Anecdotes

Taught both Oliver Stone and Spike Lee at New York University.

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.

Admits he made Hugo Cabret (2011) so he would have at least one film his daughter could watch.

Has famously collaborated with Robert De Niro in eight 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 in the film.

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.

Of the three films he has been trying to make since the mid-1970s, he has done two: La Dernière Tentation du Christ (1988) and Gangs of New York (2002). The third film, a biopic of Dean Martin called "Dino", has been on hiatus at Warner Brothers since the late 1990s. Scorsese has a very specific all A-list cast in mind, probably why this has yet to be produced. He wants Tom Hanks to star as Martin, Jim Carrey to play Jerry Lewis, John Travolta to play Frank Sinatra, Hugh Grant to play Peter Lawford, and Adam Sandler to play Joey Bishop.

When he won his Best Director Oscar for Les Infiltrés (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.

Directed 20 different actors in Oscar nominated performances: Jodie Foster, Robert De Niro (four times), Joe Pesci (three times), Leonardo DiCaprio (twice), Daniel Day-Lewis, Cate Blanchett, Winona Ryder, Ellen Burstyn, Sharon Stone, Diane Ladd, Cathy Moriarty, Juliette Lewis, Lorraine Bracco, Paul Newman, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Alan Alda, Mark Wahlberg, Jonah Hill, Al Pacino, and Lily Gladstone. Burstyn, De Niro, Newman, Pesci and Blanchett won Oscars for their roles in one of Scorsese's movies.

He was one of three major directors to have been offered the opportunity to direct La Liste de Schindler (1993) by producer Steven Spielberg, the other two being Roman Polanski and Billy Wilder. Scorsese thought a Jewish filmmaker should direct this; Polanski was not yet ready to deal with the painful subject (having lost his mother in the Holocaust); and Wilder (who was retired and who lost his mother and grandmother in the Holocaust) finally told Spielberg that he should do this himself.

He directed Michael Jackson's music video Michael Jackson: Bad (1987). The full length video runs 16 minutes and is in both black and white and color. It is usually shortened down to just the color segment for television.

Personally spurns the notion of the "director's cut" feeling that once a film has been completed, this should not be further altered in any way.

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 n'est plus ici (1974), Taxi Driver (1976), Raging Bull (1980), After Hours: Quelle nuit de galère (1985), La Dernière Tentation du Christ (1988), Les Affranchis (1990), Le Temps de l'innocence (1993), Casino (1995), Kundun (1997), À tombeau ouvert (1999), Aviator (2004), Les Infiltrés (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".

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 Les Affranchis (1990) as one of the best films of the 1990s (#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 (1993), 6.) Breaking the Waves (1996), 5.) Bad Lieutenant (1992), 4.) Eyes Wide Shut (1999), 3.) Duo sang (1994), 2.) La Ligne rouge (1998), 1.) Le voleur de chevaux (1986).

Has mentioned that he thought Robert De Niro's best performance under his direction was as Rupert Pupkin in La valse des pantins (1982).

As a teenager in the Bronx, Scorsese frequently rented Michael Powell's Les contes d'Hoffmann (1951) from a store that only had one copy of the reels. When this was not available the owner told him, "that Romero kid has it", referring to George A. Romero who was also a huge fan of the film. Today, both directors cite the film as a major influence.

Was voted the fourth 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).

Says the only thing he regrets in his career is that he was only able to make La Dernière Tentation du Christ (1988) on a small budget although he imagined it to be a grand version.

Le Loup de Wall Street (2013) is the highest-grossing movie of his 47-year career with a worldwide gross of $389,600,694.

Has appeared in an "American Express" ad where he goes to pick up photos of his nephew's birthday party at a drug store, and then proceeds to nervously pick through what's wrong with each picture while trying to get the clueless photo-lab clerk's opinion on them. He proceeds to buy more film with an American Express card and calls the people on the pictures saying they need to reshoot. Scorsese says this funny ad is probably the closest he's come to accurately "playing" himself.

Is a huge fan of L'hôtel en folie (1975). He describes the episode, The Germans (1975), as "so tasteless, it's hilarious".

When asked where audiences would find the next Martin Scorsese, he said to look to Wes Anderson, the young director of Rushmore (1998).

