Martin Landau - Definition and Overview

Martin Landau (born June 20, 1931) is an American film and television actor. He is perhaps most well known for his roles in the television series Mission: Impossible (1966 - 1969) and Space: 1999 (1975 - 1977).

Biography

Landau was born in Brooklyn, New York, and at the age of 17 began working as a cartoonist for the New York Daily News, but influenced by Charlie Chaplin and the escapism of the cinema, he pursued becoming an actor. He attended the Actor's Studio in the same class with Steve McQueen and in 1957, Landau made his Broadway debut in Middle of the Night. Encouraged by his mentor Lee Strasberg, Landau also taught acting. Some of the actors he has coached include Jack Nicholson and Anjelica Huston.

After his successes in Mission: Impossible and Space: 1999, Landau moved on to a fruitful film career which included an Academy Award winning role as Bela Lugosi in Ed Wood. He was also nominated for Oscars for his roles in Tucker and Crimes and Misdemeanors.

He has two daughters, Susan and Juliet, from his marriage to Space: 1999 (and Mission Impossible) co-star Barbara Bain. Landau and Bain married in 1957 and divorced in 1993.

Selected TV

Barbara Bain (left), Catherine Schell Martin Landau in Space: 1999 (1976).

• Mission: Impossible (1966-69) TV Series
• Space: 1999 (1975-77) TV Series
• The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan's Island (1981)
• By Dawn's Early Light (1990)
• (1999)

Selected films

• Pork Chop Hill (1959)
• North by Northwest (1959)
• Cleopatra (1963)
• The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965)
• They Call Me MISTER Tibbs! (1970)
• The Fall of the House of Usher (1982)
• Tucker: The Man and His Dream (1988)
• Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989)
• Sliver (1993)
• Eye of the Stranger (1993)
• Intersection (1994)
• Ed Wood (1994) (Academy Award winner, Best Supporting Actor)
• The X Files (1998)
• Rounders (1998)
• The Joyriders (1999)
• Sleepy Hollow (1999)
• The Majestic (2001)
• Hollywood Homicide (2003)

External links

• Martin Landau (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001445/) at the Internet Movie Database