"Take my word for it.
If you want to make out with a young lady,
take her to see Dracula."
- as Bela Lugosi
in Ed Wood (1994)
Martin Landau was one of
2000 applicants who auditioned for Lee Strasberg's Actors Studio in
1955 - only he and Steve McQueen were accepted.
Martin Landau (born June 20th, 1928) is an
American film and television actor. His career started in the 1950s,
with early film appearances including a supporting role in Alfred
Hitchcock's North by Northwest (1959). He played regular roles in the
television series Mission: Impossible (for which he received several
Emmy Award nominations) and Space: 1999.
Landau received the Golden Globe Award for
Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture, as well as his first
nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, for his
role in Tucker: The Man and His Dream (1988); he received his second
Oscar nomination for his appearance in Crimes and Misdemeanors
(1989). His performance in the supporting role of Bela Lugosi in Ed
Wood (1994) earned him an Academy Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award
and a Golden Globe Award. He continues to perform in film and TV and
heads the Hollywood branch of the Actors Studio.
Landau
was born in Brooklyn, New York on June 20th, 1928, the son of Selma
and Morris Landau. His family was Jewish and his father, an Austrian
born machinist, scrambled to rescue relatives from the Nazis. He
attended James Madison High School and the Pratt Institute before
finding full-time work as a cartoonist at the age of 17 for the Daily
News where he illustrated the Billy Rose column "Pitching
Horseshoes" and also assisted Gus Edson on the comic strip The
Gumps during the 1940s and 1950s, eventually drawing the "Sunday
strip" for Edson. Some sources confuse him with comic book
artist Kenneth Landau, and incorrectly claim that he drew for comic
books using the name Ken Landau as a pseudonym. At 22, he quit the
Daily News to concentrate on theater acting.
Influenced
by Charlie Chaplin and the escapism of the cinema, Landau pursued an
acting career. He attended the Actors Studio, becoming good friends
with James Dean, and was later in the same class as Steve McQueen.
In 1957, Landau made a well-received
Broadway debut in the play "Middle of the Night" with wife
Barbara Bain. As part of the touring company with star Edward G.
Robinson, Landau and Bain made it to the West Coast. Landau made his
movie debut in Pork Chop Hill (1959) but scored on film as the heavy
in Alfred Hitchcock's classic thriller North by Northwest (1959
below), in which he was shot on top of Mount Rushmore while
sadistically stepping on the fingers of Cary Grant, who was holding
on for dear life to the cliff face. He also appeared in the
blockbuster Cleopatra (1963), the most expensive film ever made up to
that time, which nearly scuttled 20th Century-Fox and engendered one
of the great public scandals, the Elizabeth Taylor-Richard Burton
love affair that overshadowed the film itself.
In 1963, Landau played memorable roles on
two episodes of the science-fiction anthology series The Outer Limits
(1963), "The Bellero Shield" and "The Man Who Was
Never Born". He was Gene Roddenberry's first choice to play Mr.
Spock on Star Trek (1966), but the role went to Leonard Nimoy, who
later replaced Landau on Mission: Impossible (1966).
Landau's
role of master of disguise Rollin Hand no Mission: Impossible,
becoming one of the television's better-known and popular characters.
According to The Complete Mission: Impossible Dossier by Patrick J.
White (Avon Books, 1991), Landau at first declined to be contracted
by the show because he did not want it to interfere with his film
career; instead, he was credited for "special guest
appearances" during the first season. His character, Rollin
Hand, was supposed to make occasional, though recurring appearances
but when the producers had problems with star Steven Hill, Landau was
used to take up the slack. He became a "full-time" cast
member in the second season, although the studio agreed (with
Landau's consent) to contract him only on a year-by-year basis rather
than the then-standard five years. The role of Hand required Landau
to perform a wide range of accents and characters, from dictators to
thugs, and several episodes had him playing dual roles - not only
Hand's impersonation, but also the person whom Hand is impersonating.
