He became a star director with “Mean Streets” (1973), an intensely personal and brutal examination of the neighborhood he grew up in.
A devout Catholic, he dabbled with becoming a priest before finally deciding to pursue a career in filmmaking.Īfter graduating from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, Scorsese directed the independently-financed “Who’s That Knocking at My Door?” (1967), which introduced Harvey Keitel. Since his asthma kept him from playing sports, he spent most of his days in a movie theater. Martin Scorsese grew up in the Little Italy neighborhood of New York City.
