Martin Landau

American actor

Written by Pat Bauer

Fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Last Updated: Apr 16, 2025 • Article History

Quick Facts

Born:: June 20, 1928, Brooklyn, New York, U.S.

Died:: July 15, 2017, Los Angeles, California (aged 89)

Awards And Honors:: Golden Globe Award (1995); Academy Award (1995); Golden Globe Award (1989); Golden Globe Award (1968); Academy Award (1995): Actor in a Supporting Role; Golden Globe Award (1995): Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture; Golden Globe Award (1989): Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture; Golden Globe Award (1968): Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series

Married To:: Barbara Bain (1957–1993)

Movies/Tv Shows (Acted In):: "The Elevator" (1996); "Sweet Revenge" (1987); "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" (1987); "Outlaws" (1961); "Ready to Rumble" (2000); "The Wild Wild West" (1965); "The Great War and the Shaping of the 20th Century" (1996); "The Twilight Zone" (1985); "Lovely, Still" (2008); "Billy: The Early Years" (2008); "Spider-Man" (1995–1996); "Real Bullets" (1988); "The Aryan Couple" (2004); "Wagon Train" (1960); "Rawhide" (1959); "The Islanders" (1960); "Bonanza" (1961); "The Alfred Hitchcock Hour" (1964); "Space: 1999" (1975–1977); "No Place to Hide" (1992); "They Call Me Mister Tibbs!" (1970); "The Goldbergs" (1953); "Love Made Easy" (2006); "Rounders" (1998); "Carlo's Wake" (1999); "Eye of the Stranger" (1993); "Delta Fever" (1987); "The Detectives" (1961); "Adventures in Paradise" (1960–1961); "Meteor" (1979); "The Commission" (2003); "Remembering Nigel" (2015); "Schlitz Playhouse of Stars" (1958); "Playhouse 90" (1959); "The Big Valley" (1965); "The Walter Winchell File" (1958); "The Simpsons" (2011); "General Electric Theater" (1959); "Time Is Money" (1994); "The Untouchables" (1959–1961); "Harbormaster" (1957); "The Tall Man" (1961–1962); "Tales of Wells Fargo" (1959); "Matt Houston" (1983); "Entourage" (2006–2008); "The Rifleman" (1961); "The Twilight Zone" (1959–1964); "A Man Called Shenandoah" (1965); "Access Code" (1984); "W.A.R.: Women Against Rape" (1987); "Stagecoach to Dancers' Rock" (1962); "Wanted: Dead or Alive" (1960); "City Hall" (1996); "The Being" (1983); "Ivory" (2010); "The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters" (1963); "The X Files" (1998); "The Greatest Story Ever Told" (1965); "Sliver" (1993); "The Majestic" (2001); "In Plain Sight" (2009); "Without Ward" (2017); "Intersection" (1994); "Crimes and Misdemeanors" (1989); "Cyclone" (1987); "Trial by Terror" (1983); "The New Adventures of Pinocchio" (1999); "Without Warning" (1980); "Mistress" (1992); "David & Fatima" (2008); "Buffalo Bill" (1984); "The Adventures of Pinocchio" (1996); "Tate" (1960); "Hotel" (1983); "Armstrong Circle Theatre" (1956); "Without a Trace" (2004–2009); "Ed Wood" (1994); "Legend of the Spirit Dog" (1997); "Run If You Can" (1988); "The Man from U.N.C.L.E." (1966); "Hollywood Homicide" (2003); "Nevada Smith" (1966); "Omnibus" (1955); "The Best of the Post" (1961); "Blacke's Magic" (1986); "Gunsmoke" (1958–1966); "The Hallelujah Trail" (1965); "Rosolino Paternò, soldato..." (1970); "Lawman" (1958); "Mr. Novak" (1963–1965); "A Town Called Bastard" (1971); "Mission: Impossible" (1966–1969); "Edtv" (1999); "North by Northwest" (1959); "Cleopatra" (1963); "Checkmate" (1960–1961); "The Last Word" (1979); "Tucker: The Man and His Dream" (1988); "The Law and Mr. Jones" (1961); "The Big Story" (1957); "Empire State" (1987); "The Greatest Show on Earth" (1964); "Firehead" (1991); "Johnny Ringo" (1960); "The Red Maple Leaf" (2016); "Shirley Temple's Storybook" (1960); "Pork Chop Hill" (1959); "B*A*P*S" (1997); "The Joyriders" (1999); "In the Beginning" (2000); "Branded" (1966); "The Lawless Years" (1959); "The Gazebo" (1959); "Wake" (2003); "Very Mean Men" (2000); "Treasure Island" (1985); "Black Gunn" (1972); "Murder, She Wrote" (1984); "Paint It Black" (1989); "Maverick" (1958); "Shiner" (2000); "Columbo" (1973); "The Evidence" (2006); "Decision at Midnight" (1963); "9" (2009); "I Spy" (1965); "Una Magnum Special per Tony Saitta" (1976); "The Defenders" (1964); "Harrison Montgomery" (2008); "Sugarfoot" (1958); "The Color of Evening" (1990); "Joseph" (1995); "Abe & Phil's Last Poker Game" (2017); "The Return" (1980); "An Existential Affair" (2006); "City of Ember" (2008); "Mysteria" (2011); "Alone in the Dark" (1982); "Entourage" (2015); "Frankenweenie" (2012); "The Outer Limits" (1963–1964); "Johnny Staccato" (1959); "Remember" (2015)

