Martin Scorsese (b. Nov 17, 1942) is an Italian-American filmmaker who, with the help of two gigantic eyebrows living on his forehead has been a driving force in Hollywood for nearly half a century.
Paul Schrader was inspired to write the script after reading the published diary of Arthur Bremer, the man who was convicted of shooting presidential hopeful George Wallace. Eerily, Bremer was 26 years old in 1976 (the year the film was released), the same age as Travis Bickle in the film. And Schrader himself was 26 when he first wrote the screenplay, in 1972.