After serious deliberations about entering the priesthood - he entered a seminary in 1956 - Martin Scorsese opted to channel his passions into film. He graduated from NYU as a film major in 1964. Catching the eye of producer Roger Corman with his 1960s student films (including co-editing Woodstock), Scorsese directed the gritty exploiter Boxcar Bertha. Mean Streets followed in 1973 and provided the benchmarks for the Scorsese style: New York settings, loners struggling with inner demons, pointed-shoes rock-meets-opera soundtracks and unrelenting cathartic violence. "Mean Streets" also featured Robert De Niro and Harvey Keitel, two actors who would help shape that style. After Scorsese directed Ellen Burstyn to a Best Actress Oscar in Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, the trio was reunited for the dark journey of Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver. The film achieved additional notoriety five years after its release when Bickle's (De Niro) concern for a teenaged hooker played by Jodie Foster inspired John Hinckley's assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan in 1981. After New York, New York (which one critic described as a wife-abuse musical) and The Last Waltz, Scorsese released Raging Bull. The biography of middleweight fighter Jake LaMotta earned two Oscars (Actor - DeNiro, Editing - Thelma Schoonmaker) and was later selected as the best film of the decade by U.S. critic gods Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert. Scorsese then explored fans as pariah ( The King of Comedy), dark-comic dreams ( After Hours), and revisited pool shark Eddie Felson from The Hustler ( The Color of Money with Paul Newman). Scorsese outraged some religious groups by attempting to portray a human son of God in The Last Temptation of Christ before returning to more familiar territory with the Mafia in Goodfellas. He followed with two films which were remakes, Cape Fear and The Age of Innocence. Besides directing and co-writing, Scorsese has also acted. It's interesting to note he played the gunman at the finale of Mean Streets and the cab passenger planning to kill his wife in Taxi Driver. He also had a role in _Yume (1990)_ .


Gangs of New York (2002): $6,000,000 (had to pay $3 million back due to budget overruns)

Listed as one of 50 people barred from entering Tibet. Disney clashed with Chinese officials over the film Kundun (1997), which Scorsese directed. [19 December 1996] Presented with a special tribute at the 1976 Telluride Film Festival. It was presented by Michael Powell. [1976] Good friends with editor Thelma Schoonmaker & cinematographer Michael Ballhaus. Scorsese introduced Thelma to her husband Michael Powell and he often quotes Powell as an influence. He directed Michael Jackson's Bad (1987) (V) music video. The full length video runs 16 minutes and is in both black & white and color. It is usually shortened down to just the color segment for television. Daughter Francesca Scorsese born. [16 November 1999] Daughter Domenica Cameron-Scorsese with Julia Cameron. Was at one point going to make a movie about the life of comedian Richard Pryor. Was at one point slated to direct Clockers (1995), but for reasons that are not entirely clear, handed the directing chores to his onetime NYU student Spike Lee, while staying on as producer. He was also at one point going to direct Little Shop of Horrors (1986) for David Geffen, with Steven Spielberg as the executive producer. He was ultimately uninvolved, but claims that he wanted to shoot the movie in 3-D. It no doubt would have been a loving homage to Roger Corman, for whom he directed Boxcar Bertha (1972). Has a dog named Silas. Father of actress Cathy Scorsese from his first marriage. Has asthma. Was voted the 4th greatest director of all time by Entertainment Weekly, making him the only living person in the top 5 and the only working film director in the top 10 (Ingmar Bergman being retired as a filmmaker). Several characters in his films refer to the legendary (noir) actor John Garfield, star of the original The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946), which is also mentioned. Because so many of his actors win or are nominated for awards, actors are dying to work with him. The film With Friends Like These... (1998) pokes fun at this very real desire. He has famously collaborated with Robert De Niro in 8 films. Scorsese has said that his creative collaboration with De Niro is very deep and that they can often understand each other without even talking. Their collaboration has had many dry spells (including recently), but Scorsese says he shows almost every script he writes or considers directing to De Niro to