Mardik Martin

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Mardik Martin (September 16, 1934 – September 11, 2019)[1][2] was an American screenwriter of Armenian descent. His parents were Armenian Genocide survivors. He was born in Iran and raised in Iraq.

Early life[]

Martin Mardik was born into a family of Armenian genocide survivors that fled to Iran. They later moved to Iraq. Although his family in Iraq was wealthy, he fled the country to avoid the draft and arrived in New York City in a penniless state.

Later life and Career[]

In his book on the New Hollywood, Peter Biskind states that Martin had to wash dishes to pay his way through NYU, where he met fellow student Martin Scorsese in 1961. The two formed a close friendship and worked together on Scorsese's early projects such as It's Not Just You, Murray! and the semi-autobiographical Season of the Witch, which ultimately became Mean Streets. According to Biskind, "The two young men sat in Martin's Plymouth Valiant and wrote. In the winter, in the cold and snow." Martin also shared writing credits on the Scorsese films New York, New York and Raging Bull. Martin co-wrote the screenplay of film Raging Bull with Paul Schrader, which was voted 76th best screenplay of all time by filmsite.org.

In 2014, Martin co-wrote the screenplay of the German film The Cut, which won an award at the Venice Film Festival (La Biennale).[3]

Death[]

Martin died of unknown causes on September 11, 2019, five days short of his 85th birthday.[4]

Awards[]

In 2012, Martin was honored the Parajanov-Vartanov Institute "for the mastery of his pen on iconic American films" such as Mean Streets and Raging Bull.[5]

Filmography[]

Year Title Director Notes
1971 Joseph Adler
1973 Mean Streets Martin Scorsese Written with Scorsese
1977 New York, New York Martin Scorsese Written with Earl Mac Rauch
1977 Valentino Ken Russell Written with Russell
1980 Raging Bull Martin Scorsese Written with Paul Schrader
2014 The Cut Fatih Akin Written with Akin

References[]

  1. ^ Mardik Martin - Biography, IMDb.
  2. ^ "Mardik Martin, 'Raging Bull' and 'Mean Streets' Screenwriter, Dies at 84". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2019-09-12.
  3. ^ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2245171/awards
  4. ^ "Mardik Martin, 'Mean Streets' and 'Raging Bull' Co-Writer, Dies at 84". TheWrap. 2019-09-12. Retrieved 2019-09-12.
  5. ^ [1][permanent dead link]

Further reading[]

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