He and Robert De Niro were brought up blocks apart in the Greenwich Village area of Manhattan, but never formally met when they were young. When introduced at a party in 1972, the two came to realize that they had seen each other many times but had never spoken.

Has worked with big names of music business: Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, The Rolling Stones, U2, Michael Jackson and David Bowie.

The first movie he saw at the cinema was Duel au soleil (1946), he was age 4.

Both La Dernière Tentation du Christ (1988) and Gangs of New York (2002) were personal passions of his that he had wanted to make since the 1970s. When he first starting considering them, Robert De Niro was in his mind to play the lead characters in both (Jesus Christ in "Temptation" and Bill Cutting in "Gangs"). De Niro ultimately turned down the role in "Temptation" and this was decided he was too old to play Cutting by the time that "Gangs" finally went into production.

The death of Federico Fellini was very similar to his father's death. Bypass surgery, a stroke and then a coma. Scorsese also noted that they both lasted exactly the same days in the coma.

Was at one time interested in making a remake of Scarface (1932) with Robert De Niro.

Once surprised Dave Chappelle by saying he was a huge fan and quoting from "The Playa Haters Ball".

Leonardo DiCaprio thanked him when he won the Best Actor Oscar for Alejandro G. Iñárritu's The Revenant (2015). During his acceptance speech, DiCaprio thanked Scorsese for "teaching him so much about the cinematic art form" [February 28, 2016].

Despite being known for directing extremely dark and often very violent movies, he is known in real life to be a very friendly, polite and mild-mannered person who gets along very well with his cast and crew.

Resides in New York City. His production offices are located on West 57th Street in Manhattan.

His favorite films include: Citizen Kane (1941), Les chaussons rouges (1948) and Le Guépard (1963).

Although his films often have large amounts of profanity; Scorsese himself rarely uses R rated language in real life.

Ranked #3 in Empire (UK) magazine's "The Greatest directors ever!". (2005)

(December 19, 1996) Listed as one of 50 people barred from entering Tibet. Disney clashed with Chinese officials over the film Kundun (1997), which Scorsese directed.

Was given the script of Taxi Driver (1976) by his friend Brian De Palma.

According to lifelong collaborator Thelma Schoonmaker, Marty's favorite facet of the filmmaking process is the editing.

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.

Is a huge fan of the British Hammer Films series.

His name is pronounced "Scor-sez-see".

Directed three films on the American Film Institute's list of the 100 Greatest Movies: Raging Bull (1980) at #4, Taxi Driver (1976) at #52 and Les Affranchis (1990) at #92.

Was friend, protégé, and employee of actor-director John Cassavetes.

Good friends with editor Thelma Schoonmaker and cinematographer Michael Ballhaus. Scorsese introduced Thelma to her husband Michael Powell and he often quotes Powell as an influence.

Donated his collection of papers, photographs, memorabilia and other film-related ephemera to the Wesleyan University Cinema Archive, where it is conserved along with the collections of such film luminaries as Frank Capra, Clint Eastwood, Ingrid Bergman, John Waters, Elia Kazan and others. The Archive is kept under the supervision of renowned film historian, scholar and Professor of Film Studies Jeanine Basinger.

Has appeared on Larry et son nombril (2000) as a shrill version of himself who comes to regret his decision to cast Larry David as a violent gangster in a movie after David repeatedly ruins the suit he needs to wear as the character.

John Woo dedicated his action film The Killer (1989) to Scorsese on a commentary he did for the movie's DVD.

On Actors Studio (1994), he said the directors that inspired him the most are John Cassavetes, Orson Welles, John Ford, Federico Fellini, Elia Kazan, Roberto Rossellini, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger.

Eric Clapton gave Martin Scorsese the gold record of the song "Sunshine of Your Love" as a gift. Martin Scorsese used this song in Les Affranchis (1990).

He has directed five films that have been selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant: Mean Streets (1973), Taxi Driver (1976), La Dernière Valse (1978), Raging Bull (1980) and Les Affranchis (1990). With Raging Bull and Goodfellas, he is the only director to have two films that were selected for the registry in their first year of eligibility.

As of March 2016, seven of his films are on the IMDb's Top 250 Films list: Les Affranchis (1990), Taxi Driver (1976), Raging Bull (1980), Les Infiltrés (2006), Casino (1995), Shutter Island (2010) and Le Loup de Wall Street (2013).