Max Belfort, The Real Wolf Of Wall Street’s Father
“Mad Max” Belfort was Jordan Belfort’s father, a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) who worked for Stratton Oakmont. He was tasked, essentially, with maintaining some semblance of order in the fraudulent chaos of the brokerage — and often expressed his frustrations, very colorfully, with his son and Porush. That same no-nonsense attitude carried over to Rob Reiner’s portrayal of him in the film.
Jordan Belfort/FacebookMax Belfort (left) with his family.
According to Belfort’s memoir, his father was “Stratton’s de facto Chief Financial Officer and also the self-appointed Chief of the Gestapo. He was so tightly wound that at 9 a.m. he was walking around the boardroom with a styrofoam cup filled with Stolichnaya vodka.”
In both the film and the memoir, Max Belfort seemed to find himself frequently angry, frustrated, and confused about his son’s financial decisions. He could not, for instance, wrap his head around how the younger Belfort managed to regularly spend $10,000 on a meal at Starr Boggs (the answer: a special reserve red wine) or why he had to buy so many different coats for his wife.
Paramount PicturesRob Reiner (right) as Max Belfort in The Wolf of Wall Street.
At the end of the day, though, he was Jordan Belfort’s father — so when federal agents started to arrest Stratton Oakmont employees, Max Belfort called his son and warned him.
Despite all of Max Belfort’s efforts, though, there was little he could do to deter the rampant hedonism and chaos of Stratton Oakmont.
