50 Fun Facts About Martin Scorsese

In which New York neighbourhood did Scorsese grow up?

He was born in Flushing, Queens; both parents worked in the Garment District and all four grandparents came from Sicily.

What was the family's original surname, changed by a transcription error?

It means 'Scot' or 'Scottish' in Italian.

Which childhood condition kept Scorsese from sports and sent him to the movies instead?

His parents and older brother took him to the cinema, where he fell for Powell and Pressburger's The Red Shoes.

Which future director shared the Bronx's only rental copy of The Tales of Hoffmann with the teenage Scorsese?

The Powell and Pressburger film was a lifelong obsession; Scorsese later narrated a documentary about the pair.

What career did Scorsese initially want before failing his first year at a preparatory seminary?

Catholic guilt and redemption became recurring themes from Mean Streets to Silence.

Which NYU professor did Scorsese dedicate Raging Bull to?

The Armenian-American teacher was honoured 'with love and resolution' at the end of the film.

Scorsese's short The Big Shave (1967) was an indictment of America's involvement in what?

Its alternative title was Viet '67.

Scorsese's first feature, Who's That Knocking at My Door, introduced which two lifelong collaborators?

Roger Ebert reviewed it at the 1967 Chicago festival, Scorsese's first published review.

Which fellow 'movie brat' introduced Scorsese to the actor who became his most frequent leading man?

Scorsese also worked as assistant director and an editor on the 1970 documentary Woodstock.

Roger Corman hired Scorsese to make Boxcar Bertha (1972) as a sequel to which film?

Corman taught him films could be made with little money or time; Cassavetes then told him to make his own films.

Where was the majority of Mean Streets, the archetypal gritty New York film, actually shot?

Pauline Kael called it 'a true original of our time... a new Bunuel steeped in Verdi, perhaps'.

Which actress chose Scorsese for Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore and won Best Actress for it?

The 1974 film remains an anomaly among his macho, violent 1970s work.

Which prize did Taxi Driver win at the 1976 Cannes Film Festival?

John Hinckley Jr. later blamed his attempt on Reagan's life on an obsession with Jodie Foster's character.

Which screenwriter began his Scorsese collaboration on Taxi Driver, drawing on Arthur Bremer's diary?

They reunited for Raging Bull, The Last Temptation of Christ and Bringing Out the Dead.

The Last Waltz documented the final concert of which group?

Held at San Francisco's Winterland on Thanksgiving 1976, with Dylan, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell and Van Morrison among the guests.

Which Broadway musical starring Liza Minnelli did Scorsese direct in 1977?

The same year his film musical New York, New York flopped and drove him into depression and cocaine.

Who reportedly saved Scorsese's life by persuading him in hospital to kick cocaine and make Raging Bull?

He called it 'a kamikaze method of film-making', convinced he would never make another movie.

Which British magazine voted Raging Bull the greatest film of the 1980s?

The AFI later ranked it the fourth greatest American film of all time.

For which 1985 black comedy, shot cheaply at night in SoHo, did Scorsese win Best Director at Cannes?

Griffin Dunne's word processor endures a nightmare night; Cheech & Chong and Teri Garr cameo.

The Color of Money (1986) was a sequel to which film, and finally won its star an Oscar?

Tom Cruise co-starred; the hit gave Scorsese the clout for The Last Temptation of Christ.

Which Michael Jackson video did Scorsese direct in a Brooklyn subway station in 1986?

Wesley Snipes made his film debut in it; the choreography leaned on West Side Story.

In the aborted 1983 version of The Last Temptation of Christ, which musician was cast as Pontius Pilate?

Paramount pulled the plug under religious pressure; in 1988 David Bowie played Pilate and Willem Dafoe Jesus.

Which first-time director beat Scorsese to the Best Director Oscar for Goodfellas?

Dances with Wolves won; Ebert nonetheless called Goodfellas 'the best mob movie ever'.

Whom did Scorsese play in Akira Kurosawa's Dreams (1990)?

His Quiz Show cameo is remembered for the line 'They just wanted to watch the money.'

Which Edith Wharton novel did Scorsese adapt in 1993, to critical praise and a box-office loss?

He cited Visconti's The Leopard and Welles's The Magnificent Ambersons as influences on the period piece.

