The “truly great American actor” who always impressed Martin Scorsese

There isn’t much about the movie industry that could surprise Martin Scorsese. An icon of his field, Scorsese’s turns as a director have given him a vantage point over the industry that very few can attest to have seen. Emerging to popularity following the release of Mean Streets in 1973, Scorsese went from strength to strength in the most experimental decade for American cinema.

Next came the romance flick Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore in 1974, followed by his debated masterpiece Taxi Driver two years later, and something completely different in the form of the music documentary The Last Waltz in 1978. From thereon, Scorsese’s career rose to the very top of the cinematic mountain, including working with some of the industry’s best actors.

Working with great performers is a blessing for even the most mediocre directors; however, for Scorsese, a gifted filmmaker, the benefit of truly brilliant performers means he could work to create exceptional material. Thankfully, Scorsese had his fair share.

Scorsese has been lucky enough to work with some of the century’s finest actors, including his impressive actor-director relationships with Robert De Niro and a growing relationship with Leonardo DiCaprio. The director has even worked with both in his latest movie, Killers of the Flower Moon, providing his audiences with arguably two best modern performers.

The director has never been shy about showing his admiration for the two men, regularly praising the pair. However, it isn’t just the two stars that Scorsese has shown his appreciation for. Over the years, Scorsese has routinely shared lists of his favourite movies and actors.

Where De Niro and DiCaprio may well be considered two of their generation’s finest actors, some performers from the annals of cinematic history may rival them for pure performance. During a conversation with DirectTV, Scorsese would pay tribute to an icon of the golden age of cinema, Fredric March.

“I’m always impressed when I stop to consider the sheer breadth of Fredric March’s work in movies—it astonishes me,” Scorsese told the site. “He was known to many as an actor’s actor, a movie star who was also technically grounded, and he could play light romantic comedy as well as tragic roles such as Harry Hope in The Iceman Cometh, the last film role of his career (he also had a career onstage, and he originated the role of James Tyrone in Long Day’s Journey Into Night).”

“March was handsome,” he recalled, “and had a mellifluous voice, but he never coasted on his charm, and he had the kind of mastery that brings Robert Duvall or Gene Hackman to mind—a complete command of his voice and his body.”

Starting his career in the 1930s and continuing for decades, he delivered standout performances in 18 feature films, including roles in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Design for Living, The Bridges at Toko-Ri, So Ends Our Night and Laughter and many more. For Scorsese, March represented the total package. But there is one movie that showed off his best talents.

“The Best Years of Our Lives is one of the great works of American cinema,” noted Scorsese, “and March’s performance is one of the elements that makes it so devastating. March, like his character, was born in the Midwest and trained as a banker. Like his character, he had an identity crisis, but it came when he was much younger, and it took him into acting. There’s a bitterness and a disillusionment in his Al, an alcoholic vet who seems like he’s on the verge of throwing away his job, that seems to be drawn from March’s reserves of personal experience. It’s an eloquent, deeply resonant, extremely painful performance by a truly great American actor.”

When looking through the realm of truly impressive American performers, it is usual to see most of them share a credit or two with Scorsese. However, there is likely one or two actors with whom the director would have loved to work, and March is certainly one of them.