Martin Scorsese

Martin Scorsese Bio

Martin Charles Scorsese (born November 17, 1942) is an American filmmaker whose bold, influential style has secured his reputation as one of the most important directors in the history of cinema. He has earned an Academy Award, four BAFTA Awards, three Emmy Awards, a Grammy Award, and three Golden Globe Awards over a career that began in 1962. Scorsese is widely recognized for dramas including Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Goodfellas, Gangs of New York, and The Departed, as well as for his pioneering work in film preservation and his long-running collaborations with Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio.

Beyond directing, Scorsese has produced and written for both film and television, and he has appeared in small on-screen roles in many of his own projects. He has built a parallel career as a passionate advocate for restoring classic films through the nonprofit organizations he founded.

Early Life and Background

Martin Charles Scorsese was born on November 17, 1942, in the Flushing neighborhood of Queens in New York City. He was raised in the Little Italy neighborhood of Manhattan. Both of his parents, Charles Scorsese and Catherine Scorsese, worked in the Garment District of Manhattan. Charles worked as a clothes presser and also pursued acting, while Catherine worked as a seamstress and actress. All four of his grandparents were Italian immigrants from Sicily, with roots in Polizzi Generosa on his father’s side and Ciminna on his mother’s side. The original family surname was Scozzese, an Italian word meaning Scot or Scottish, which was later changed to Scorsese after a transcription error.

Scorsese grew up in a predominantly Catholic household and has said that his faith continues to shape his view of the world. As a child he suffered from asthma, which kept him from sports and group activities, and his parents and older brother often brought him to movie theaters. Those early visits sparked a lifelong passion for cinema and exposed him to films such as Powell and Pressburger’s Black Narcissus and The Red Shoes, which he has frequently cited as formative influences.

He attended the all-boys Cardinal Hayes High School in the Bronx, graduating in 1960. Scorsese had originally considered becoming a priest and briefly attended a preparatory seminary, but left after one year. He then enrolled at New York University’s Washington Square College, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in English in 1964, and later completed a Master of Arts at NYU’s School of Education, now the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development, in 1968.

Path to Celebrity

While still at NYU, Scorsese directed a series of short films, including What’s a Nice Girl like You Doing in a Place like This? (1963) and It’s Not Just You, Murray! (1964). He has credited his NYU film professor Haig P. Manoogian as a major mentor, calling his teachings the most precious gift he ever received. His 1967 short The Big Shave, an allegory of American involvement in Vietnam, drew early attention to his bold visual sense.

Scorsese’s first feature-length film, Who’s That Knocking at My Door (1967), starred fellow student Harvey Keitel and was edited by Thelma Schoonmaker, both of whom would become long-term collaborators. Critic Roger Ebert praised the film at the 1967 Chicago International Film Festival, calling it a great moment in American movies. Through his friendship with director Brian De Palma, Scorsese met Robert De Niro, beginning one of the most celebrated actor-director partnerships in cinema history. He also worked as an assistant director on Michael Wadleigh’s documentary Woodstock (1970) and directed the exploitation film Boxcar Bertha (1972) for producer Roger Corman, an experience that taught him how to work quickly on limited budgets.

Martin Scorsese Career

Early Career (1967-1972)

After the success of Who’s That Knocking at My Door, Scorsese spent the early 1970s developing his craft through low-budget projects and personal work. He directed the documentary Italianamerican (1974), featuring his parents Charles and Catherine Scorsese, and later took over from a departing director on Ellen Burstyn’s Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (1974). His work on that film led to Burstyn winning the Academy Award for Best Actress, an early indication of his ability to draw award-caliber performances from his actors.

During this same period, Scorsese cemented key relationships with collaborators such as Harvey Keitel, editor Thelma Schoonmaker, and writer Mardik Martin. He also honed the visual trademarks that would come to define his later films, including slow motion, voice-over narration, and a fascination with characters living on the margins of society.

Breakthrough (1973-1980)

Scorsese’s breakthrough arrived with Mean Streets (1973), a gritty crime drama set in Little Italy and starring Harvey Keitel and Robert De Niro. Critics praised the film for its raw energy and stylistic invention, and it established Scorsese’s recurring themes of guilt, violence, and Catholic redemption. He followed it with Taxi Driver (1976), again starring De Niro, which won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival and earned four Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture.

After the commercial disappointment of the musical New York, New York (1977), Scorsese battled serious health problems and a cocaine addiction. Robert De Niro helped pull him back into filmmaking by urging him to direct Raging Bull (1980), a black-and-white biography of boxer Jake LaMotta. The film received eight Academy Award nominations and won two, including Best Actor for De Niro, and is widely considered one of the greatest American films ever made.

Notable Works and Milestones

Across the 1980s and 1990s, Scorsese built a body of work that includes The King of Comedy (1982), After Hours (1985), The Color of Money (1986), The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), Goodfellas (1990), Cape Fear (1991), The Age of Innocence (1993), and Casino (1995). His later films include Gangs of New York (2002), The Aviator (2004), The Departed (2006), Shutter Island (2010), Hugo (2011), The Wolf of Wall Street (2013), Silence (2016), The Irishman (2019), and Killers of the Flower Moon (2023). Five of his films have been selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.

Martin Scorsese Award Nominations

Martin Scorsese has received numerous nominations throughout his career, including multiple Academy Award nominations for Best Director for films such as Raging Bull, The Last Temptation of Christ, Goodfellas, Gangs of New York, The Aviator, The Wolf of Wall Street, and The Irishman. He has also earned Golden Globe, BAFTA, and Emmy nominations across directing and producing categories, reflecting his sustained recognition by major industry bodies in the United States and abroad.

Martin Scorsese Awards Won

Scorsese has won an Academy Award for Best Director for The Departed (2006), three Emmy Awards including one for directing the pilot of Boardwalk Empire, a Grammy Award for Best Long Form Music Video for the Bob Dylan documentary No Direction Home, and four BAFTA Awards along with the BAFTA Fellowship in 2012. He has also received the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2010, the AFI Life Achievement Award in 1997, the Kennedy Center Honor in 2007, the French Legion of Honour in 2005, and an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Oxford in 2018.

Martin Scorsese Family

Scorsese is the son of Charles Scorsese and Catherine Scorsese, both of whom worked in New York City’s Garment District and also pursued careers as actors. Several of his family members have worked in the film industry, and his parents appeared in small roles in his documentaries and in films such as Goodfellas. He has maintained close ties to his Italian-American heritage, and his family background continues to influence the themes and characters in his films.

Personal Life

Scorsese has been married five times. His marriages include Laraine Marie Brennan (1965 to 1971), Julia Cameron (1976 to 1977), Isabella Rossellini (1979 to 1983), and Barbara De Fina (1985 to 1991). He married Helen Schermerhorn Morris in 1999, and the couple have a daughter, Francesca Scorsese, who has acted in several of his films. He also has daughters Catherine and Domenica Cameron-Scorsese from earlier relationships. From 1989 to 1997, Scorsese was in a relationship with actress Illeana Douglas. He has spoken publicly about his Catholic faith, identifying as a practicing Catholic and crediting it with shaping his artistic worldview.