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Martin Landau (born June 20, 1928, Brooklyn, New York, U.S.—died July 15, 2017, Los Angeles, California) was an American character actor who had a lengthy and prolific career, often playing unsettling villains, and found his greatest successes later in life.

Landau began working as a staff cartoonist for the New York Daily News when he was 17 years of age, a job he held for about five years before deciding on a career as an actor. He worked in summer stock in New England, and in 1955 he was accepted into the Actors Studio, where he studied under Lee Strasberg, Elia Kazan, and Harold Clurman. In 1957 Landau was cast in the touring production of Paddy Chayefsky’s play Middle of the Night, and he also appeared during the 1950s on such television shows as Armstrong Circle Theatre and Schlitz Playhouse as well as The Big Story, Maverick, and Rawhide.

He made his film debut in the war picture Pork Chop Hill (1959). He won notice for his menacing portrayal of the villain’s henchman in Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest (1959). Landau maintained a thriving career playing guest parts on TV shows punctuated with occasional movie roles. He played a Roman general in Cleopatra (1963) and Caiaphas in The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965), and he turned in a comic performance as Chief Walks-Stooped-Over in The Hallelujah Trail (1965). Landau’s role as Rollin Hand, a master of disguise, in the popular TV series Mission: Impossible (1966–73) brought him widespread recognition and three Emmy Award nominations (1966–69), as well as a Golden Globe Award (1968). He left the series after the first three seasons, however.

Empty movie theater and blank screen (theatre, motion pictures, cinema).

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Oscar-Worthy Movie Trivia

Landau’s career lagged in the wake of his leaving Mission: Impossible. He played a preacher and murder suspect in They Call Me Mister Tibbs! (1970) and starred in the TV movie Welcome Home, Johnny Bristol (1972), and he co-starred in the British sci-fi TV series Space: 1999 (1975–77). After that he appeared mostly in minor or straight-to-DVD films and in occasional guest roles on TV shows, and in 1984–85 he took the title part in a touring production of the Broadway play Dracula. A career turning point came when Francis Ford Coppola cast Landau in the role of a supportive venture capitalist in his biopic Tucker: The Man and His Dream (1988). Landau’s performance earned him a Golden Globe Award and a nomination for an Academy Award for best supporting actor. He was nominated again for an Oscar for his portrayal of a prominent ophthalmologist who has his mistress murdered in Woody Allen’s Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989). Landau later portrayed Simon Wiesenthal in the TV movie Max and Helen (1990). Landau’s performance as depressed drug-addicted former horror movie star Bela Lugosi in Tim Burton’s film Ed Wood (1994), starring Johnny Depp as the title low-budget film director, earned him both the Golden Globe Award and the Oscar for best supporting actor.

Landau voiced U.S. President Woodrow Wilson in the TV miniseries 1914–1918 (1996). His later roles included a law professor in Rounders (1998), a former movie theatre owner who believes his deceased son has returned in The Majestic (2001), a science teacher (a voice part) in Burton’s Frankenweenie (2012), and an elderly Holocaust survivor in Remember (2015). In addition, he had a recurring role on the TV series Without a Trace (2002–09), for which he was twice (2004 and 2005) nominated for Emmy Awards, and he received another Emmy nomination (2007) for a guest appearance on Entourage (2004–11).

Pat Bauer