Martin Scorsese

Born: 17 November 1942
Where: Flushing, New York

One of the most prominent and influential film-makers of the 20th century, Scorsese roots most of his films in his own Italian-American heritage.

While not enjoying the mainstream success of many contemporaries, he has directed many critically acclaimed features including Taxi Driver, Goodfellas, Raging Bull and The Aviator.

Once a student of theology, Scorsese studied film-making at NYU and shot a handful of short films while obtaining his degrees.

In 1967, his first feature, Who's That Knocking at My Door?, was shown at the Chicago Film Festival but failed to find a distributor.

Whilst teaching at NYU, Scorsese helped student Michael Wadleigh in the editing of Oscar-winning documentary Woodstock.

Producer Joseph Brenner agreed to distribute Scorsese's first film - if it included a gratuitous sex scene, which he dutifully added.

Who's That Knocking at My Door?, a semi-autobiographical look at an Italian-American Catholic (Harvey Keitel) who sees women as virgins or whores, opened to critical praise.

But Scorsese's breakthrough came with Mean Streets, an autobiographical tale of a group of young hoods living and dying in NYC.

Again Keitel was the director's screen alter-ego, with the casting of Robert De Niro as the unstable Johnny Boy marking the beginning of one of the most productive and important star-director pairings in film history.

As a follow-up, Scorsese attempted a woman's picture, the feminist Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore.

Scorsese was on much more familiar ground with the testosterone-laden Taxi Driver with a searing performance from De Niro.

The film garnered its share of controversy, mostly because of its bloody finale, centring on Jodie Foster's teenage prostitute.

With New York, New York, Scorsese set out to create a nostalgic look at the musical but, during filming, shaped the story around the dark relationship between De Niro and his own then lover, Liza Minnelli.

Audiences, expecting an affectionate musical, found it too depressing and it failed at the box office.

However the director bounced back with what is considered his masterpiece, Raging Bull.

Drawn from the autobiography of boxer Jake La Motta, the script afforded a bulked up De Niro the role of his career.

It earned eight Academy Award nominations, including best picture and director (De Niro and editor Schoonmaker took home statues.)

Scorsese then attempted to film a dream project, The Last Temptation of Christ, but Paramount withdrew funding at the last minute. In reaction, he made After Hours.

He moved on to Chicago for The Color of Money, a sequel to 1961's The Hustler, with Paul Newman and Tom Cruise.

After several false starts, Scorsese was finally able to release The Last Temptation of Christ in 1988.

Clearly an intensely personal project, Temptation was accused of blasphemy, causing some theatre and video chains to refuse to carry it.

GoodFellas marked a return to classic Scorsese form. The film boasts superb camerawork and consummate performances from De Niro, Ray Liotta and Joe Pesci.

Cape Fear was another matter, an overly slick remake with De Niro's central performance deemed showy. Nevertheless, the film was the biggest hit of the director's career to date.

The Age of Innocence, based on Edith Wharton's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel set in 19th century high New York society, seemed an unlikely offering but earned respectful reviews.

Scorsese was back in typical fashion with Seventies Vegas mobsters in Casino, but most reviewers felt it simply raised the same issues as GoodFellas.

Again defying categorisation, he next turned his attentions to another unlikely subject, the Dalai Lama.

Kundun was a visual and aural feast but, following on the heels of another similar-themed feature (the Brad Pitt vehicle, Seven Years in Tibet), it struggled at the box office, despite critical kudos.

After directing Nicolas Cage in the morbid drama Bringing Out the Dead, Scorsese spent the next few years working on a long-awaited opus, The Gangs of New York.

Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, the movie went through a series of setbacks before its eventual release in late 2002.

The film earned him a win at the Golden Globes as well as an Oscar nomination for Best Director, which many saw as his last chance at winning the award.

Scorsese, whose own parents were married 60 years, has three daughters by three of his five wives (who also include actress Isabella Rosselini).

He lent his vocal talents to Dreamworks' underwater animation, Shark Tale, in which he plays puffer fish, Sykes who's caught up with a gang of mafioso sharks.

Recent work includes the biopic of eccentric millionaire Howard Hughes - The Aviator - starring Leonardo DiCaprio.

Scorsese was nominated for a 2005 Oscar for The Aviator, and was once again controversially overlooked by the Academy.