin Scorsese has acted as executive producer of several indie films, like the 2014 The Third Side of the River, another 2014 film Revenge of the Green Dragons, as well as Bleed for This and Free Fire.

Martin Scorsese directed The Audition, a short film that served as a promotional piece for casinos Studio City in Macau and City of Dreams in Manila, Philippines.

Martin Scorsese had long anticipated filming an adaptation of Shusaku Endo's novel Silence, a drama about the lives of two Portuguese Jesuit priests in Japan during the 17th century.

Martin Scorsese had originally planned Silence as his next project following Shutter Island.

Martin Scorsese was recognized as an Italian citizen by jus sanguinis in 2018.

In July 2019, Martin Scorsese started scouting locations in preparation for the 2020 filming of his next film Killers of the Flower Moon, a film adaptation of the book of the same name by David Grann.

In November 2021, Martin Scorsese was set to direct a biopic feature about rock band the Grateful Dead for Apple Studios featuring Jonah Hill.

Martin Scorsese has established a filmmaking history which involves repeat collaborations with actors, screenwriters, film editors, and cinematographers, sometimes extending over several decades, such as that with recurring cinematographers Michael Ballhaus, Robert Richardson, and Rodrigo Prieto.

Martin Scorsese is known for his frequent use of slow motion, for example, in Who's That Knocking at My Door and Mean Streets.

Martin Scorsese is known for using freeze frames, such as: in the opening credits of The King of Comedy, throughout Goodfellas, Casino, The Departed, and in The Irishman.

Martin Scorsese often uses long tracking shots, as seen in Taxi Driver, Goodfellas, Casino, Gangs of New York, and Hugo.

Martin Scorsese sometimes highlights characters in a scene with an iris, an homage to 1920s silent film cinema.

Martin Scorsese provides the opening voice-over narration in Mean Streets and The Color of Money; plays the off-screen dressing room attendant in the final scene of Raging Bull, and provides the voice of the unseen ambulance dispatcher in Bringing Out the Dead.

Martin Scorsese appears as the director of fictional newly formed Vatican Television in the Italian comedy In the Pope's Eye.

Martin Scorsese is known for his liberal usage of profanity, dark humor, and violence.

Martin Scorsese has often said he thinks De Niro's best work under his direction was Rupert Pupkin in The King of Comedy.

In 1965, Martin Scorsese married his first wife Laraine Marie Brennan, and they remained together for six years between 1965 and 1971; they have a daughter, Catherine, who was named after his mother.

In 1976, Martin Scorsese married the writer Julia Cameron, his second marriage; they have a daughter, but the marriage lasted only a year.

Martin Scorsese had a small role in Cape Fear using the name Domenica Scorsese and has continued to act, write, direct, and produce.

Martin Scorsese married producer Barbara De Fina in 1985, his fourth of five marriages; they divorced in 1991.

From 1989 to 1997, Martin Scorsese was romantically involved with actress Illeana Douglas following his fourth divorce.

In 1999, Martin Scorsese married his current spouse of over twenty years, Helen Schermerhorn Morris.

Martin Scorsese had been at the forefront in film preservation and restoration ever since 1990, when he created The Film Foundation, a non-profit film organization which collaborates with film studios to restore prints of old or damaged films.

Martin Scorsese launched the organization with Woody Allen, Robert Altman, Francis Ford Coppola, Clint Eastwood, Stanley Kubrick, George Lucas, Sydney Pollack, Robert Redford, and Steven Spielberg, who all sat on the foundation's original board of directors.

Martin Scorsese stated as of 2020, the Foundation has helped restore 850 films.

In 2007, Martin Scorsese established the World Cinema Project with the mission to preserve and present marginalized and infrequently screened films from regions generally ill-equipped to preserve their own cinema history.

Martin Scorsese's organization has worked with the Criterion Collection to not only preserve the films but to allow them to be released on DVD and Blu-ray boxsets and on streaming services such as The Criterion Channel.

In 2017, Martin Scorsese introduced The African Film Heritage Project, which is a joint initiative between Martin Scorsese's non-profit The Film Foundation, UNESCO, Cineteca di Bologna, and the Pan African Federation of Filmmakers.

Martin Scorsese has mentioned his mentors being such filmmakers as John Cassavetes, Roger Corman, and Michael Powell.

Martin Scorsese has chosen to name filmmakers throughout the years that he admires such as fellow New York City-based directors Woody Allen and Spike Lee, as well as other artists such as Wes Anderson, Bong Joon-ho, Greta Gerwig, Ari Aster, Kelly Reichardt, Claire Denis, Noah Baumbach, Paul Thomas Anderson, Christopher Nolan, the Coen Brothers, and Kathryn Bigelow.

Martin Scorsese picked 12, which are listed below in alphabetical order:.

Martin Scorsese's films have been nominated for numerous awards both nationally and internationally, with an Academy Award win for The Departed.

At a ceremony in Paris, France, on January 5,2005, Martin Scorsese was awarded the French Legion of Honour in recognition of his contribution to cinema.

On February 8,2006, at the 48th Annual Grammy Awards, Martin Scorsese was awarded the Grammy Award for Best Long Form Music Video for No Direction Home.

In 2007, Martin Scorsese was listed among Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People in The World.

The Institute provides support to Italian film students in the US Martin Scorsese received his award from Mary Margaret Valenti, Jack Valenti's widow.

On January 17,2010, at the 67th Golden Globe Awards, Scorsese was the recipient of the Golden Globe Cecil B DeMille Award.

On September 18,2011, at the 63rd Primetime Emmy Awards, Martin Scorsese won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series for his work on the series premiere of Boardwalk Empire.

In 2011, Martin Scorsese received an honorary doctorate from the National Film School in Lodz.

On February 12,2012, at the 65th British Academy Film Awards, Martin Scorsese was the recipient of the BAFTA Academy Fellowship Award.

On September 16,2012, Martin Scorsese won two Emmy Awards for Outstanding Directing for Nonfiction Programming and Outstanding Nonfiction Special for his work on the documentary George Harrison: Living in the Material World.

Martin Scorsese was the first filmmaker chosen for the honor.

Martin Scorsese's lecture, delivered on April 1,2013, at the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, was titled "Persistence of Vision: Reading the Language of Cinema".

Martin Scorsese was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 2008.

Martin Scorsese was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Oxford on June 20,2018.