The New York-born Italian American has always drawn on the seedier side of life and is perhaps the most well-respected, and one of the most successful, directors in the world. Although, in 2008, his gritty, violent tales of gangsters and the dispossessed have been much parodied, we have to remember that in the 70s and 80s his masterpieces such as Mean Streets, Taxi Driver and Raging Bull brought a much needed muscular realism to Hollywood. Heavy-browed Mart has been married five times.