Martin Scorsesehas made a career of crafting legendary films and teaming with some of the best actors working across six decades. Scorsese has made muses of two of the greatest actors, Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro. However, aside fromthose frequent collaborators, he’s also worked with Daniel Day-Lewis, Willem Dafoe, Winona Ryder, Joe Pesci, Liam Neeson, and Nicolas Cage — to name a few.
Scorsese is not only a master technician, creating a world of cinema onto itself, perfecting the art of montage, but he’s also directed some of the finest performances of the previously mentioned actors' careers. Scorsese has helped win Oscars for Cate Blanchett, Ellen Burstyn, Joe Pesci, and De Niro. His ensembles are star-studded, getting big names to appear, if only for a few scenes. It’s a credit to Scorsese’s artistry that he continues to get heartfelt work from actors and that his films have yet to lose any edge, even into his old age. Here are the best performances in his movies (that aren’t from De Niro or DiCaprio).
Update July 29, 2025: In honor of the release ofKillers of the Flower Moon, this article has been updated with even more incredible performances across Scorsese’s filmography that are not his usual two collaborators of Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio.
15Mark Wahlberg - The Departed
The Departedis a cat-and-mouse game between Billy (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Colin (Matt Damon) as they both orbit around mobster Costello (Jack Nicholson) and yet the man who steals every scene he’s in is Mark Wahlberg as Dignam. The character is a hot-head, tough-guy Bostonian with some anger problems, and so was Wahlberg in his youth, so this might be the role he was born to play.
Best Martin Scorsese Films, Ranked
From Taxi Driver to The Irishman, here’s a look at the best movies from Martin Scorsese, one of the greatest filmmakers to ever live.
Jokes aside, he’s the only actor nominated for the film (in his only acting Academy Awards nomination), and that in a film with Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, and Jack Nicholson is saying something. Dignam ends up being the real hero of the movie, so much so that Wahlberg is open to a sequel where he’d be the leading character to play again this unique Boston police officer.
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14Cate Blanchett - The Aviator
The Aviatortells the story of Howard Hughes (Leonardo DiCaprio in his first of many collaborations with Scorsese), a playboy and millionaire who was as important for Hollywood as he was for the aviation business. Hughes dated many movie stars, but the one nearest and dearest to his heart was Katherine Hepburn, played perfectly byCate Blanchettin this film. She plays Hepburn as the smartest, most charismatic person in every room, someone who enjoys life, sees the joy of every situation, and cares deeply about Hughes, even if his most obsessive tendencies are flaring up. The Academy also thought that her performance was amazing, as she earned her first Oscar for it.
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13Al Pacino — The Irishman
In a late-career gem and first-time collaboration with director Scorsese,Al Pacinoshined as the ill-fated, historical persona of the Teamster president Jimmy Hoffa. Using all of his swagger and bravado as an actor, Pacino rips through lines with a wave of anger and historic gusto that perfectly melds with the classic gangster lineage of a Scorsese picture. Teamed with De Niro, there’s a tragic arc for Hoffa that Pacino paints as the character gets in over his head. Wrestling for power inside the corrupt organizations, the downfall ofThe Irishmanis a classic, heartbreaking mediation on criminality and old age.
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12Jonah Hill — The Wolf of Wall Street
Scorsese’s films have a palpable amount of black humor in them. Even in his darkest, most violent films, laughter always finds itself bursting through the shadows. InThe Wolf of Wall Street, Scorsese took the comedy to the extremes. The film was perfectly suited for the talents ofJonah Hill. One of the most gifted comedic actors working today, Hill’s penchant for improvisational humor gave way tomany hilarious moments, including the ludicrousnear-death scenewhere he is saved by his partner in crime. Playing the right-hand man of DiCaprio’s Jordan Belfort, Hill found a specific, scumbag, Long Island energy to tap into that earned him an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor.
