Martin Landau died on Saturday July 15, 2024 of "unexpected complications" after a brief stay at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center. He was 89.
Born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1928, Martin Landau worked as a cartoonist for the New York Daily News before becoming an actor. In 1955, he joined the Actors Studio, where he studied with Lee Strasberg and Elia Kazan. He made his film debut in 1959 and went on to appear in Cleopatra (1963) and The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965). In 1966, Landau found fame as a cast member of the television spy drama Mission: Impossible.
In his later career, he appeared in such films as Francis Ford Coppola's Tucker: The Man and His Dream (1988), Woody Allen's Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989) and won an Academy Award for his portrayal of Bela Lugosi in Tim Burton's Ed Wood (1994).
Landau was married to actress Barbara Bain from 1957 to 1993. They had two daughters, Susie and Juliet. Before marrying Bain, Landau dated Marilyn Monroe for a time, and he was also a friend of another Hollywood icon James Dean. In addition to acting, he was artistic director of the Actors Studio, and a well respected teacher of fellow notable actors including Angelica Huston, Harry Dean Stanton and Jack Nicholson.
Tip! View Martin Landau's Filmography on IMDb.