# RIP Martin Landau **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 17, 2017, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-martin-landau/791453 "2017-07-17T01:12:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2017, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-martin-landau/791453/1 "2017-07-17T01:12:37Z")
On the same day as George Romero… [Martin Landau, Oscar Winner for ‘Ed Wood,’ Dies at 89](http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/martin-landau-dead-ed-wood-811318) ☹ ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2017, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-martin-landau/791453/2 "2017-07-17T01:14:25Z")
Mission: Impossible, Space 1999, (And he was almost Spock.) ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2017, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-martin-landau/791453/3 "2017-07-17T01:15:23Z")
Are they sure it’s him? RIP ---
**Author:** ![neofishboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/neofishboy/32/444_2.png) [@neofishboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/neofishboy)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2017, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-martin-landau/791453/4 "2017-07-17T01:17:35Z")
He would have made a great Spock. His Lugosi was sublime. RIP. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2017, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-martin-landau/791453/5 "2017-07-17T01:29:44Z")
Superb in every single role he played. RIP. ---
**Author:** ![not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/not_what_you_d_expect/32/3246_2.png) [@not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/not_what_you_d_expect)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2017, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-martin-landau/791453/6 "2017-07-17T01:35:42Z")
Such a fine actor. May he rest in peace. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2017, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-martin-landau/791453/7 "2017-07-17T01:52:29Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > Superb in every single role he played. RIP. So true. _Crimes and Misdemeanors_, e.g. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2017, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-martin-landau/791453/8 "2017-07-17T02:02:27Z")
Well, maybe not [all](http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x54wbs1)… 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2017, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-martin-landau/791453/9 "2017-07-17T02:02:30Z")
Is it bad that I thought he was already dead? RIP ---
**Author:** ![Sefton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Sefton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sefton)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2017, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-martin-landau/791453/10 "2017-07-17T03:12:01Z")
He was in one of my favorite [Twilight Zone](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Jeopardy_Room) episodes. RIP ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2017, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-martin-landau/791453/11 "2017-07-17T03:30:22Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Is it bad that I thought he was already dead? > > RIP That’s what I was going to post, I thought he died a while ago. But now I think I was thinking about Walter Matthau. ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2017, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-martin-landau/791453/12 "2017-07-17T03:43:00Z")
JKellyMap wrote: "Well, maybe not all… " Hey, even, in a stinker he’d put in a good performance. He earned his money, even if he must have needed it _really_ badly to have done _that_. Let me be the first to mention Outer Limits: “The Man who was Never Born.” I always liked his Roofs too. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2017, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-martin-landau/791453/13 "2017-07-17T04:54:08Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Is it bad that I thought he was already dead? > > RIP > [@Skammer](#): > > That’s what I was going to post, I thought he died a while ago. Me too! I swear I thought he’d died a long time ago. RIP, Marty. We hardly knew ye. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2017, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-martin-landau/791453/14 "2017-07-17T05:02:12Z")
He started as a cartoonist for the NY Daily News. [https://www.google.com/amp/www.nydailynews.com/amp/entertainment/martin-landau-job-daily-news-cartoonist-article-1.3331390](https://www.google.com/amp/www.nydailynews.com/amp/entertainment/martin-landau-job-daily-news-cartoonist-article-1.3331390) I always think of him with his ex wife Barbara Bain. They were quite a team on Mission Impossible. I checked and she’s still alive, 85 years old. Landau had so many great roles. RIP ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2017, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-martin-landau/791453/15 "2017-07-17T05:09:38Z")
I really like this clip of Martin and Barbara. They aren’t singers. Their acting chops makes it work. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/Tzemosz3lmo/hqdefault.jpg "Barbara Bain & Martin Landau singing When We Were Small") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tzemosz3lmo) ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2017, 11:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-martin-landau/791453/16 "2017-07-17T11:05:50Z")
> [@E-DUB](#): > > JKellyMap wrote: "Well, maybe not all… " > > Hey, even, in a stinker he’d put in a good performance. He earned his money, even if he must have needed it _really_ badly to have done _that_. > > Let me be the first to mention Outer Limits: “The Man who was Never Born.” > > I always liked his Roofs too. Glad to hear this! I suspected as much, but wasn’t about to verify it by adding “Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan’s Island” to my Netflix queue. _Space 1999_ was the first non-kiddie TV show I ever watched, and Landau’s acting made a permanent impression on me even as a six-year-old. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2017, 11:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-martin-landau/791453/17 "2017-07-17T11:23:45Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > _Space 1999_ was the first non-kiddie TV show I ever watched, and Landau’s acting made a permanent impression on me even as a six-year-old. The first thing I ever saw him in was a _Columbo_ episode where, for once, our hero can’t tell whether he’s trying to trip up the obvious murder suspect or whether he’s pestering an innocent man who wasn’t even there: Landau is playful or he’s angrily ranting or he’s relaxed and matter-of-fact or he’s showy and theatrical like a TV star; and none of that works unless you _also_ buy him as a guy who could’ve killed someone in cold blood, but he of course manages to sell _that_ possibility. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2017, 11:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-martin-landau/791453/18 "2017-07-17T11:24:42Z")
He was also Leonard, James Mason’s henchman, in Alfred Hitchcock’s **North by Northwest** , who almost kills Cary Grant’s Roger Thornhill by stepping on his fingers as he hangs off Mount Rushmore. A long and interesting career. When he appeared as Bela Lusosi in _Ed Wood_, I had a vision of Peter Graves as Jim Phelps telling Master of Disguise Landau as Rollin Hand: “For this next assignment, you’re going to have to look like Bela Lugosi…” (It’s interesting, in light of his almost getting the Spock role that he was replaced on Mission Impossible as Master of Disguise by Leonard Nimoy) ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2017, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-martin-landau/791453/19 "2017-07-17T16:12:23Z")
“Karloff? Sidekick? FUCK YOU! Karloff does not deserve to smell my SHIT! That Limey cocksucker can rot in hell for all I care!” 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2017, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-martin-landau/791453/20 "2017-07-17T20:49:05Z")
[quote=“CalMeacham, post:18, topic:791453”] He was also Leonard, James Mason’s henchman, in Alfred Hitchcock’s **North by Northwest** , who almost kills Cary Grant’s Roger Thornhill by stepping on his fingers as he hangs off Mount Rushmore. CNN says he was [sinister gay henchman](http://www.msn.com/en-us/movies/top/category/ar-BBEyVCI). > [@](#): > > His greatest successes (three Oscar nominations and one win) came later in life when he returned to character roles like the one that first won him notice, as James Mason’s sinister gay henchman in Alfred Hitchcock’s “North by Northwest.” The character was gay? I do not remember sexual orientation being mentioned. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-martin-landau/791453.md?page=2)