Martin Balsam
Encyclopedia
Martin Henry Balsam was an American actor. He is known for his Oscar-winning role as "Arnold Burns" in A Thousand Clowns
and his role as "Detective Milton Arbogast" in Psycho.
, where he participated in the drama club. He studied at the Dramatic Workshop
of The New School
in New York with the influential German director Erwin Piscator
and then served in the United States Army Air Forces
during World War II
.
and Lee Strasberg
to be a player in the Actors Studio
television
program. He appeared in many other television drama series, including The Twilight Zone
(episodes "The Sixteen Millimeter Shrine" and "The New Exhibit
"), as a psychologist in the pilot episode, Five Fingers
, Target: The Corruptors!
, The Eleventh Hour
, Breaking Point, Alfred Hitchcock Presents
, The Fugitive
, and Mr. Broadway
, as a retired U.N.C.L.E. agent in The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
episode, "The Odd Man Affair", and guest starred in the two-part Murder, She Wrote
episode, "Death Stalks the Big Top".
Balsam appeared in such films as On the Waterfront
, 12 Angry Men (as Juror #1), Time Limit
, Breakfast at Tiffany's, The Carpetbaggers
, Seven Days in May
, The Anderson Tapes
, Hombre
, Catch-22
, Tora! Tora! Tora!
, Little Big Man, The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, All the President's Men
, The Delta Force
, and The Goodbye People
.
Along with Gregory Peck
and Robert Mitchum
, Martin Balsam appeared in both the original Cape Fear
(1962), and the 1991 Martin Scorsese
remake
.
In 1965, he won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
for his role as Arnold Burns in A Thousand Clowns
. In 1967, he won a Tony Award
for his appearance in the 1967 Broadway
production of You Know I Can't Hear You When the Water's Running
.
Balsam played Washington Post editor Howard Simons
in the 1976 blockbuster All the President's Men
. He also appeared in a film that eventually became a highly popular Mystery Science Theater 3000
episode, the 1975 Joe Don Baker
police drama Mitchell
. In 1973, he played Dr. Rudy Wells when the Martin Caidin
novel Cyborg
was adapted as the TV-movie, The Six Million Dollar Man
, though he did not reprise the role for the subsequent weekly series. He appeared as a spokesman/hostage in the 1976 TV movie Raid on Entebbe
and as a detective in the 1977 TV movie Contract on Cherry Street
. He also appeared on an episode of Quincy ME. Balsam starred as Murray Klein on the All in the Family
spin-off
Archie Bunker's Place
for two seasons (1979–1981). He even filled in for Charles Nelson Reilly
on Match Game
for one question when Reilly was late for a taping.
. This marriage lasted for three years (from 1959 until 1962), and produced one daughter, Talia Balsam
. He married his third wife, Irene Miller, in 1963. They divorced in 1987.
, in Emerson, New Jersey
. He was survived by Renee Landau, his companion.
Academy Awards
-
Golden Globe Awards -
BAFTA Awards -
Primetime Emmy Awards -
A Thousand Clowns
A Thousand Clowns is a 1962 American play by Herb Gardner, which tells the story of a young boy who lives with his eccentric uncle Murray, who is forced to conform to society in order to keep custody of the boy. A 1965 movie version was adapted from the play by Gardner and directed by Fred Coe.-...
and his role as "Detective Milton Arbogast" in Psycho.
Early life
Martin Balsam was born in Bronx, New York to Jewish parents Lillian (née Weinstein) and Albert Balsam, who was a manufacturer of ladies sportswear. He attended DeWitt Clinton High SchoolDeWitt Clinton High School
DeWitt Clinton High School is an American high school located in the Bronx, New York City, New York.-History:Clinton opened in 1897 at 60 West 13th Street at the northern end of Greenwich Village under the name of Boys High School, although this Boys High School was not related to the one in Brooklyn...