Landau co-starred in the series with his then wife, Barbara Bain.
Landau received Emmy nominations as Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama
Series for each of the three seasons he appeared. In 1968, he won the
Golden Globe award as Best Male TV Star.
Eventually, Landau quit the series in 1969
after a salary dispute when the new star, Peter Graves, was given a
contract that paid him more than Landau, whose own contract stated he
would have parity with any other actor on the show who made more than
he did. The producers refused to budge and he and Bain, who had
become the first actress in the history of television to be awarded
three consecutive Emmy Awards (1967-69) while on the show, left the
series, ostensibly to pursue careers in the movies. The move actually
held back their careers, and Mission: Impossible (1966) went on for
another four years with other actors.
Landau appeared in support of Sidney
Poitier in They Call Me Mister Tibbs! (1970), the less successful
sequel to the Oscar-winning In the Heat of the Night (1967), but it
did not generate more work of a similar caliber. He starred in the
television movie Welcome Home, Johnny Bristol (1972) on CBS, playing
a prisoner of war returning to the United States from Vietnam. The
following year, he shot a pilot for NBC for a proposed show,
"Savage". Though it was directed by emerging wunderkind
Steven Spielberg, NBC did not pick up the show. Needing work, Landau
and Bain moved to England to play the leading roles in the syndicated
science-fiction series Space: 1999 (1975).
Space: 1999 was first produced by Gerry
Anderson (of Thunderbirds fame) in partnership with Sylvia Anderson,
and later by Fred Freiberger. Although the series remains a cult
classic for its high production values, critical response to Space:
1999 was unenthusiastic during its original run, and it was cancelled
after two seasons. Landau himself was critical of the scripts and
storylines, especially during the series' second season, but praised
the cast and crew. He later wrote forewords to Space: 1999 co-star
Barry Morse's theatrical memoir Remember With Advantages (2006) and
Jim Smith's critical biography of Tim Burton.
Landau's and Bain's careers stalled after
Space: 1999 went out of production, and they were reduced to taking
parts in television movies like The Harlem Globetrotters on
Gilligan's Island (1981) and was the final time they appeared
together on screen and their marriage was soon over. Landau, one of
the most talented character actors in Hollywood, and one not without
recognition, had bottomed out career-wise. In 1983, he was stuck in
low-budget sci-fi and horror movies like The Being (1983), a role far
beneath his talent.
Landau's
career renaissance got off to a slow start with a recurring role in
the NBC sitcom Buffalo Bill (1983), starring Dabney Coleman. On
Broadway, he took over the title role in the revival of
"Dracula" and went on the road with the national touring
company. Landau made a career comeback when Francis Ford Coppola cast
him in a critical supporting role in his Tucker: The Man and His
Dream (1988), for which Landau was nominated for an Academy Award as
Best Supporting Actor. He won his second Golden Globe for the role.
The next year, he received his second consecutive Best Supporting
Actor Oscar nomination for his superb turn as the adulterous husband
in Woody Allen's Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989 left). He followed
this up by playing famed Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal in the TNT
movie Max and Helen (1990).
In 1994 Landau portrayed Bela Lugosi in
Tim Burton's biopic Ed Wood and won glowing reviews and the Best
Supporting Actor Oscar in addition to his third Golden Globe. His
performance in Ed Wood (below) also garnered numerous awards
including top honors from the New York Film Critics Circle and the
National Society of Film Critics. Upon accepting the Academy Award
for Best Supporting Actor, Landau was visibly frustrated by the
orchestra's attempt to cut short his speech. He later stated that he
had intended to thank Lugosi and dedicate the award to him, and that
he was annoyed that he was not being given an opportunity to mention
the name of the person he had portrayed. When Landau won the Academy
Award, a reporter for the Los Angeles Times announced: "the
award goes to Martin Landau; its shadow goes to Bela Lugosi." On
the film's DVD release, Landau states that he was highly impressed by
the comment.
