Biography

Martin Scorsese

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Overview

Born
November 17, 1942 · Queens, New York City, New York, USA
Birth name
Martin Charles Scorsese
Nickname
- Marty
Height
5′ 3″ (1.60 m)

Mini bio

Martin Charles Scorsese was born on November 17, 1942 in Queens, New York City, to Catherine Scorsese (née Cappa) and Charles Scorsese, who both worked in Manhattan's garment district, and whose families both came from Palermo, Sicily. He was raised in the neighborhood of Little Italy, which later provided the inspiration for several of his films. Scorsese earned a B.S. degree in film communications in 1964, followed by an M.A. in the same field in 1966 at New York University's School of Film. During this time, he made numerous prize-winning short films including The Big Shave (1967), and directed his first feature film, Who's That Knocking at My Door (1967).

He served as assistant director and an editor of the documentary Woodstock (1970) and won critical and popular acclaim for Mean Streets (1973), which first paired him with actor and frequent collaborator Robert De Niro. In 1976, Scorsese's Taxi Driver (1976), also starring De Niro, was awarded the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, and he followed that film with New York, New York (1977) and The Last Waltz (1978). Scorsese directed De Niro to an Oscar-winning performance as boxer Jake LaMotta in Raging Bull (1980), which received eight Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director, and is hailed as one of the masterpieces of modern cinema. Scorsese went on to direct The Color of Money (1986), The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), GoodFellas (1990), Cape Fear (1991), The Age of Innocence (1993), Casino (1995) and Kundun (1997), among other films. Commissioned by the British Film Institute to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the birth of cinema, Scorsese completed the four-hour documentary, A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Through American Movies (1995), co-directed by Michael Henry Wilson.

His long-cherished project, Gangs of New York (2002), earned numerous critical honors, including a Golden Globe Award for Best Director; the Howard Hughes biopic The Aviator (2004) won five Academy Awards, in addition to the Golden Globe and BAFTA awards for Best Picture. Scorsese won his first Academy Award for Best Director for The Departed (2006), which was also honored with the Director's Guild of America, Golden Globe, New York Film Critics, National Board of Review and Critic's Choice awards for Best Director, in addition to four Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Scorsese's documentary of the Rolling Stones in concert, Shine a Light (2008), followed, with the successful thriller Shutter Island (2010) two years later. Scorsese received his seventh Academy Award nomination for Best Director, as well as a Golden Globe Award, for Hugo (2011), which went on to win five Academy Awards.

Scorsese also serves as executive producer on the HBO series Boardwalk Empire (2010) for which he directed the pilot episode. Scorsese's additional awards and honors include the Golden Lion from the Venice Film Festival (1995), the AFI Life Achievement Award (1997), the Honoree at the Film Society of Lincoln Center's 25th Gala Tribute (1998), the DGA Lifetime Achievement Award (2003), The Kennedy Center Honors (2007) and the HFPA Cecil B. DeMille Award (2010). Scorsese and actor Leonardo DiCaprio have worked together on five separate occasions: Gangs of New York (2002), The Aviator (2004), The Departed (2006), Shutter Island (2010) and The Wolf of Wall Street (2013).
- IMDb mini biography by: Pedro Borges

Family

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Trademarks

Often begins his films with segments taken from the middle or end of the story (Raging Bull (1980), GoodFellas (1990), Casino (1995) and The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)).
[slow-motion] Makes use of slow motion techniques (e.g., Mean Streets (1973), Taxi Driver (1976), Raging Bull (1980), The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)).
Often uses diegetic music (i.e., source of music is visible on-screen)
Often uses long tracking shots (His most famous is from GoodFellas (1990), following Henry Hill and his future wife Karen through the basement of the Copacabana night-club and ending up at a newly prepared table). A notoriously difficult shot to perfect, he has been dubbed by some as the "King of the Tracking Shot".
Often uses freeze frames (Raging Bull (1980), GoodFellas (1990), The Departed (2006), The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)).

Trivia

Taught both Oliver Stone and Spike Lee at New York University.
Admits he made Hugo (2011) so he would have at least one film his daughter could watch.
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.
He took a cameo in his film Taxi Driver (1976) (as a man about to kill his wife) only because the actor who was supposed to play the role was sick on the day the scene was to be shot. Says he is generally uncomfortable in front of the camera.
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 nine Academy Awards and 38 nominations.

Quotes

The only person who has the right attitude about boxing in the movies for me was Buster Keaton.
[on sports] Anything with a ball, no good.
Because of the movies I make, people get nervous, because they think of me as difficult and angry. I am difficult and angry, but they don't expect a sense of humor. And the only thing that gets me through is a sense of humor.
[on Raging Bull (1980)] Robert De Niro wanted to make this film. Not me. I don't understand anything about boxing. For me, it's like a physical game of chess.
It seems to me that any sensible person must see that violence does not change the world and if it does, then only temporarily.

Salaries

The Audition (2015) - $13,000,000
Hugo (2011) - $10,000,000
Shutter Island (2010) - $3,500,000
Gangs of New York (2002) - $6,000,000 (had to pay $3,000,000 back due to budget overruns)