Appearances in 1989’s New York Stories have been discounted due to the film’s use of multiple directors.
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Revered as one of the greatest directors of all time, popular culture icon Martin Scorsese is the creative force behind some of the finest movies ever made. Boasting a long and storied career that began with 1967’s Who’s That Knocking At My Door and most recently witnessed the debut of 2023’s Killers of the Flower Moon, the cinematic virtuoso is still going strong, with 26 full-length feature films to his name to complement his array of 16 documentaries as of 2025.
You are watching: 10 Actors Martin Scorsese Has Cast Over And Over
In addition to his countless dramatic accolades, the acclaimed director is also renowned for his numerous and frequent collaborations with an array of talented actors throughout his best movies. Ranging from Hollywood titans like Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio to lesser-known supporting names in the vein of Gary Basaraba or Victor Argo, Scorsese’s most frequent artistic relationships are just as synonymous with the director as many of his trademark themes and creative calling cards.
|
Martin Scorsese’s Most Frequent Collaborators |
Appearances |
|---|---|
|
Robert De Niro |
10 |
|
Katherine Scorsese |
9 |
|
Leonardo DiCaprio |
6 |
|
Harvey Keitel |
6 |
|
Harry Northup |
6 |
|
Victor Argo |
5 |
|
Joe Pesci |
4 |
|
Gary Basaraba |
3 |
|
Frank Vincent |
3 |
|
Various |
2 |
10
Daniel Day-Lewis, Willem Dafoe, Jodie Foster, Liam Neeson & Alec Baldwin…
2 Movies
Scorsese has worked with so many different actors on multiple occasions throughout his career that his filmography is littered with Hollywood big-hitters who have featured in two of his movies. The most prominent of these names is likely the human Oscar magnet Daniel Day-Lewis. The actor starred as Newland Archer in 1993’s The Age of Innocence before turning in an iconic Academy Award-nominated bow as the charismatic crime lord, Bill “The Butcher” Cutting, in 2002’s Gangs of New York.
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However, Day-Lewis is far from the only high-flying A-Lister that Scorsese has produced a pair of films with throughout his career. Jodie Foster, Willem Dafoe, and Liam Neeson are just some of the Hollywood superstars who boast a duo of performances in the director’s movies, underlining his status as one of the most prestigious names in Hollywood.
9
Frank Vincent
3 Movies – Raging Bull, Goodfellas, & Casino
Best known for his role as the loudmouthed made man Billy Batts in 1990’s gangster genre-defining outing Goodfellas, the late Frank Vincent was known as one of Martin Scorsese’s most frequently called upon creative muses. In addition to his bow as Batts, The Sopranos star was featured in two more of the director’s most acclaimed movies, 1980’s Raging Bull and 1995’s Casino.
Vincent played the loathsome villain, mobster Phil Leotardo, in the final two seasons of HBO’s The Sopranos.
Forever typecast as a shady Mafioso type, Vincent is also notorious for his onscreen trilogy of grudge matches with his fellow frequent Scorsese collaborator, Joe Pesci. The duo’s respective characters clashed violently every time they appeared onscreen together in one of the director’s movies, a deeply ironic state of affairs given the fact that the two men were actually life-long friends who met while playing in the same band during the early stages of their careers.
8
Gary Basaraba
3 Movies – The Last Temptation of Christ, The Irishman, & Killers Of The Flower Moon
A creative partnership that began in 1988 and was still going strong as of 2023, Gary Basaraba isn’t the first name that likely springs to mind when considering Scorsese’s most called-upon performers. However, examination of the actor’s credits reveals that he has worked with the legendary filmmaker on no less than three separate occasions, beginning with a supporting role as the apostle Andrew in 1988’s The Last Temptation of Christ.
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Basaraba wouldn’t work with Scorsese again for more than three decades, but returned to the fold with a minor role as labor leader Frank Fitzsimmons in 2019’s epic gangster offering, The Irishman. The Canadian rubber-stamped his status as one of Scorsese’s more unlikely perennial collaborators with a brief bow as a supporting character in 2023’s Killers of the Flower Moon, playing the bumbling private eye, William J. Burns.
