Ross Martin

Ross Martin
Martin in 1967
Born	Martin Rosenblatt March 22, 1920 Gródek, Ukraine, then Poland
Died	July 3, 1981 (aged 61) Ramona, California, U.S.
Cause of death	Heart attack
Resting place	Mount Sinai Memorial Park Cemetery
Alma mater	City College of New York George Washington University
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1951-1981
Spouse(s)	Muriel Weiss (1941-1965 (her death)) 1 daughter Olavee Parsons (1967-1981 (his death))

Ross Martin (March 22, 1920 – July 3, 1981) was a Polish American radio, voice, stage, film and television actor. Martin was known for portraying Artemus Gordon on the CBS Western series The Wild Wild West, which aired from 1965 to 1969. He was the voice of Doctor Paul Williams in 1972's Sealab 2020, additional characters in 1973's Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kids, and additional character voices in 1978's Jana of the Jungle.

Early life

Martin was born Martin Rosenblatt to a Polish Jewish family in Gródek, Poland. His family emigrated to New York when he was an infant.^[1] He spoke Polish, Yiddish and some Russian before learning English and later added French, Spanish and Italian to his repertoire.

Martin attended City College of New York where he graduated magna cum laude. He later earned a law degree from George Washington University.^[1]

Career

Despite academic training in business, instruction, and law, Martin chose a career in acting. He was partners in a comedy team with Bernie West for several years, then appeared on many radio and live TV broadcasts before making his Broadway debut in Hazel Flagg in 1953.

Martin's first film was the George Pal 1955 production Conquest of Space, followed by a brief but memorable appearance in The Colossus of New York (1958), as the scientist father of Charles Herbert. In 1959, Martin appeared in the episode "Echo" on Alcoa Presents: One Step Beyond. He appeared in two 1959 episodes of David Janssen's crime drama series, Richard Diamond, Private Detective. Soon after, he caught the eye of Blake Edwards who cast him in a number of widely varied roles; as Sal in the 1959 Peter Gunn episode "The Fuse", his breakout role as the comic sidekick Andamo in the 1959 CBS drama series Mr. Lucky, the asthmatic kidnapper Red Lynch in the 1962 thriller Experiment in Terror, culminating with a role in The Great Race, as the smoothly villainous Baron Rolfe Von Stuppe. According to co-star Stephanie Powers, Martin himself suggested that his billing in Experiment in Terror be held until the film's end, lest audiences who fondly remembered him as Andamo might not accept him in a villainous role if they knew beforehand it was him.

The Wild, Wild West

Martin as Artemus Gordon with Ann Elder in The Wild, Wild West, 1966.

Martin in 1965

After his performance in The Great Race, CBS cast Martin in what was to become his most famous part, Secret Service agent Artemus Gordon in The Wild Wild West, opposite Robert Conrad. The Artemus Gordon character was a master gadgeteer and disguise artist, and these attributes fitted Martin perfectly. Martin himself created most of his disguises for the show, and most of the cast had no idea what he would look like until seeing him during the shooting of the episode. The recent DVD release of the first season of the series includes a recently discovered pre-production sketch Martin had made of his very first make-up design for the pilot episode. Another episode revealed another of Martin's talents: he was a concert-trained violinist.

In 1968, Martin broke his leg and then suffered a near-fatal heart attack, forcing The Wild Wild West to replace him with other actors, including Charles Aidman, William Schallert and Alan Hale, Jr for nine episodes. He was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series, for the fourth and final season of The Wild Wild West. The series was cancelled in 1969 in the midst of a national controversy over violence on television.^[2]

Later career

After The Wild, Wild West ended, Martin continued his career in various guest roles on television and in roles in television films. In 1970, Martin portrayed Alexander Hamilton in the NBC television special Swing Out, Sweet Land, hosted by John Wayne. The following year, Martin tried his hand at directing. He guest starred in an episode of Columbo as a murderous art critic and also a 1971 episode of Love, American Style, which he also directed. Martin directed another episode of the series in 1973. Later that same year, he appeared as the famed Asian detective Charlie Chan in The Return of Charlie Chan. He made a guest appearance on Barnaby Jones in 1974, and also lent his voice to an episode of Wait Till Your Father Gets Home later that year.

In 1976, Martin returned to the stage as John Adams in a touring production of the musical 1776.^[3] In 1978, he did more voice work for the animated series Jana of the Jungle. He reprised the role of Artemus Gordon in two Wild, Wild West television movies: The Wild Wild West Revisited in 1979 and More Wild Wild West in 1980. He had a five-episode recurring role as kumu mobster Tony Alika on Hawaii Five-O from 1978-1979.^[4] In 1980 Martin appeared in the third season of The Love Boat as Tom Thorton.^[5] Martin's final role was in the 1983 television movie I Married Wyatt Earp. The film aired two years after his death.

Personal life

Martin married his first wife, Muriel Weiss, in 1941. They had one child together, a daughter, Phyllis Rosenblatt (a New York artist), before Weiss' death from cancer in 1965.

In 1967, Martin married Olavee Lucile Parsons (a successful model and documentary director) and adopted her two children, Rebecca (Martin) Schacht and George Martin. Martin and Parsons remained married until Martin's death in 1981. She died in 2002.

Death

On July 3, 1981, Martin suffered a fatal heart attack after a game of tennis at a club in Ramona, California.^[1] He is interred in Mount Sinai Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles, California.

