It was just last year that the Malibu Film Society screened one of actor Martin Landau’s latest films, “Remember,” with a special guest appearance by the Oscar-winning actor afterward. In his audience Q&A, as well as a phone interview with The Malibu Times, he was gracious and candid.
Martin Landau died on July 15 at 1:30 p.m. at UCLA Medical Center, where he “succumbed to unexpected complications during a short hospitalization,” according to a press release. He had just celebrated his 89th birthday.
Rabbi Judith HaLevy of the Malibu Jewish Center & Synagogue (MJCS) remembered him fondly.
“I had the opportunity to connect with Martin Landau on various occasions both through the theater world and in the synagogue,” she wrote. “I will never forget his kindness and sensitivity toward his godson when he was in preschool at MJCS. Martin was always such a gentleman and a Mench.”
Landau’s long and distinguished career began on Broadway in the ‘50s and continued in movies and television up through this year. His accomplishments include an Oscar win for best supporting actor in “Ed Wood” (1994) and nominations for best supporting actor in Woody Allen’s “Crimes and Misdemeanors” (1989) and “Tucker: The Man and his Dream” (1988). He won three Golden Globe awards and was nominated for six primetime Emmy Awards. His online profile lists 177 acting credits.
Longtime Malibu resident and publicist Dick Guttman had been friends with Landau for decades in addition to representing him.
“He was the quintessential actor whose performances were fully informed by his humanity,” Guttman said in a phone interview. “He was one of the most vital, interesting and informed people. He used to do all of his interviews in our conference room. The interviews were always scheduled for a half-hour, but were never less than two hours — a perfect reflection of how fascinating he was as a human being.”
Landau, who grew up Jewish in Brooklyn, said in his 2016 phone interview that his own Austrian-born father “managed to get some of his cousins, uncles and other relatives out of Germany, Austria and Poland in the late ‘30s” before it was too late, and that made an impression on him.
In the early days of acting, Landau said he almost never played a Jew, but was often cast “as a Hispanic or Native American (like a Sioux or Apache) — things that would be politically incorrect today — on shows like “Bonanza” and “The Rifleman.”
His first movie role was in the Korea War film, “Pork Chop Hill,” with famous director Lewis Milestone. The director described Landau’s performance to Guttman as the greatest first scene of any first-time movie actor he’d seen in his career.
Landau then landed his first major film role in Alfred Hitchcock’s “North by Northwest” (1959).
He lived in Malibu from 1959 to 1961, in a house he rented from Will Rogers Jr. located between Paradise Cove and Geoffrey’s. However, he left town after accepting a role in “Cleopatra” (1963) starring Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, which took him on location shooting for a year. He never made it back to Malibu as a resident, although he said he still enjoyed visiting.
Landau may be best known for some of his work in television. In the ‘60s, he made guest appearances on “The Outer Limits” and “The Man From U.N.C.L.E.,” then went on to star in the first three seasons of “Mission: Impossible,” beginning in 1966. The show also starred his then wife, Barbara Bain. In the ‘70s, Landau starred in TV’s “Space: 1999.”
In his later years, Landau got back to his Jewish roots by narrating and appearing in several documentaries made by the Simon Wiesenthal Center films division, including “Echoes that Remain,” “The Long Way Home” and “Shanghai Ghetto.”
At the time of his interview last year, Landau said, “The thing that’s wonderful is that I’m still working.” After “Remember” wrapped, he went on to work in two other film projects, including “The Last Poker Game” with actor Paul Sorvino. Before “Remember,” he had a part in the “Entourage” movie.
Landau was also active as artistic co-director of Actors Studio West — the West Coast branch of the famed New York Actors Studio.
He is survived by two daughters, writer-producer-casting director Susan Landau Finch and Juliet Landau of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” fame, sister Elinor Schwartz, granddaughter Aria Isabel Landau Finch, godson Dylan Becker and friend Gretchen Becker.