"Marty" is responsible for some of the most influential American films of the last thirty years, including Taxi Driver and Raging Bull.

Scorsese grew up in Little Italy in New York, and attended Cardinal Hayes High School in the Bronx before opting for the priesthood-he entered a seminary in 1956. Fortunately for cineastes, he soon changed his mind and earned a bachelor's and MFA in film at NYU. Scorsese's first feature, the black-and-white Who's That Knocking At My Door? debuted in 1969. The film caught the attention of B-movie kingpin Roger Corman, who hired Scorsese to direct Boxcar Bertha. The following year, John Cassavetes encouraged him to direct Mean Streets, starring Harvey Keitel and Robert De Niro. Scorsese followed up two years later with the relentlessly grim Taxi Driver, which bagged the Palme d'Or at Cannes, making plain that Scorsese was an auteur with a vision to be reckoned with.

Scorsese has been responsible for some of the most artistically important and/or commercially successful films of his generation, including Raging Bull, Goodfellas, Casino, Gangs of New York, and The Departed. He's relied on close partnerships with a small group of collaborators over the years, including screenwriter Paul Schrader, Robert De Niro, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Oscar winner editor Thelma Schoonmaker.

Since 1999, Scorsese has been married to Helen Morris, his fifth wife; one of his previous wives was Italian bombshell Isabella Rossellini. and producer Barbara de Fina. He's had three daughters with three of those wives. [Image via Getty]