TV and filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1949	Lights Out		Episode: "I Dreamt I Died"
1950	Lights Out		Episode: "A Toast to Sergeant Farnsworth"
1950	Lights Out		Episode: "The Gloves of Gino"
1951	Lights Out		Episode: "The Man with the Astrakhan Hat"
1950	Treasury Men in Action	Agent	Episode: "The Case of Lupo the Wolf"
1950	Treasury Men in Action	Agent	Episode: "The Case of the Uncovered Convict"
1950	Treasury Men in Action	Agent	Episode: "Episode #1.13"
1952	Treasury Men in Action	Agent	Episode: "The Case of the Violent Artist"
1952	Treasury Men in Action	Agent	Episode: "The Case of the Undercut Lace"
1953	Treasury Men in Action	Agent	Episode: "The Case of the Deadly Secret"
1954	Treasury Men in Action	Agent	Episode: "The Case of the Hush Money"
1951	Somerset Maugham TV Theatre		Episode: "Appearances and Reality"
1952	Goodyear Television Playhouse		Episode: "The Cipher"
1953	Suspense		Episode: "Needle in a Haystack"
1953	Suspense		Episode: "The Riddle of Mayerling"
1954	The Web		Episode: "The Hunted"
1954-56	The Big Story	William Fernandez	3 episodes
1955-57	Modern Romances'		6 episodes
1955	Conquest Of Space	Andre Fodor
1956	The Sheriff Of Cochise		Episode: "The Check Artist"
1957	The Alcoa Hour	Tony	Episode: "A Double Life"
1958	Underwater Warrior	Joe O'Brien	Movie, early frogman
1958	The Court of Last Resort	Phillip Huston	Episode: "The Phillip Huston Case"
1958	The Walter Winchell File	Buckner	Episode: "Portrait of a Cop: File #27"
1959	Naked City	Carlo	Episode: "Ten Cent Dreams" /
1959	Sea Hunt	Finch	Episode: "The Dam"
1959	Sea Hunt	USCG Captain Stevens	Episode: "The Briefcase"
1959	Steve Canyon	Aly Brahma	Episode: "Room 313"
1959-60	Mr. Lucky	Andamo	34 episodes
1960	Laramie	Angel	Episode: "A Sound of Bells"
1960	The Twilight Zone	Johnny	Episode: "The Four of Us Are Dying"
1961	The Law and Mr. Jones	Frank Brody	Episode: "The Enemy"
1961	87th Precinct	Joe Czepreghi	Episode: "Occupation: Citizen"
1962	Experiment in Terror	Garland Humphrey 'Red' Lynch
1962	Geronimo	Mangus
1963	The Twilight Zone	Lt. Ted Mason	Episode: "Death Ship"
1963	Bonanza	Nick Biancci	Episode: "Little Man... Ten Feet Tall"
1963	The Ceremony	Le Caq
1964	Vacation Playhouse	Claudie Hughes	Episode: "I and Claudie"
1965	The Man from Button Willow	Andy Svenson	Voice
1965	The Great Race	Baron Rolfe von Stuppe
1965-69	The Wild Wild West	Artemus Gordon	95 episodes
1970	The Immortals	Eddie Yoman	Episode: " White Elephants Don't Grow on Trees"
1970	Swing Out, Sweet Land	Alexander Hamilton	Television special
1971	The Sheriff	Larry Walters	Television movie
1971	Columbo	Dale Kingston	Episode: "Suitable for Framing"
1971	Night Gallery	Mr. Gingold	Episode: "Camera Obscura"
1972	The F.B.I.	George Barrows	Episode: "The Wizard"
1972	ABC Afterschool Special	Stan	Episode: "The Last of the Curlews"
1973	Tenafly	Grady Hall	Episode: "Joyride to Nowhere"
1973	Ironside	Arthur Damien	Episode: "Mind for Murder"
1973	Night Gallery	Bradley Meredith	Episode: "The Other Way Out"
1974	Skyway to Death	Martin Leonard	Television movie
1974	Barnaby Jones	Maxwell Imry	Episode: "Friends Till Death"
1975	The Invisible Man	Amb Diego Devega	Episode: "The Fine Art of Diplomacy"
1975	Ellery Queen	Dr. Otis Tremaine	Episode: " The Adventure of the Pharaoh's Curse"
1976	Gemini Man	Carl Victor	Episode: "Minotaur"
1976	Sanford and Son	Aram	Episode: "California Crude"
1977	Blansky's Beauties	Sheik Ben-Ali	Episode: "Nancy Goes Sheik"
1977	Charlie's Angels	Dr. Perine	Episode: "Unidentified Flying Angels"
1978	Quark	Zorgon the Malevolent	2 episodes "All the Emperor's Quasi-Norms, Parts 1 & 2"
1978	Vega$	Werner Worthmeyer	Episode: "Mother Mishkin"
1978-79	Hawaii Five-O	Tony Alika	5 episodes
1979	The Return of Mod Squad	Buck Prescott	Television movie
1979	The Seekers	Supply Pleasant	Television movie
1980	The Love Boat	Tom Thornton	Episode: "April's Love/Happy Ending/We Three"
1980	Fantasy Island	Ace Scanlon	Episode: "The Devil and Mandy Breem/The Millionaire"
1981	Mork & Mindy	Godfrey	Episode: "Mork and the Bum Rap"
1983	I Married Wyatt Earp	Jacob Spiegler	Television movie Released posthumously

• He also played "Sal Matzi" on "The Fuse", the January 5, 1959 episode of "Peter Gunn".

References

1. "Heart attack kill actor Martin". The Bulletin: C–6. 1981-07-06.
2. "Ross Martin, actor known for TV roles". Associated Press. July 6, 1981.
3. "Ross Martin Booked For Melody Top 1776," Milwaukee Sentinel, March 19, 1976.
4. imdb.com
5. "April's Love/Happy Ending/We Three" at the Internet Movie Database

External links

• Ross Martin at the Internet Movie Database

Ross Martin at Find a Grave

• Fan site for The Wild Wild West
• Biography of Ross Martin at wildwildwest.org
• Ross Martin Remembered -- a tribute site