see what the actor's thoughts on them are even when De Niro ultimately has no involvement the film. Apart from his legendary work as a filmmaker, he has been a vocal supporter of film preservation for almost three decades. His efforts to create a strong public awareness for the work of film archives include The Film Foundation, a non-profit organisation which he started together with other filmmakers. The Film Foundation regularly partners with the American film archives on the restoration of "lost" or endangered films. With this background he has agreed to serve as Honorary President of the Austrian Film Museum in Vienna. He lost three best director - and best picture - Oscars to leading-man actors turned directors: Robert Redford, Kevin Costner, and Clint Eastwood (Raging Bull (1980) lost to Redford's Ordinary People (1980); Goodfellas (1990) to Costner's Dances with Wolves (1990); The Aviator (2004) to Eastwood's Million Dollar Baby (2004)). On the only two occasions when he was Oscar-nominated as Best Director in years ending in zero, he was beaten by actors making their directorial debuts (Redford and Costner). President of jury at the Cannes Film Festival in 1998. Ranked #3 in Empire (UK) magazine's "The Greatest directors ever!" [2005] Was friend, protégé, and employee of actor-director John Cassavetes. Has directed, as of 2008, 6 biopics: Raging Bull (1980), The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), Goodfellas (1990), Casino (1995), Kundun (1997) and The Aviator (2004). Served as mentor to Georgia Lee and invited her to apprentice for Gangs of New York (2002) in Europe. Scorsese and Taxi Driver (1976) are, among others, named as inspiration for the Massive Attack debut "Blue Lines". The Departed (2006) is the highest-grossing movie of his 40-year career ($132,373,442 (USA)). He has worked with big names of music business: Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, The Rolling Stones, 'Michael Jackson (I)' and David Bowie. When he won his Best Director Oscar for The Departed (2006), he received the award from legendary directors, George Lucas, Francis Ford Coppola, and Steven Spielberg. The four were part of the "New Hollywood" movement of the 1970s and combined have 9 Academy Awards and 38 Nominations. Says he was happy with the fact that it took so long for him to win Best Director, because if he had won it earlier, it would have affected his directing and films. Says the only thing he regrets in his career is that he was only able to make The Last Temptation of Christ (1988) on a small budget although he imagined it to be a grand version. Served as a guest critic on "Siskel & Ebert & the Movies" (1986) following the death of 'Gene Siskel'. The episode was "The Best Films of the 90s" in which Roger Ebert cited Scorsese's Goodfellas (1990) as one of the best films of the 90s (#3). Scorsese's full list of his favorite films of the 1990s: 10.) Tie: Malcolm X (1992) and Heat (1995), 9.) Fargo (1996), 8.) Crash (1996), 7.) Bottle Rocket (1994), 6.) Breaking the Waves (1996), 5.) Bad Lieutenant (1992), 4.) Eyes Wide Shut (1999), 3.) Duo sang (1994) ("A Borrowed Life"), 2.) The Thin Red Line (1998), 1.) Dao ma zei (1986) ("Horse Thief"). Resides in New York City. His production offices are located on W. 57th Street in Manhattan. Is a fan of the British Hammer Films series. In the 5th edition of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die (edited by Steven Jay Schneider), 7 of Scorsese's films are listed: Mean Streets (1973), Taxi Driver (1976), Raging Bull (1980), The King of Comedy (1982), Goodfellas (1990), Casino (1995) and The Departed (2006). Roger Ebert is a great admirer of Scorsese's work. 14 of Scorsese's films were given four stars by Ebert (Mean Streets (1973), Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974), Taxi Driver (1976), Raging Bull (1980), After Hours (1985), The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), Goodfellas (1990), The Age of Innocence (1993), Casino (1995), Kundun (1997), Bringing Out the Dead (1999), The Aviator (2004), The Departed (2006), Shine a Light (2008)), seven of his films are in Ebert's Great Movies list ("Mean Streets", "Taxi Driver", "Raging Bull", "After Hours", "The Last Temptation Of Christ", "Goodfellas", and "The Age of Innocence"), and Ebert has written an entire book of his reviews, interviews and essays on Scorsese's work simply titled "Scorsese By Ebert". The first movie he saw in the cinema was 'Duel in the Sun', he was 4. Other than his short films and documentaries, all his film from 1972 to 1990 were shot in Widescreen aspect ratio (1.85:1) and all his film form 1992 onward were shot in CinemaScope aspect ratio (2.35:1).