In the early seasons of Without a Trace
(2002–09), Landau was nominated for an Emmy Award for his
portrayal of the Alzheimer's-afflicted father of FBI Special Agent in
Charge Jack Malone, the series' lead character. In 2006, he made a
guest appearance in the series Entourage as a washed-up but
determined and sympathetic Hollywood producer attempting to relive
his glory days, a portrayal that earned him a second Emmy nomination.
In June 2011, Landau started filming a TV
film based on Mitch Albom's book Have a Little Faith, in which he
plays Rabbi Albert Lewis. The film had a "world premiere charity
screening" on November 16th in Royal Oak, Michigan. All ten
theaters within the Emogine multiplex theater screened the film, with
proceeds donated to the A Hole in the Roof Foundation and the Rabbi
Albert Lewis Fund.
In recognition of his services to the
motion picture industry, Martin Landau has a star on the Hollywood
Walk of Fame at 6841 Hollywood Boulevard.
Encouraged
by his own mentor, Lee Strasberg, Landau has also taught acting.
Actors coached by him include Jack Nicholson and Anjelica Huston. In
2009, Landau and his Actors Studio colleagues, director Mark Rydell
and writer Lyle Kessler, collaborated to produce the educational
Total Picture Seminar, a two-day event covering the disciplines of
acting, directing and writing for film.
Landau has two daughters, Juliet and Susan
(pictured left with their father), from his marriage to actress and
former co-star Barbara Bain. They married on January 31st, 1957 and
divorced in 1993.
Susan Landau Finch (born August 13th,
1960) is a producer-writer-director with a background in film and
theater production. She has worked extensively for Francis Ford
Coppola's American Zoetrope.
Juliet Rose Landau (born March 30th, 1965)
is an American actress and ballerina best known for her role as
Drusilla on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its spinoff show Angel, the
latter appearance earning her a Saturn Award nomination. She also
co-starring as Loretta King in Tim Burton's Ed Wood along with her
father. Juliet Landau also plays the Time Lord Romana in the Big
Finish Productions audio dramas Gallifrey VI and Luna Romana (2013),
both of which are spin-offs from the TV series Doctor Who.
On July 15th, 2017, Landau died at the age
of 89 at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in Westwood, Los
Angeles, California; he had been briefly hospitalized. The cause of
death was multiple organ failure caused by intra-abdominal
hemorrhage. Landau was also suffering from hypovolemia shock and
atherosclerosis at the time of his death.
Untitled
Selected Martin
Landau TVography
A Man Called Shenandoah
- The Locket (1965)
Adventures in Paradise
- Mr. Flotsam (1961)
- Nightmare on Napuka (1960)
The Alfred Hitchcock Hour
- The Second Verdict (1964)
Alfred Hitchcock Presents
- The Final Twist (1987)
Armstrong Circle Theatre
- Terror at My Heels (1956)
The Best of the Post
- Frontier Correspondent (1961)
The Big Story
- House Divided (1957)
The Big Valley
- The Way to Kill a Killer (1965)
Blacke's Magic
- Last Flight from Moscow (1986)
Bonanza
- The Gift (1961)
Branded
- This Stage of Fools (1966)
Buffalo Bill
- Company Ink (1984)
