Martin Landau

Biography: A star of both big and small screens, Martin Landau worked for a time as a cartoonist for the New York Daily News. After attending New York City's famed Actors' Studio, where he counted James Dean among his close friends, he landed major supporting roles in such movies as North by Northwest (1959), as James Mason's henchman who stalks Cary Grant) and Cleopatra (1963, as Rufio). He found fame as a costar of TV's Mission: Impossible (1966-69) and Space: 1999 (1975-77), both of which teamed him with his then real-life wife Barbara Bain.

From the late 1970s through the mid 1980s, Landau worked mainly as an acting teacher, while onscreen he was mired in low-budget genre films (including 1980s Without Warning, a career low), until a juicy supporting role as Jeff Bridges' unlikely partner Abe Karatz in Tucker: The Man and His Dream (1988 ) earned him an Oscar nomination and renewed attention. Woody Allen gave him a prime leading part as an amoral married man who has his mistress killed in Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989), which merited another Oscar nomination. But this being show business, Landau continued to appear in cheapies such as Firehead (1991), Mistress (1992, as a has-been producer), Sliver (1993), and Intersection (1994). Later, Tim Burton thought of Landau for another perfect part: that of the aging Bela Lugosi in his offbeat biopic Ed Wood (1994). Landau's performance was nothing short of astonishing, and it finally earned him a well-deserved Supporting Actor Oscar. He followed with City Hall (1995).

Along with Mark Rydell, Martin Landau is executive director of the Actor's Studio's West Coast Branch.

His current role is Dr. Sol Goldman in The Evidence airing on ABC.
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