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Study Guide
Martin Scorsese Timeline
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Nov 17, 1942
Martin Scorsese Born
Martin Charles Scorsese is born in Flushing, New York. He is the second son of Luciano Charles Scorsese and Catherine Cappa Scorsese, both Sicilian-American workers in New York City's Garment District.
Dec 19, 2019
Move to Little Italy
Because of financial hardship, the Scorsese family moves from their Queens suburb to Manhattan's Little Italy neighborhood. The Scorseses live in a tenement on Elizabeth Street. A severe asthmatic, the sickly Martin is forced to spend lots of time indoors.
Dec 19, 2019
Falls in Love With Cinema
Scorsese's film buff father takes him to see The Magic Box, a British film about the history of cinema. The film is a life-changing experience for Scorsese, who falls in love with cinema. He decides to be an actor or painter when he grows up.
Dec 19, 2019
Studies for Priesthood
A teenage Scorsese considers joining the priesthood and begins studying at Cathedral College, a seminary on the Upper West Side. The allure of girls and rock n' roll, however, soon supersedes his piety. He is expelled from the seminary.
Dec 19, 1960
New York University
Scorsese enrolls at New York University to study filmmaking. He produces two short student films, the historical Roman epic Vesuvius VI and a comedy called What's a Nice Girl Like You Doing In a Place Like This?
Dec 19, 1964
Graduation
Scorsese receives his undergraduate degree from NYU and produces another short comedy called It's Not Just You, Murray!
Dec 19, 1965
Marriage and Child
Scorsese marries his first wife, Laraine Marie Brennan, in New York's St. Patrick's Cathedral. Their daughter Catherine is born later that year, though the marriage later ends in divorce.
Dec 19, 1966
Graduate Degree
Scorsese receives his master in fine arts degree from New York University.
Dec 19, 1967
First Feature Film
Scorsese releases his first feature film, Who's That Knocking At My Door? (originally entitled I Call First) starring a local actor named Harvey Keitel. Like many of his later works, the film looks at an Italian-American young man growing up on the rough streets of New York. Scorsese's films have by now attracted the attention of director Roger Corman, who becomes his mentor.
Dec 19, 1973
Mean Streets
Scorsese releases his breakthrough autobiographical film, Mean Streets, a gritty, violent Italian-American drama set in New York. The movie stars Keitel and a young actor named Robert DeNiro, who will go on to work with Scorsese on several more films.
Dec 19, 1974
Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore
Scorsese directs the drama Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, for which actress Ellen Burstyn wins a Best Actress Oscar.
Dec 19, 1975
Second Marriage
Scorsese marries the writer Julia B. Cameron. The couple has a daughter, Domenica Cameron-Scorsese, but the marriage only lasts two years.
Dec 19, 1976
Taxi Driver
Scorsese releases Taxi Driver, a dark, harrowing chronicle of a man descending into madness. Robert DeNiro's performance as the insane Travis Bickle becomes legendary.
Dec 19, 1977
Dark Period
After his film New York, New York flops, Scorsese spirals into depression and cocaine addiction, eventually checking into a hospital to recover.
Dec 30, 1979
Third Marriage
Scorsese marries the actress Isabella Rossellini. The couple divorces in 1982.
Dec 19, 1980
Raging Bull
DeNiro and Scorsese team up for another classic film, Raging Bull, a biopic in which DeNiro plays the boxer Jake La Motta. DeNiro and Scorsese's longtime editor Thelma Schoonmaker win Oscars for their work. Scorsese is nominated for Best Director but loses - a frustrating but recurrent theme.
Dec 19, 1983
The King of Comedy
Scorsese makes the film The King of Comedy, starring DeNiro and Jerry Lewis. The movie flops at the box office, but Scorsese is already hard at work on his next film, an adaptation of the book The Last Temptation of Christ.
Feb 8, 1985
Fourth Marriage
Scorsese marries Barbara De Fina, a producer who collaborates with Scorsese on the films Goodfellas and Kundun. They divorce in 1991.
Dec 19, 1986
The Color of Money
Scorsese releases the film The Color of Money, about a hustler played by Paul Newman. It is one of his first big commercial successes with a domestic gross of over $50 million.
Aug 12, 1988
The Last Temptation of Christ
The Last Temptation of Christ premieres. Based on a novel by Nikos Kazantzakis, the controversial film recasts Jesus Christ as a human rather than a divine figure. Critics praise the film and religious groups protest it, with one group in Paris fire-bombing a theater during a showing.
Dec 19, 1990
Goodfellas
Scorsese's classic gangster drama Goodfellas premieres, set in the Little Italy neighborhood of Scorsese's childhood. It becomes one of the best-loved films in his oeuvre. For a third time Scorsese is nominated for - and loses - the Best Director Oscar.
Dec 19, 1991
Cape Fear
The horror film Cape Fear is released. It becomes the most commercially successful film of Scorsese's career to this point (approximately $80 million in gross domestic box office).
Dec 19, 1993
The Age of Innocence
In a departure from the usual violent, urban settings of his films, Scorsese films a version of the Edith Wharton novel The Age of Innocence. Scorsese was nominated for (but didn't win) an Oscar for his adaptation of the script.
Dec 19, 1995
Casino
Scorsese makes the film Casino, reuniting Goodfellas stars Joe Pesci and Robert DeNiro. He also makes a four-hour documentary about American cinema called A Personal Journey With Martin Scorsese Through American Movies.
Dec 19, 1997
Kundun
In yet another Age of Innocence style departure from classic Scorsese films, Scorsese makes the movie Kundun about the early life of the Dalai Lama. China protests the release of the film. Also this year, the American Film Institute honors Scorsese with its Life Achievement Award.
Dec 19, 1999
Fifth Marriage, Third Daughter
Scorsese marries his fifth wife, Helen Morris, and they have a daughter named Francesca later in the year.
Sep 11, 2001
Response to 9/11
Terrorists attack the World Trade Center in Scorsese's hometown of New York City. Along with other famous directors such as Woody Allen and Spike Lee, Scorsese directs a segment of the benefit Concert for New York City.
Dec 19, 2019
Gangs of New York
Scorsese releases the epic Gangs of New York, a look at the violent inter-ethnic clashes in the city in the 19th century. It was the first movie Scorsese made with actor Leonardo DiCaprio, who was to become one of his muses in the way of Robert DeNiro and Harvey Keitel. The film was nominated for ten Oscars but failed to win one.
Dec 19, 2019
The Aviator
Scorsese's splashy, epic biopic of the eccentric millionaire Howard Hughes premieres, starring DiCaprio. The film is a hit (with over $100 million in gross domestic box office) and Scorsese is nominated for his sixth Best Director Oscar. And loses, for the sixth time.
Feb 25, 2007
Wins Oscar
On his seventh nomination, Scorsese finally wins his first Academy Award for Best Director for the film The Departed. The Irish gangster film is acclaimed as one of Scorsese's best movies since Raging Bull.
Feb 19, 2010
Shutter Island
Scorsese reteams with DiCaprio for the thriller Shutter Island.