Martin Landau Biography

Oscar award-winning actor, Martin Landau, well known for his work in the films and TV series such as ‘Ed Wood’, Mission: Impossible and Tucker: The Man and His Dream. From 1995 to 2017, he had won and nominated for several awards such as Golden Globe Awards, Academy Awards, Emmy Awards and much more.

The veteran actor passed away at the age of 89, on 15th July 2017, following a short hospitalization at UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles. He was married to actress Barbara Bain, but their marriage relationship did not work out and divorced in the year 1993. They had two daughters named Susie and Juliet.

Martin Landau Early Life & Education

Landau was born on 20th June 1928, in Brooklyn, New York to Selma and Morris Landau. His family was Jewish; his father, an Austrian-born machinist, scrambled to rescue relatives from the Nazis.

Since his childhood, he desired to be an actor. After graduating from Brooklyn’s James Madison High School, Landau went to attend at the Pratt Institute and the Art Students League.

At the age of 17, Landau worked as a cartoonist and illustrator in the New York Daily News. He made the switch to acting in his early twenties. As Landau told to Back Stage West, “I was being groomed to be the next theater cartoonist. But when I looked around the office and saw guys 30 and 40 years my senior doing exactly what I was doing … .I knew this wasn’t for me.”

Martin Landau Acting Career

At the around mid-1950s, Landau gained a coveted spot to train at the Actors Studio in New York City. He became one of two actors accepted at the time; the other new member was Steve McQueen.

Through the Actors Studio, Landau set his craft under the supervision of Lee Strasberg and Elia Kazan among others. He later became an instructor at the studio and had served as the co-creative director of the program’s West Coast branch for many years.

In 1957, Landau landed his first major role with the help of Paddy Chayefsky, who urged the young actor for a touring production of his play ‘Middle of the Night.’ After that tour, Landau appeared some television work.

Landau made the leap to the big screen in 1959, appearing in the war drama Pork Chop Hill with Gregory Peck. That same year, Landau played a killer in Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest, starring Cary Grant.

Landau had a career breakthrough with the television spy drama “Mission: Impossible” in 1966. He played master of deception Rollin Hand on the popular series, which also highlighted his wife, Barbara Bain and Peter Graves.

Landau seemed in many other television shows containing, The Untouchables, Bonanza, Gunsmoke, Maverick, Wanted: Dead or Alive, Wagon Train, I Spy, and The Man From U.N.C.L.E. One television role Landau turned down was Mr. Spock on the series Star Trek, which was famously portrayed by Leonard Nimoy.

Ed Wood

Proceeding Space: 1999, Landau resembled in some lackluster Tv projects and films. His profession looked at an all-time low in 1981, during which time he seemed in a role in the TV movie The Harlem Globetrotters on Gillian’s Island. By the end of the 1980s, however, Landau had re-established himself as a serious actor.

He got back-to-back Academy Award nominations, in 1988 and 1989, for his work on Francis Ford Coppola’s Tucker: The Man and His Dream and Woody Allen’s Crimes and Misdemeanors.

Landau ultimately took home an Oscar in 1994, for his portrayal of actor Bela Lugosi in Tim Burton’s Ed Wood. Johnny Depp appeared as famed director Ed Wood. Landau continued to work with Burton on films including Sleepy Hollow (1999) and Frankenweenie (2012). His current films include Lovely, Still (2010), Remember (2015), The Red Maple Leaf (2016).

Martin Landau Married, Wife, Affairs, Divorce, Death

Landau was married to actress Barbara Bain on 31st January 1957, but their marriage relationship did not work out and divorced in the year 1993. They had two daughters named Susie and Juliet.

After his divorce with his wife, Bain, he was linked with Gretchen Becker from 1990 – 2017. He also had an affair with Marilyn Monroe for a time, and he was also a friend of another Hollywood icon James Dean. At the age of 89, the veteran star died on 15th July 2017, following a brief hospitalization at UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles.

Martin Landau Net Worth, Income, Earning, Salary

The prominent actor was awarded by several awards such as Golden Globe Award, Academy Award, Golden Globe Award and nominated for several awards. Martin has earned a good sum of money in his career. He has featured in several movies and TV series through which he obtains a decent sum of money as salary.

Allocating information from several sources as of 2018, it is estimated that his current net worth is around $10 million.

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