7
Joe Pesci
4 Movies – Raging Bull, Goodfellas, Casino, & The Irishman
Home Alone star Joe Pesci saves his finest performances for Martin Scorsese’s movies, a status quo highlighted by the fact that all three of his Oscar nominations for Best Supporting Actor have come from working with the director. Winning the award for his iconic bow in 1990’s Goodfellas, Pesci’s turn as the psychotic gangster Tommy DeVito is almost universally regarded as a career best performance.
|
Joe Pesci’s Academy Award Nominations |
Category |
Result |
|---|---|---|
|
Raging Bull (1980) |
Best Supporting Actor |
Nominated |
|
Goodfellas (1990) |
Best Supporting Actor |
Won |
|
The Irishman (2019) |
Best Supporting Actor |
Nominated |
However, Pesci’s stunning bows in 1980’s Raging Bull and 1995’s Casino have also been lauded as some of his finest work in a prolific and fruitful career. The American is such a mainstay of Scorsese’s movies that he even came out of partial retirement to play Russell Buffalino in 2019’s The Irishman, a role that saw him receive his third and most recent Academy Award nomination for his magnificent take on the mobster.
6
Victor Argo
5 Movies – Boxcar Bertha, Mean Streets, Taxi Driver, After Hours, & The Last Temptation of Christ
One of Scorsese’s more inconspicuous muses, the late Victor Argo is another unlikely name who features heavily throughout the American cinematic icon’s filmography. Notorious for playing hard-boiled tough guys throughout his career, Argo was a prominent staple of Scorsese’s earlier work, beginning with a minor role in 1972’s Boxcar Bertha before also appearing in the filmmaker’s breakout offering, 1973’s Mean Streets.
A longtime friend of fellow Scorsese staple Harvey Keitel, Argo would also go on to have small roles in 1976’s Taxi Driver and 1985’s After Hours.
A longtime friend of fellow Scorsese staple Harvey Keitel, Argo would also go on to have small roles in 1976’s Taxi Driver and 1985’s After Hours. The actor concluded his artistic partnership with the director in his most prominent character role when he was tasked with playing the apostle Peter in 1988’s The Last Temptation of Christ, a performance that witnessed Argo’s most meaningful contribution to one of Scorsese’s films.
5
Harry Northup
6 Movies – Who’s That Knocking At My Door, Boxcar Bertha, Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, Mean Streets, Taxi Driver, & New York, New York
Another performer renowned for consistently playing supporting roles throughout Scorsese’s collection of movies, retired actor Harry Northup is also known for his frequent appearances in the films of Jonathan Kaplan and Jonathan Demme. The American poet appeared in Scorsese’s feature film debut, 1967’s Who’s That Knocking At My Door, and would go on to feature in five more of the director’s movies.
Northup also appeared in 1972’s Boxcar Bertha and 1974’s Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore.
However, while he featured in multiple Scorsese films that included the likes of 1973’s Mean Streets and 1976’s Taxi Driver, Northup’s role in proceedings never really went beyond playing minor background characters like bartenders or police officers. He’s also notable for cramming all of his appearances into the space of little under a decade; 1977’s New York, New York marked the sixth and final collaboration between the pair.
4
Harvey Keitel
6 Movies – Who’s That Knocking At My Door, Mean Streets, Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, Taxi Driver, The Last Temptation of Christ, & The Irishman
In addition to frequent appearances in the work of Hollywood directorial titans like Quentin Tarantino and Wes Anderson, Harvey Keitel has enjoyed a long and fruitful creative partnership with Martin Scorsese. The Oscar nominee boasts six credits in the director’s movies, with their professional relationship spanning a time period of more than half a century. Keitel even starred in Scorsese’s feature film debut, a role that also served as his breakthrough movie performance.
The actor would follow his name-making bow with consecutive appearances in Mean Streets and Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, before he played the loathsome pimp “Sport” in 1976’s seminal outing, Taxi Driver. Following a break of more than a decade, Keitel would go on to return to Scorsese’s creative fold as Judas Iscariot in The Last Temptation of Christ, before his most recent appearance as mobster Angelo Bruno in The Irishman.
