... that the day before the 1981 Oscar ceremony, John Hinckley, Jr. tried to kill President Ronald Reagan by shooting at him in the street outside the Hilton Hotel in Washington, D.C. Hollywood legend has it that the next day at the actual ceremony Robert De Niro pulled Martin Scorsese aside (Martin was there to find out if he would win a Best Director Oscar for Raging Bull - he wouldn't) to tell him that he just heard that Hinckley shot the President in a lunatic attempt to impress actress Jodie Foster and he emulated De Niro's deranged Travis Bickle character - an idea he formulated after numerous viewings of the movie Taxi Driver. Learn more in our Tribute to Taxi Driver and our Tribute to Jodie Foster.
... that Martin Scorsese is also an actor. Here's some of his on screen appearance in his own movies. Watch and see if you can spot him as
a taxi cab passenger who wants to kill his wife in Taxi Driver (pictured here),
stagehand in Raging Bull,
a character called Jimmy Shorts in Mean Streets,
the TV director in The King of Comedy,
a photographer in The Age of Innocence,
a wealthy homeowner in Gangs of New York and
a man on the red carpet in The Aviator
... that Martin Scorsese also has had roles in other people's movies playing a mobster in Cannonball, appearing in Quiz Show (pictured here) and doing the voice of Mr. Sykes the boss at the Whale Wash in Shark Tale.
... that Martin Scorsese the actor has also appeared in commercials. Here's one from American Express
and one from AT&T
... that Martin Scorsese thought MySpace was "a storage facility in the Bronx" but that didn't stop him from getting his very own MySpace page.
... that Martin Scorsese is the founder of The Film Foundation. It is dedicated to protecting motion pictures and the rights of the artists who create them, educating the public about the importance of film preservation, and raising the necessary funds to save the endangered cinematic treasures of the 20th Century.