In a career that is now entering its 45th year, Martin Scorsese’s is considered one of the most acclaimed in film history. He has built his career on telling visually stunning and equally impressive stories over the years, but he is also one of the most inspiring directors for an actor to work with. Actors under Scorsese’s direction are given an opportunity to not only work with one of the greatest modern film-makers, but also flourish in their trade.
This list celebrates not only the craftsmanship and quality of Scorsese’s films but also the performances that he helped create with the actors mentioned herein. Throughout his career, Scorsese has directed 18 different Academy Award nominated performances, with 5 actors winning the Oscar under his charge. Without Scorsese’s sure handed direction, it is rest assured that none of these films or performances would have been as memorable as they were.
10. Ray Liotta – Goodfellas
As the real life gangster the film is based upon, Liotta is electric as Henry Hill in Scorsese’s 1990 ode to the wiseguy, Goodfellas. From his opening line of gravelly voiced narration “As far back as I could remember, I always wanted to be a gangster.”, we are allowed into Henry’s world, with Liotta along as our guide through this magnificent opus of violence and excess. Liotta’s performance as Hill centers the entire film, and his character is the central force that brings all other characters and scenes together, and he holds his own very well with fellow cast mates Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci among others, under Scorsese’s eye.
In one thrilling montage of events, Liotta soars along during a frenzied day of drug addled paranoia and family dinners. Liotta manages to keep an intensity and a fervid atmosphere to this masterfully crafted sequence from Scorsese and his editor Thelma Schoonmaker. Liotta borders on moments of utter chaos while he tries to hold what’s left of his shambles of a life, a truly gifted performance. Ray Liotta rose to prominence after his apperance in Goodfellas, but could never find a comfort zone as a leading man. He appears in a different facet of roles from tough guys to comic relief, and his most recent performance was featured in last year’s Killing Them Softly.
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9 Comments
great list, but major oversight – Leonardo DiCaprio for The Aviator!
Yeah another one of the best. The Departed split that vote.
Um, where’s De Niro’s performance in Cape Fear? That’s definitely a Top Ten performance in a Scorsese film. Easily.
DeNiro was not Oscar nominated for Mean Streets as this article said. Though he was nominated for Cape Fear, which should be on this list instead of that performance. Even his role in “New York, New York” is probably better. I’m okay with his roles in Casino and Goodfellas not being on the list, because they weren’t flashy parts.
Good catch, I could have sworn he was nominated for Mean Streets, the memory must be getting foggy.
As good as he was in Cape Fear, I found the climax of the film to be too much like a low grade horror movie.
cool little fact, ray liotta did not voice the narration in the GOODFELLAS film, it was in fact the voice of the real life Henry Hill. Very simlar sounding yes but it is indeed the real Henry Hill narrating the film
So glad to see the move for DeNiro’s underrated performance in the even more underrated The King of Comedy. Good mention.
That said, I definitely agree with Katherine – Leo’s performance in The Aviator is not only one of the finest performances in a Martin Scorsese film, but in my opinion is still the finest performance of Leo’s career.
Man I’m glad I saw this article. Couple of interesting movies here that I missed. Specially King of Comedy. The plot as you described it reminds me a bit of myself.
Travis Bickle is one of the greatest roles ever and I think Taxi Driver is the greatest character study ever put to film