Born July 22, 1946 in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Paul Joseph Schrader was raised as a strict Calvinist and did not see a film until he was 17. The first film he saw was Disney’s The Absent-Minded Professor with Fred MacMurray and Nancy Olson which failed to impress him.  His second film, however, was Philip Dunne’s Wild in the Country with Elvis Presley and Hope Lange, which began his love of movies. He later pursued film studies at UCLA and published his first book on film in 1972.

Schrader and his older brother, Leonard, co-wrote the screenplay for 1974’s The Yakuza.  Married to Calvin College sweetheart Jeannine Oppewall in 1969, they divorced in 1976, the year that Taxi Driver and Obsession for which he wrote the screenplays, were released.  In 1977, he wrote the screenplay for Rolling Thunder.  In 1978, he directed his first films, Blue Collar, which he also wrote.  In 1979, he wrote and directed Hardcore and wrote the screenplay for Old Boyfriends.

The 1980s started out great for Schrader, with the release of American Gigolo, which he both wrote and directed, and Raging Bull which he wrote for Martin Scorsese.  In 1982 he directed the highly successful remake of 1942’s Cat People.  In 1983, he married actress Mary Beth Hurt with whom he has two children.

In 1985 Schrader wrote and directed the impressive Mishima:A Life in Four Chapters.  That same year his brother Leonard received an Oscar nomination for his screenplay for Hector Babenco’s Kiss of the Spider Woman for which Schrader’s wife’s ex-husband William Hurt won an Oscar for Best Actor.

In 1986 Schrader wrote The Mosquito Coast for Peter Weir.  In 1987 he wrote and directed Light of Day.  In 1988 and directed Patty Hearst and wrote the screenplay for Scorsese’s The Last Temptation of Christ.

Schrader’s success continued in the 1990s with 1992’s Light Sleeper which he wrote and directed and 1996’s City Hall for which he wrote the screenplay for Harold Becker.  In 1997, he wrote and directed both Touch and Affliction, for which James Coburn won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar when it was released the following year.  That same year his ex-wife Jeannine Oppewall, now a highly respected Art Director, received the first of four Oscar nominations for L.A. Confidential while Schrader had yet to receive his first.

In 1999 Schrader wrote the screenplay for Scorsese’s Bringing Out the Dead and in 2002 he directed the well-received Auto Focus.  In 2005 he directed Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist and in 2007 he wrote and directed The Walker, his fourth film about night workers following the more successful Taxi Driver, American Gigolo, and Light Sleeper.  It would be his last important film until 2017’s First Reformed reignited his career and brought him his first and only Oscar nomination to date for his screenplay.

Schrader’s subsequent films include 2021’s The Card Counter, 2022’s Master Gardner, and 2024’s Oh, Canada.

In September 2022, Schrader was hospitalized for “breathing problems”.

In January 2023, he and Mary Beth moved from New York’s suburban Putnam County to a luxury assisted living facility in Manhattan’s Hudson Yards where she receives treatment for her worsening Alzheimer’s.

Paul Schrader remains a force to be reckoned with at 78.

ESSENTIAL FILMS

TAXI DRIVER (1976), directed by Martin Scorsese

One of the landmark films of the 1970s, it was nominated for 4 Oscars for Best Picture, Actor (Robert De Niro), Supporting Actress (Jodie Foster), and Score (a posthumous nomination for Bernard Herrmann who was also nominated for Brian De Palma’s Obsession which also had a screenplay written by Schrader).  Shockingly, neither Scorsese nor Schrader were nominated for this groundbreaking film about a mentally unstable Vietnam veteran with chronic insomnia who among other things saves 12-year-old prostitute Foster from her pimp (Harvey Keitel).  Schrader would write three more screenplays for Scorsese including Raging Bull.

AMERICAN GIGOLO (1980), directed by Paul Schrader

Schrader’s fourth film as director was a box-office sensation that made a major star of Richard Gere in the title role.  Gere’s Armani wearing gigolo is a high-end male prostitute to older women in Los Angeles.  Accused of a murder he did not commit; he becomes involved with unhappily married Lauren Hutton who he mistakes for a potential client.  The film, which fit the mood of the moment, gave Gere the role he needed after his early successes in Looking for Mr. Goodbar, Days of Heaven and Yanks cried out for a starring role.  An Officer and a Gentleman, Pretty Woman, and Chicago would become future highlights of his long career.

TOUCH (1997), directed by Paul Schrader

At the time, Elmore Leonard (Get Shorty) provided source material for many directors looking for a hot property to film.  Schrader, looking for one of his novels to film, was only able to get his hands on the author’s religious hypocrisy novel, Touch, which fit him like a glove.  He filmed it as an ensemble piece with Skeet Ulrich, then considered the new Brad Pitt, in the role of the former seminarian with healing powers surrounded by such sterling players as Christopher Walken, Bridget Fonda, Paul Muzursky, and Lolita Davidovich.  Alas, Ulrich’s most successful film that year was As Good As It Gets in which he had a supporting role.

AFFLICTION (1998), directed by Paul Schrader

Schrader’s film premiered at the 1997 Venice Film Festival but was not released to theatres until 1998 when it was nominated for Oscars for the performances of Nick Nolte as a small-town New Hampshire sheriff and James Coburn as his abusive drunk of a father who won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his performance.  Sissy Spacek had the film’s most prominent female role as a woman Nolte wants to marry while Schrader’s wife Mary Beth Hurt also makes an impression in a less prominent role.  Nolte lost the Best Actor Oscar to Roberto Benigni in Life Is Beautiful. Other nominees included Ian McKellen in Gods and Monsters.

FIRST REFORMED (2018), directed by Paul Schrader

Schrader at long last received an Oscar nomination for his screenplay about the minister of a small congregation in upstate New York who grapples with mounting despair brought on by tragedy, worldly concerns, and a tormented past.  Ethan Hawke, in a towering performance, was not nominated for a Best Actor Oscar despite having won the Spirit Independent award for his towering performance.  Nominated in his place was Willem Dafoe for At Heaven’s Gate.  Dafoe  had starred in several films for which Schrader had either written the screenplay or directed including The Last Temptation of Christ and Light Sleeper.

PAUL SCHRADER AND OSCAR

First Reformed (2018) – Nominated – Best Original Screenplay