, where he participated in the drama club. He studied at the Dramatic Workshop
Dramatic Workshop
Dramatic Workshop was the name of a drama and acting school associated with the New School for Social Research in New York City. It was launched in 1940 by German expatriate stage director Erwin Piscator. Among the faculty were Lee Strasberg and Stella Adler, among the students Marlon Brando, Tony...
of The New School
The New School
The New School is a university in New York City, located mostly in Greenwich Village. From its founding in 1919 by progressive New York academics, and for most of its history, the university was known as the New School for Social Research. Between 1997 and 2005 it was known as New School University...
in New York with the influential German director Erwin Piscator
Erwin Piscator
Erwin Friedrich Maximilian Piscator was a German theatre director and producer and, with Bertolt Brecht, the foremost exponent of epic theatre, a form that emphasizes the socio-political content of drama, rather than its emotional manipulation of the audience or on the production's formal...
and then served in the United States Army Air Forces
United States Army Air Forces
The United States Army Air Forces was the military aviation arm of the United States of America during and immediately after World War II, and the direct predecessor of the United States Air Force....
during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.
Career
Martin Balsam made his professional debut in August 1941 in a production of The Play's the Thing in Locust Valley. In 1947, he was selected by Elia KazanElia Kazan
Elia Kazan was an American director and actor, described by the New York Times as "one of the most honored and influential directors in Broadway and Hollywood history". Born in Istanbul, the capital of the Ottoman Empire, to Greek parents originally from Kayseri in Anatolia, the family emigrated...
and Lee Strasberg
Lee Strasberg
Lee Strasberg was an American actor, director and acting teacher. He cofounded, with directors Harold Clurman and Cheryl Crawford, the Group Theatre in 1931, which was hailed as "America's first true theatrical collective"...
to be a player in the Actors Studio
Actors Studio
The Actors Studio is a membership organization for professional actors, theatre directors and playwrights at 432 West 44th Street in the Clinton neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded October 5, 1947, by Elia Kazan, Cheryl Crawford, Robert Lewis and Anna Sokolow who provided...
television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
program. He appeared in many other television drama series, including The Twilight Zone
The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series)
The Twilight Zone is an American anthology television series created by Rod Serling, which ran for five seasons on CBS from 1959 to 1964. The series consisted of unrelated episodes depicting paranormal, futuristic, dystopian, or simply disturbing events; each show typically featured a surprising...
(episodes "The Sixteen Millimeter Shrine" and "The New Exhibit
The New Exhibit
"The New Exhibit" is an episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone.-Synopsis:Martin Senescu works at a respected wax museum. His boss and good friend, Mr. Ferguson, informs him that the museum will close, to be replaced by a shopping market...
"), as a psychologist in the pilot episode, Five Fingers
Five Fingers (TV series)
For other uses see 5 Fingers Five Fingers is an NBC adventure/drama series set in Europe during the Cold War loosely based on the 1952 film 5 Fingers, starring James Mason and Danielle Darrieux...
, Target: The Corruptors!
Target: The Corruptors!
Target: The Corruptors! is a 35-episode crime drama starring Stephen McNally as newspaper reporter Paul Marino, which aired on ABC from September 29, 1961 to June 8, 1962. The character Jack Flood, Marino's undercover agent, was portrayed by Robert Harland...
, The Eleventh Hour
The Eleventh Hour (1962 TV series)
The Eleventh Hour is an American medical drama about psychiatry starring Wendell Corey, Jack Ging, and Ralph Bellamy, which aired sixty-two new episodes plus selected rebroadcasts on NBC from October 3, 1962, to September 9, 1964.-Series premise:...
, Breaking Point, Alfred Hitchcock Presents
Alfred Hitchcock Presents
Alfred Hitchcock Presents is an American television anthology series hosted by Alfred Hitchcock. The series featured dramas, thrillers, and mysteries. By the premiere of the show on October 2, 1955, Hitchcock had been directing films for over three decades...
, The Fugitive
The Fugitive (TV series)
The Fugitive is an American drama series produced by QM Productions and United Artists Television that aired on ABC from 1963 to 1967. David Janssen stars as Richard Kimble, a doctor from the fictional town of Stafford, Indiana, who is falsely convicted of his wife's murder and given the death...
