Martin Landau

Martin Landau (June 20, 1928 – July 15, 2017) was an American actor renowned for his versatile performances across film and television, particularly his Academy Award-winning role as Bela Lugosi in Ed Wood (1994).

Born in Brooklyn, New York, to Jewish parents Morris Landau, an Austrian-born machinist, and Selma (née Buchman) Landau, he grew up immersed in cinema, idolizing Charlie Chaplin from an early age. After attending James Madison High School and briefly studying art at Pratt Institute, Landau forwent a promising career as an editorial cartoonist—having been hired by the New York Daily News at age 17—to pursue acting in 1955.

Landau's stage debut came on Broadway in 1957 with Paddy Chayefsky's Middle of the Night, marking the start of his professional career. He transitioned to film in 1959, appearing in supporting roles such as the henchman Leonard in Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest and Lt. Marshall in Pork Chop Hill. His television breakthrough arrived with the role of master-of-disguise Rollin Hand on Mission: Impossible (1966–1969), for which he earned three consecutive Emmy nominations; he co-starred alongside his wife, Barbara Bain, whom he married in 1957 and with whom he had two daughters, actress Juliet Landau and director Susan Landau.

Following a career lull in the 1970s and early 1980s, Landau experienced a remarkable resurgence later in life, earning consecutive Academy Award nominations for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayals of Abe Karatz in Francis Ford Coppola's Tucker: The Man and His Dream (1988) at the 61st Oscars and Judah Rosenthal in Woody Allen's Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989) at the 62nd Oscars. His transformative performance as the aging, morphine-addicted Lugosi in Tim Burton's Ed Wood secured him the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, along with a Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Award, at the 67th Oscars in 1995.

Beyond acting, Landau was an influential figure in the craft, co-founding the Actors Studio West in 1966 and serving as its artistic director, where he mentored talents including Jack Nicholson and Anjelica Huston; he also received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1990. Landau continued working into his later years, appearing in films like The Majestic (2001) and voicing roles in animated projects, until his death from hypovolemic shock due to internal bleeding in Los Angeles at age 89.