Martin Landau (1928-2017)
Tuesday, July 18, 2017 at 10:24AM 
Landau at an event honoring Tim Burton last yearWith well over 100 credits to his name no one can say that Martin Landau didn't have a fine and enduring career. But for such a fantastic talent, perhaps he remained undersung. After a brief stint as a cartoonist, he found his calling with acting and nabbed his first TV guest spots in the mid '50s. By the end of the decade he appeared in his first classic (Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest) but it wouldn't be his last. For the remainder of his long long career he toggled between TV (most notably three seasons in the mix of Mission Impossible in the 60s and leading the cult favorite Space 1999 in the 70s) and intermittent movie success.
You can't call it his late 80s/early 90s success a comeback, given that he never quit working, but it was a revival and a rediscovery...
He chased two consecutive Oscar nods (Tucker: The Man and His Dream and Crimes and Misdemeanors) with a win just a few years later (as Bela Lugosi in Tim Burton's glorious peak Ed Wood); Oscar is so often about momentum even when the performance is unarguably deserving.
the first time I saw Martin Landau was in "Space 1999" which I preferred to reruns of Star Trek because of the shapeshifting alien, pictured here with Landau)
a memorable villainous turn in Hitchcock's North by Northwest (1959)
As a young cartoonist in his 20s before he started acting 
His haunted amoral turn in Woody Allen's Criomes and Misdemeanors (1989)
With his daughter Juliet Landau (who we loved on Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Landau and James Dean were close friends and Dean loved to photograph him. The second photo is by James Dean.
"Look into my eyes"
A hearty thank you to the great Martin Landau for Ed Wood especially but so much more. His talent was thankfully immortalized on celluloid. Yet another reason we worship the preservable beauty of movies.
Further Reading
TFE Oscar Horrors: Martin Landau in Ed Wood
The Telegraph - Landau on his coded gay villain for Hitchcock
Balder & Dash - Dan Callahan on Landau as an actor
Reader Comments (8)
He should have also won for Crimes and Misdemeanors.
I second Peggy Sue. He was just perfect in Crimes and Misdemeanors, best performance by a male character in a Woody Allen film. And he should have had the Emmy for his Entourage performance. I'll surely miss him.
Yes, I agree he should have won for Crimes and Misdemeanors (though, I think, in the leading category) on top of his well-deserved win for Ed Wood. I saw him interviewed a few years ago in London and he was charming and interesting. Thanks for the article, Nathaniel.
Possibly the best Best Supporting Actor win ever.
Definitely one of the best as he's one of the main reasons why I love Crimes & Misdemeanors which remains my favorite Woody Allen film. I also enjoyed him in Ready to Rumble. Awful film that is a total misrepresentation of professional wrestling yet he's the only thing in that film that was any good.
Great actor and uniquely handsome
Great actor- and what a career from Hitchcock' villain to sci fi tv to working on a lot schlocky films until he comes back and finally wins an Oscar for "Ed Wood"
Woohoo! I remembering thinking he was quite hot in North By Northwest when I was a teenager. That cartoonist shot is stunning. He and Ezra Miller have the same eyes.