Martin Landau Net Worth

Martin Landau's Quotes

• The bottom line is a good actor can play many things.
• What I do best, what I've always done best, is act.
• Let's say I'm playing a heavy. Most of the time I'm only using a sliver of what I am, a little piece. Sometimes the more you embellish that, the worse it can be. The part's just not there.
• [when asked about his experiences while making No Place to Hide (1992)] WHY would you want to know about THAT film!?
• [talking about making Without Warning (1980)] Greydon Clark [the film's director] is a godsend. He believed in me--not just in ME, I mean, but in a lot of us aging near-burnouts who'd had our day in the fickle major leagues--and he offered roles that were neither demeaning, like I'd seen happen to Lon Chaney Jr. with some of those low-budget guys, nor otherwise false. Just working-actor stuff, meaty bits of business that allowed us to slice the ham as thick as we wanted. In fact, Francis Ford Coppola told me that he had sought me out for Tucker: The Man and His Dream (1988) in light of that over-the-top stuff I had done for Greydon Clark. It served notice that I still had the chops.

Interesting Facts about Martin Landau

1. Father, with Barbara Bain, of daughters Susan Landau Finch and Juliet Landau.
2. Of the 2,000 performers who auditioned for Lee Strasberg's Actors Studio (1955), only two were accepted: Steve McQueen and Landau. Landau later starred with McQueen in Nevada Smith (1966).
3. Friends with James Dean, when Landau first meet Steve McQueen and McQueen said he knew him, he asked where they had meet. McQueen informed him he had seen Landau riding into the New York City garage where he worked as a mechanic on the back of Dean's motorcycle.
4. Received two of his three Academy Award nominations for portraying real-life people.
5. From 1948-1953, he made a living as a newspaper artist and staff cartoonist for the New York Daily News, as an illustrator for Billy Rose's "Pitching Horseshoes" newspaper column and as an assistant cartoonist to Gus Edson for "The Gumps" comic strip.
6. Had turned down the role of Carl Grissom in Batman (1989). The role eventually went to Jack Palance, with whom Landau had co-starred in Alone in the Dark (1982).
7. Best remembered by the public for his role as Rollin Hand on Mission: Impossible (1966).
8. Was named as "King of Brooklyn" at the Welcome Back to Brooklyn Festival (1992).
9. Father-in-law of Roy Finch.
10. Made guest appearances on both The Twilight Zone (1959) and The Twilight Zone (1985).
11. Landau's parents were Majer Joel ("Morris") Landau (1888-1970) and Selma Buchman (1889-1958) were immigrants from Austrlia. They also had two daughters, Elinor and Constance. Father was a machinist for a sewing machine company.
12. Was godfather to Gretchen Becker's son, Dylan Becker.
13. While at the Actors Studio, he became close to Marilyn Monroe.
14. He appeared at the Beverly Hills (CA) International Film Festival (2005).
15. Bore a slight resemblance to Peter Graves, who starred in Mission: Impossible (1966) with him.
16. He was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6801 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California on December 17, 2001.
17. Star Trek (1966) fans have argued about whether or not Landau was offered the role of Spock. (It became a widespread idea largely because Leonard Nimoy replaced him on Mission: Impossible (1966).) However, in one book Landau wrote and on PBS's Pioneers of Television (2008), Landau confirmed the offer.
18. He appeared in one film nominated for Best Picture Academy Award: Cleopatra (1963).
19. Attended and graduated from James Madison High School in Brooklyn, New York City (1946).
20. One day while working as a staff cartoonist on the New York Daily News, he just quit then a little later showed up at the stage door of an off-Broadway theatre asking for work, and was taken on.