Checkmate
- Hot Wind on a Cold Town (1961)
- Moment of Truth (1960)
Columbo
- Double Shock (1973)
The Defenders
- The Secret (1964)
The Detectives
- Shadow of His Brother (1961)
Entourage
- Redomption (2008)
- Sorry, Ari (2006)
- What About Bob? (2006)
- I Wanna Be Sedated (2006)
The Evidence
- series star as Dr. Sol Gold (8 episodes 2006)
General Electric Theater
- Survival (1959)
Get Smart
- Pheasant Under Glass (1969)
The Goldbergs
- Episode dated July 17th 1953 (1953)
The Great War and the Shaping of the
20th Century (TV Mini-Series)
- War Without End (voice 1996)
- Hatred and Hunger (voice 1996)
- Collapse (voice 1996)
The Greatest Show on Earth
- The Night the Monkey Died (1964)
Gunsmoke
- The Goldtakers (1966)
- The Patsy (1958)
Harbormaster
- Sanctuary (1957)
Hotel
- Confrontations (1983)
I Spy
- Danny Was a Million Laughs (1965)
In Plain Sight
- Training Video (2009)
The Islanders
- Duel of Strangers (1960)
Johnny Ringo
- The Derelict (1960)
Johnny Staccato
- Murder for Credit (1959)
The Law and Mr. Jones
- Lincoln (1961)
The Lawless Years
- Lucky Silva (1959)
Lawman
- The Outcast (1958)
The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
- The Bat Cave Affair (1966)
Matt Houston
- The Hunted (1983)
Maverick
- High Card Hangs (1958)
Mission: Impossible
- series star as Rollin Hand (76 episodes 1966-1969)
Mr. Novak
- Enter a Strange Animal (1965)
- Pay the Two Dollars (1963)
Murder, She Wrote
- Birds of a Feather (1984)
Omnibus
- Salome (1955)
The Outer Limits
- The Bellero Shield (1964)
- The Man Who Was Never Born (1963)
Outlaws
- The Avenger (1960)
Playhouse 90
- The Sounds of Eden (1959)
Rawhide
- Incident Below the Brazos (1959)
The Rifleman
- The Vaqueros (1961)
Shirley Temple's Storybook
- The House of the Seven Gables (1960)
The Simpsons
- The Great Simpsina (2011)
Space: 1999
- series star as Commander John Koenig (48
episodes 1975-1977)
Spider-Man
- Neogenic Nightmare Chapter 14: The Final
Nightmare (voice 1996)
- Neogenic Nightmare Chapter 2: Battle of
the Insidious Six (voice 1995)
- Neogenic Nightmare Chapter 1: The
Insidious Six (voice 1995)
- The Sting of the Scorpion (voice 1995)
Sugarfoot
- The Ghost (1958)
Tales of Wells Fargo
- Doc Holliday (1959)
The Tall Man
- The Black Robe (1962)
- Dark Moment (1961)
Tate
- Tigrero (1960)
The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters
- The Day of the Killer (1963)
The Twilight Zone
- The Beacon (1985)
- The Jeopardy Room (1964)
- Mr. Denton on Doomsday (1959)
The Untouchables
- Loophole (1961)
- Mexican Stake-Out (1959)
Wagon Train
- The Cathy Eckhart Story (1960)
The Walter Winchell File
- Flight to Freedom: File #36 (1958)
Wanted: Dead or Alive
- The Monster (1960)
The Wild Wild West
- The Night of the Red-Eyed Madmen (1965)
Without a Trace
- Undertow (2009)
- When Darkness Falls (2005)
- John Michaels (2005)
- Malone v. Malone (2004)
- Shadows (2004)
Selected Martin
Landau Filmography
1959
North by Northwest
The Gazebo
Pork Chop Hill
1962
Stagecoach to Dancers' Rock
1963
Decision at Midnight
Cleopatra
1964
The Ghost of Sierra de Cobre (TV Movie)
1965
The Hallelujah Trail
The Greatest Story Ever Told
1966
Nevada Smith
1970
They Call Me Mister Tibbs!
Rosolino Paternò, soldato...
