It was confirmed by his publicist Dick Guttman that the widely known character actor Martin Landau, passed on Sunday due to complications during a short stay at UCLA Medical Center.
Landau is know for his Oscar award winning role as Bela Lugosi in 1994’s “Ed Wood,” and as Rollin Hand in “Mission; Impossible,” along with an extensive career in the film industry.
With seven decades of performances under his belt, Landau made a name for himself as a chameleon amongst men due to his ability to transform into a role.
If his face seems to ring a bell, most American students remember Landau from his 1963 performance as Rufio in Cleopatra. If not maybe you remember him from the late night reruns of Gilligans Islands when he played J.J Pierson.
His career was full of many ups and down’s as he played a broad variety of characters in the work that he could get. At one point almost no one would even hire him because they wanted a ‘fresh face,” multiple agents had even told him that his previous works were lost in time.
“It was frustrating. I knew what I was able to do, I was at the height of my powers but no one was giving me the chance.”
While it did take him some time to be appreciated as an actor, his first oscar nomination came after a decade long break from his acting career for the biographial comedy drama “Tucker: The Man And His Dream,” in which he played opposite Jeff Bridges as New York financier Abe Karatz.
As amazing and dedicated of an actor Landau was, he still found time to enjoy life in his youth as an aspiring actor. With his best friend James Dean, they both took Hollywood by storm with their charm. Sadly Dean’s death in 1955 caused Landau to step back from the fast pace he was accustomed to.
He also had a relationship with Hollywood boomshell Marilyn Monroe, he often talked about how difficult it was to date her with all of her insecurities with her appearance and their relationship.
“It was exhausting; but then at other times she could be wonderful; she was bright, intuitively bright . . . [but] I found her too complicated, complicated to the point I couldn’t hack it.”
It seems as though Martin Landau had more drive than most of us could even hope for in life, becaming a household name against the odds and brought smiles to all of our faces with his work.
Best wishes to his family in their time of mourning.