Kundun (1997) told the early life of which figure, angering China and embarrassing Disney?

Buena Vista was planning Chinese expansion at the time and quietly distanced itself from the film.

Which blacklist-era director's Honorary Oscar did Scorsese and De Niro controversially present in 1999?

Nick Nolte and Ed Harris refused to applaud; Warren Beatty and Meryl Streep stood.

Gangs of New York (2002) was filmed entirely at which studio?

It was his first film with Leonardo DiCaprio and cost over $100 million.

Which eccentric aviation and film mogul was the subject of The Aviator (2004)?

It led the 77th Oscars with 11 nominations, including a fifth Best Director nod for Scorsese.

On accepting his first Best Director Oscar for The Departed, what did Scorsese joke?

Coppola, Lucas and Spielberg presented it; the film also won Best Picture.

The Departed was based on which Hong Kong film?

It marked his first work with Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, Mark Wahlberg and Martin Sheen.

Shine a Light (2008) filmed which band at New York's Beacon Theatre?

Charlie Watts: 'It's not Casablanca, but it's a great thing to have.'

For directing the pilot of which HBO series did Scorsese win a 2011 Emmy?

Terence Winter created it; Scorsese later directed the pilot of Vinyl with Mick Jagger producing.

Which 2011 3D film won Scorsese his third Golden Globe for Best Director and five Oscars?

Based on The Invention of Hugo Cabret, it tied The Artist for most Oscars that year.

How many features have Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio made together, up to Killers of the Flower Moon?

Gangs of New York, The Aviator, The Departed, Shutter Island, The Wolf of Wall Street and Killers of the Flower Moon.

Which Japanese novelist wrote the book behind Scorsese's 2016 drama about Jesuits in Japan?

He had wanted to make it since 1990; Andrew Garfield, Liam Neeson and Adam Driver starred.

The Irishman was based on which book?

Charles Brandt's book became a Netflix film with ten Oscar nominations.

How many times has Scorsese been married?

His wives include Isabella Rossellini, producer Barbara De Fina and, since 1999, Helen Morris.

Which Scorsese ex-wife made God's Will, a divorce film starring their daughter?

Their daughter Domenica appeared in The Age of Innocence and Cape Fear.

Which actress, daughter of a famous director and star, was Scorsese's wife from 1979 to 1983?

Her father Roberto Rossellini's Rome, Open City and Paisa were formative films for Scorsese.

In which year did Scorsese found The Film Foundation to restore old and damaged films?

Woody Allen, Kubrick, Spielberg, Lucas and Eastwood sat on the original board; it has helped restore some 850 films.

What is the mission of Scorsese's World Cinema Project, founded in 2007?

Restored titles include Sembene's Black Girl and Mambety's Touki Bouki, released through Criterion.

In 2013 Scorsese became the first filmmaker chosen for which US government humanities honour?

His talk at the Kennedy Center was titled 'Persistence of Vision: Reading the Language of Cinema'.

Which lifelong friend and his wife funded NYU's Martin Scorsese Institute in 2021?

Lucas and Mellody Hobson gave the donation through their family foundation.

Which Bob Dylan tour was the subject of Scorsese's 2019 Netflix 'part documentary, part fever dream' film?

His earlier Dylan film No Direction Home won a Peabody and a Grammy.

Which writer and New York wit is the subject of Scorsese's Public Speaking and Pretend It's a City?

Pretend It's a City arrived on Netflix in January 2021.

Scorsese voiced an Ardennian shopkeeper in which 2026 film?

He is also profiled in the 2025 Apple TV+ docuseries Mr. Scorsese.

Which actress co-stars with DiCaprio in Scorsese's What Happens at Night, shot in 2026?

As of early 2026 Scorsese also had The Wager and Marilynne Robinson's Home in development for Apple.

How many Scorsese films were in the National Film Registry by the end of 2025?

By 2025 he had an Oscar, four BAFTAs, three Emmys, a Grammy and three Golden Globes, plus the AFI, Kennedy Center and DeMille honours.

In which of his own films did Scorsese appear as a large-format portrait photographer?

He also cameos in Taxi Driver, After Hours, hooded in The Last Temptation of Christ, and as a gambler in Casino.