Scorsese, Martin

US director, screenwriter, and producer. One of the most influential figures in modern US cinema, he has made such contemporary classics as Mean Streets (1973), Taxi Driver (1976), Raging Bull (1980), GoodFellas (1990), and The Age of Innocence (1993). He won the 2007 Academy Award for Best Director for his crime drama The Departed (2006). Many of his most successful films have featured the actor Robert De Niro.

Many of Scorsese's films are immensely personal narratives, informed by his Italian-American Catholic background. They deal with the motifs of sin and redemption, alienation, masculine violence, and obsession, and display complex characterization, an elaborate visual style, and innovative use of popular music. Among his other films are Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974), New York, New York (1977), The King of Comedy (1982), After Hours (1985), The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), Cape Fear (1991), Casino (1995), Bringing Out the Dead (1999), and Gangs of New York (2002).

From the late 1980s onwards, Scorsese became involved in the work of other film-makers. He produced The Grifters (1990) and Clockers (1995), among several others, and also performed in Round Midnight (1986), Akira Kurosawa's Dreams (1989), Guilty by Suspicion (1991), Quiz Show (1994), and Search and Destroy (1995).

He received the American Film Institute's life achievement Award in 1997. In 1998 he was the recipient of the Billy Wilder Award for Excellence in Film Direction presented by the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures Awards.