3
Leonardo DiCaprio
6 Movies – Gangs of New York, The Aviator, The Departed, Shutter Island, The Wolf of Wall Street, & Killers Of The Flower Moon
Leonardo DiCaprio may have yet to win an Oscar for his work in a Scorsese film, but his long-running artistic collaboration with the director has established the Titanic star as one of the finest actors of his generation. DiCaprio has received three Academy Award nominations for his work in Scorsese’s movies, including two for Best Actor off the back of his masterful takes on real-life individuals, Howard Hughes and Jordan Belfort in The Aviator and The Wolf of Wall Street, respectively.
|
Leonardo DiCaprio’s Academy Award Nominations |
Category |
Result |
|---|---|---|
|
What’s Eating Gilbert Grape (1993) |
Best Supporting Actor |
Nominated |
|
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Best Actor |
Nominated |
|
Blood Diamond (2006) |
Best Actor |
Nominated |
|
The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) |
Best Actor |
Nominated |
|
The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) |
Best Picture |
Nominated |
|
The Revenant (2015) |
Best Actor |
Won |
|
Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood (2019) |
Best Actor |
Nominated |
That’s to say nothing of his work with the director that hasn’t been recognized by the Academy. DiCaprio is also credited with masterful performances in critically acclaimed outings like Gangs of New York, The Departed, and Shutter Island, receiving rave reviews for his stunning bows. Most recently turning in another exemplary leading turn in 2023’s Killers of the Flower Moon, there is only one actor who can truly rival DiCaprio as Scorsese’s most beneficial muse.
2
Catherine Scorsese
9 Movies – Who’s That Knocking On My Door, Mean Streets, The King Of Comedy, After Hours, Taxi Driver, Goodfellas, Cape Fear, The Age Of Innocence, & Casino,
Keeping affairs close to home, Martin Scorsese’s second-most frequent movie collaborator is none other than his late parent, Catherine Scorsese. Forever typecast as an Italian-American mother character, Catherine actually began her career as an actress with a role in 1964’s It’s Not Just You Murray!, a short film from Martin’s earliest days as a filmmaker.
Much like her character in Goodfellas, Catherine was known to frequently prepare meals for the cast and crew members of her son’s movies.
Not including her 1964 debut, Catherine would go on to have small appearances in no fewer than nine of Scorsese’s movies, including the revered likes of Taxi Driver and Cape Fear. This state of affairs persisted until her final film role, playing Artie Piscano’s mother in 1995’s Casino. Her most notable cameo came in 1990’s Goodfellas, playing the mother to Joe Pesci’s Tommy DeVito in a role that saw her receive her largest amount of screen time in one of her son’s movies.
1
Robert De Niro
10 Movies – Mean Streets, Taxi Driver, New York, New York, Raging Bull, The King Of Comedy, Goodfellas, Cape Fear, Casino, The Irishman, & Killers Of The Flower Moon
The Scorsese collaborator to end all Scorsese collaborators, Robert De Niro owes much of his status as a cinematic icon to his professional relationship with the director. Scorsese has cast the actor over and over again since his first appearance in 1973’s Mean Streets, with De Niro featuring in 10 of his movies over the span of five decades. It’s a collaboration that has earned the actor five separate Academy Award nominations, with his sole win to date coming for 1980’s iconic sporting drama, Raging Bull.
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2
Many of De Niro’s magnificent performances in the director’s movies are universally revered, a status quo that has led to the likes of Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, and Goodfellas being regarded as some of the greatest films ever made. Having appeared in eight Scorsese pictures by 1995, the pair remarkably wouldn’t be reunited again until 2019. De Niro would eventually return for the gangster epic, The Irishman, before following it up with an Oscar-nominated bow in Killers of the Flower Moon for his tenth and most recent team-up with Scorsese.
Martin Scorsese
Birthdate
November 17, 1942
Birthplace
New York City, New York, United States
Notable Projects
Shutter Island, The Wolf of Wall Street, The Departed
Professions
Director, Producer, Screenwriter, Actor, Film Historian
Source: https://dinhtienhoang.edu.vn
Category: Entertainment