Marty Feldman

Biography: A stage performer in the '50s, Feldman began writing comedy for British radio by the end of the decade, and by the late '60s was writing and acting in television (broadcast in the States as The Marty Feldman Comedy Machine in 1972). Adept at both physical and verbal comedy, blessed with a whimsical face and surreal pop eyes, Feldman debuted in films in 1969 with Richard Lester's satire of post-apocalyptic England, The Bed Sitting Room. In the '70s he scored in Mel Brooks' Young Frankenstein and Silent Movie, and was Watson to Gene Wilder's Holmes in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother. By the end of the decade Feldman was co-scripting and directing his own films, The Last Remake of Beau Geste and In God We Trust. In the '80s Feldman played supporting roles in the pirate spoof Yellowbeard and Steven Paul's Kurt Vonnegut adaptation Slapstick (Of Another Kind), starring Jerry Lewis.