Before he picked-up a well-deserved Oscar for portraying Bela Lugosi in Tim Burton's Ed Wood (1994), actor Martin Landau starred and guest-starred in a number of cult-TV series. I appreciate many aspects of Landau's fine work across the years on television, but I've especially admired the fact that he is a leading actor who is totally unafraid to go under heavy-make-up for the demands of a specific role. Even when "carrying" a series as the "romantic" leading man, you still find Landau beneath the latex, in disguise, wearing wigs, and crafting these highly individual, memorable performances. In a word, he's incredible. How many specific roles/episode titles can you name here?
The creepy Leonard in North by Northwest always pops into my head when I think of him. And the way James Mason said "Leonard" was just too wonderful.
ReplyDelete2. 1999 and twiglight zone, ep. 3. what are the rest? thx.
ReplyDeleteThat Neil Guy: I totally agree, Landau was amazing (and creepy) in North by Northwest. He's also very good -- in a chilling sort of way -- in Woody Allen's Crimes & Misdemeanors.
ReplyDeleteClaudio: Twilight Episode 3 is the first picture, yes. "Mr. Denton on Doomsday."
Let's see who can identify the rest....
best,
JKM
I recently watched the new Blu-ray Disc of North by Northwest (great sharp print BTW) and his "Leonard" stood out, as usual. I especially thought it was great that he played such cads in film (remember him as the bad guy with the knife in NEVADA SMITH?) and TV, but moved so effortlessly into the versatile hero role with MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE. My annual Halloween run of films always includes SLEEPY HOLLOW and his brief early cameo there is just so much fun. Thanks for highlighting him today, John.
ReplyDeleteI believe the second picture is from The Outer Limits, and six, seven, and eight all look like Space: 1999, but I'll be darned if I can think of the episode titles off the top of my head.
ReplyDelete#6) Space 1999, season 1, although there isn't a lot to go on by the picture alone. I'll make a stab and say Breakaway
ReplyDelete#7) Black Sun
#8) The Full Circle
Dave Starry: You got The Outer Limits (number 2), but how about episode title? :)
ReplyDeleteAnd Meredith, you nailed all three Space:1999 photos, right down to Breakaway!
Nice job to you both!
best,
JKM
Hey everyone, Le0pard 13 did a great job, and guessed the name of the Outer Limits episode (I had problem with commenting here on blogger). He correctly guessed it was titled "The Man who was never Born!"
ReplyDeleteGood job, my friend!
Best,
JKM
I'm going to add for the submission of the TV-Movie hybrid X-Files movie (which was one of the first of it's kind next to Trek and Police Squad, sort of)! He was awesome in that!
ReplyDeleteI agree that his work was worthy of an Oscar at some point, but not for that performance, that year. Another nominee who lost against him was Samual Jackson in Pulp Fiction.
ReplyDeleteWatch the two movies one after the other and try to say that Landau's wonderful Lugosi is a more stunning performance than Jules' conversion to "the path of the righteous man."
It was a sentimental choice, not a deserved one, imho