11Harvey Keitel - Mean Streets
Harvey Keitel might’ve been the first Scorsese alter ego inMean Streets, as he plays the guilt-ridden, crime-making Charlie Cappa. He’s always trying to calm his friend Johnny Boy (Robert De Niro), feels bad for everything he does, and would love to have just a normal, simple life in the neighborhood with the love of his life Teresa (Amy Robinson). Unfortunately, he never gets there as the crime life keeps calling him back.
Keitel is able to sell all those emotions with every word, gesture, and look, creating someone who is a 360 person, who is all contradictions and wants. He’s also the straight man to all of De Niro’s flashy acting, showing how the two actors use different acting muscles, to show how the two fictional friends are starting to fall apart.
10Sharon Stone - Casino
Sharon Stone’s role as Ginger inCasinomight be the best of her career. She plays the wife to Sam Rothstein (Robert De Niro) as a femme fatale who is as troubled as she’s trouble. She’s beautiful and takes the air of every room she enters, but she also loves shiny things, drugs, and furs and despises his husband, making for a unique combination.
Ginger is a grifter looking for every dollar she can take from men, but at the same time, she’s in a codependent relationship with a fool named Lester Diamond (James Woods), and all those contradictions and how Stone is able to show them with a layered performance, what makes this character such a one-of-one. Stone was deservedly nominated for the film, the only actor in it, in what, until now, is her only Oscar nomination.
9Daniel Day-Lewis — Gangs of New York
The phrase “tour de force” could be synonymous withDaniel Day-Lewis’ career. An actor of such magnitude commands the screen like a black hole, swallowing and devouring anything that dare gets near. InGangs of New York, Day-Lewis takes the reins as fiercely patriotic, conservative, and murderous Bill The Butcher. Helming the end of an era, when gangs ruled New York, Day-Lewis brings his gravitas to a nasty leader who’s handy with anything bladed. He shakes the frames like he does with his victims and chews them up, inside and out. Through all of his sweaty, profane-laced rants about the country, it’s the failed assassination scene that takes the crown for his most insane.
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8Andrew Garfield — Silence
In a year whenAndrew Garfieldsaw himself nominated for Best Actor for his work in Mel Gibson’sHacksaw Ridge, he gave a career-best performance for the master, Scorsese. Playing a Jesuit priest going on a mission to Japan in the 16th Century, where Christians were persecuted for their beliefs, Garfield went to the depths of hell, anguish, and pain to deliver a work of deep spiritual resonance.
As Sebastiao Rodrigues inSilence, Garfield must ask himself the meaning of faith and what it means to connect to a power greater than himself. In doing so, it asks if there is a deeper meaning in being burdened with the silence of God. A transcendent work from Scorsese and Garfield, who bring out the best in each other’s artistry.
7Willem Dafoe — The Last Temptation of Christ
Willem Dafoeis one of the most dangerous actors working today. Not because of his personality but because the choices he makes as an actor are daring and volatile. Bringing esteem and artistic interpretation to an iconoclast is no easy choice. But withThe Last Temptation of Christ, Scorsese and Dafoe did just that.
Willem Dafoe’s Most Unique Performances, Ranked
Willem Dafoe is one of modern filmmaking’s most diverse actors. Based on eccentricity, here are some of his most unique performances.
Playing the titular role of Jesus Christ, Dafoe brings anguish and poetry to the role that, perLA Times, sparked controversies across the globe. It is a life-threatening role because Dafoe portrayed Christ not just as a figure of divinity but as one who is subject to joy, anger, and cruelty. It’s a stunning partnership and one that created a compelling moral statement.
6Ray Liotta — Goodfellas
In a career-defining performance,Ray Liottaperfectly embodied the manic rage, paranoia, and charisma of real-life mobster Henry Hill inGoodfellas. Initially not the first name Scorsese wanted to cast in the lead role, Liotta had an interaction with the director at the Venice Film Festival that convinced him to cast Liotta as Hill. It’s hard to imagine anyone else taking the reins; Liotta brings desperation to the role in the second half that lacks vanity. Completely losing his soul as the criminal life catches up to him and fills the first half of the film with an open heart that creates a vivid portrait of Henry Hill.