1971
A Town Called Bastard
1972
Black Gunn
Welcome Home, Johnny Bristol (TV Movie)
1973
Savage (TV Movie)
1976
Alien Attack (TV Movie)
Journey Through the Black Sun (TV Movie)
Shadows in an Empty Room
1978
Destination Moonbase-Alpha (TV Movie)
1979
The Death of Ocean View Park (TV Movie)
Meteor
The Fall of the House of Usher (TV Movie)
The Last Word
1980
The Return
Without Warning
1981
The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan's Island
(TV Movie)
1982
Cosmic Princess (TV Movie)
Alone in the Dark
1983
Trial by Terror
The Being
1984
Access Code
1985
Treasure Island
1986
Kung Fu: The Movie (TV Movie)
1987
Run If You Can
W.A.R.: Women Against Rape
Delta Fever
Cyclone
The Return of the Six-Million-Dollar
Man and the Bionic Woman (TV Movie)
Sweet Revenge
Empire State
1989
The Neon Empire (TV Movie)
Crimes and Misdemeanors
Paint It Black
Tucker: The Man and His Dream
1990
Real Bullets
By Dawn's Early Light (TV Movie)
Max and Helen (TV Movie)
1991
Firehead
Secrets of the Unknown (TV Movie)
1992
No Place to Hide
Mistress
Legacy of Lies (TV Movie)
Something to Live for: The Alison Gertz Story
(TV Movie)
Landau
was born in Brooklyn, New York on June 20th, 1928, the son of Selma
and Morris Landau. His family was Jewish and his father, an Austrian
born machinist, scrambled to rescue relatives from the Nazis. He
attended James Madison High School and the Pratt Institute before
finding full-time work as a cartoonist at the age of 17 for the Daily
News where he illustrated the Billy Rose column "Pitching
Horseshoes" and also assisted Gus Edson on the comic strip The
Gumps during the 1940s and 1950s, eventually drawing the "Sunday
strip" for Edson. Some sources confuse him with comic book
artist Kenneth Landau, and incorrectly claim that he drew for comic
books using the name Ken Landau as a pseudonym. At 22, he quit the
Daily News to concentrate on theater acting.
Influenced
by Charlie Chaplin and the escapism of the cinema, Landau pursued an
acting career. He attended the Actors Studio, becoming good friends
with James Dean, and was later in the same class as Steve McQueen.
Landau's
role of master of disguise Rollin Hand no Mission: Impossible,
becoming one of the television's better-known and popular characters.
According to The Complete Mission: Impossible Dossier by Patrick J.
White (Avon Books, 1991), Landau at first declined to be contracted
by the show because he did not want it to interfere with his film
career; instead, he was credited for "special guest
appearances" during the first season. His character, Rollin
Hand, was supposed to make occasional, though recurring appearances
but when the producers had problems with star Steven Hill, Landau was
used to take up the slack. He became a "full-time" cast
member in the second season, although the studio agreed (with
Landau's consent) to contract him only on a year-by-year basis rather
than the then-standard five years. The role of Hand required Landau
to perform a wide range of accents and characters, from dictators to
thugs, and several episodes had him playing dual roles - not only
Hand's impersonation, but also the person whom Hand is impersonating.
Landau co-starred in the series with his then wife, Barbara Bain.
Landau received Emmy nominations as Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama
Series for each of the three seasons he appeared. In 1968, he won the
Golden Globe award as Best Male TV Star.
Landau's
career renaissance got off to a slow start with a recurring role in
the NBC sitcom Buffalo Bill (1983), starring Dabney Coleman. On
Broadway, he took over the title role in the revival of
"Dracula" and went on the road with the national touring
company. Landau made a career comeback when Francis Ford Coppola cast
him in a critical supporting role in his Tucker: The Man and His
Dream (1988), for which Landau was nominated for an Academy Award as
Best Supporting Actor. He won his second Golden Globe for the role.
The next year, he received his second consecutive Best Supporting
Actor Oscar nomination for his superb turn as the adulterous husband
in Woody Allen's Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989 left). He followed
this up by playing famed Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal in the TNT
movie Max and Helen (1990).
Encouraged
by his own mentor, Lee Strasberg, Landau has also taught acting.
Actors coached by him include Jack Nicholson and Anjelica Huston. In
2009, Landau and his Actors Studio colleagues, director Mark Rydell
and writer Lyle Kessler, collaborated to produce the educational
Total Picture Seminar, a two-day event covering the disciplines of
acting, directing and writing for film.
