The screenwriter who gave Martin Scorsese one of his career’s most important film, Raging Bull, Mardik Martin has passed away.
A frequent collaborator with Scorsese for films like Raging Bull, Mean Streets, and New York, New York, Mardik died on Thursday in Los Angeles, reported variety.com.
He was 82-years of age.
Martin moved to study economics at the New York University, after working in Iraq for a film distributor as a teenager. It was during his university years that he met Scorsese and began working with the former on his films.
Until he began working as a writing professor at NYU and USC’s School of Cinematic Arts, Martin went through a time when he became addicted to cocaine, even losing out on Brian De Palma’s Carlito’s Way.
A documentary of Mardik’s life titled Mardik: Baghdad to Hollywood was made in 2008 and his last screenplay credit was for German filmmaker Fatih Akin’s The Cut.
Screenwriter Howard Rodman was among the many who wrote heartfelt obituaries for the veteran writer.
My friend and colleague Mardik Martin died this morning. You may know him for his writing in Mean Streets, Raging Bull, New York New York.
To say that Mardik was one of a kind is a wild understatement. No one—no one—will ever fill those shoes.
May he rest in well-earned peace. pic.twitter.com/ETKBXeiy5b
— ʜᴏᴡᴀʀᴅ ᴀ. ʀᴏᴅᴍᴀɴ (@howardrodman) September 12, 2019