, and Mr. Broadway
Mr. Broadway
Mr. Broadway is a 13-episode CBS adventure and drama television series starring Craig Stevens , formerly of Peter Gunn, as New York City public relations specialist Mike Bell. The program aired at 9 p.m. Eastern time Saturdays from September 26 to December 26, 1964...
, as a retired U.N.C.L.E. agent in The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
The Man from U.N.C.L.E. is an American television series that was broadcast on NBC from September 22, 1964, to January 15, 1968. It follows the exploits of two secret agents, played by Robert Vaughn and David McCallum, who work for a fictitious secret international espionage and law-enforcement...
episode, "The Odd Man Affair", and guest starred in the two-part Murder, She Wrote
Murder, She Wrote
Murder, She Wrote is an American television mystery series starring Angela Lansbury as mystery writer and amateur detective Jessica Fletcher. The series aired for 12 seasons from 1984 to 1996 on the CBS network, with 264 episodes transmitted. It was followed by four TV films and a spin-off series,...
episode, "Death Stalks the Big Top".
Balsam appeared in such films as On the Waterfront
On the Waterfront
On the Waterfront is a 1954 American drama film about union violence and corruption among longshoremen. The film was directed by Elia Kazan and written by Budd Schulberg. It stars Marlon Brando, Rod Steiger, Eva Marie Saint, Lee J. Cobb and Karl Malden. The soundtrack score was composed by Leonard...
, 12 Angry Men (as Juror #1), Time Limit
Time Limit (film)
Time Limit is a 1957 legal drama film directed by Karl Malden, his only directing credit. In his autobiography, Malden stated that "he preferred being a good actor to being a fairly good director."-Plot:...
, Breakfast at Tiffany's, The Carpetbaggers
The Carpetbaggers (film)
The Carpetbaggers is a 1964 American film based upon the best selling novel The Carpetbaggers by Harold Robbins.The film stars George Peppard as Jonas Cord, a character based largely on Howard Hughes, and Alan Ladd as a former western gunslinger turned actor with the pseudonym Nevada Smith, played...
, Seven Days in May
Seven Days in May
Seven Days in May is an American political thriller novel written by Fletcher Knebel and Charles W. Bailey II and published in 1962. It was made into a motion picture and released in February 1964, with a screenplay by Rod Serling, directed by John Frankenheimer, and starring Burt Lancaster, Kirk...
, The Anderson Tapes
The Anderson Tapes
The Anderson Tapes is a 1971 crime film. It was directed by Sidney Lumet and stars Sean Connery, Dyan Cannon, Martin Balsam, and comedian Alan King. The screenplay was written by Frank Pierson, based upon a best-selling 1970 novel of the same name by Lawrence Sanders...
, Hombre
Hombre (film)
Hombre is a 1967 revisionist western film directed by Martin Ritt, based on the novel of the same name by Elmore Leonard. It stars Paul Newman, Richard Boone, Martin Balsam, Diane Cilento and Fredric March....
, Catch-22
Catch-22 (film)
Catch-22 is a 1970 satirical war film adapted from the book of the same name by Joseph Heller. Considered a black comedy revolving around the "lunatic characters" of Heller's satirical anti-war novel, it was the work of a talented production team which included director Mike Nichols and...
, Tora! Tora! Tora!
Tora! Tora! Tora!
is a 1970 American-Japanese war film that dramatizes the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, to the extent these facts were known at the time of production. The film was directed by Richard Fleischer and stars an all-star cast, including So Yamamura, E.G...
, Little Big Man, The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, All the President's Men
All the President's Men (film)
All the President's Men is a 1976 Academy Award-winning political thriller film based on the 1974 non-fiction book of the same name by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, the two journalists investigating the Watergate scandal for The Washington Post...
, The Delta Force
The Delta Force (film)
The Delta Force is a 1986 American action film starring Chuck Norris and Lee Marvin as leaders of an elite squad of Special Forces troops based on the real life U.S. Army Delta Force unit. It was directed by Menahem Golan and featured Martin Balsam, Joey Bishop, Robert Vaughn, Steve James, Robert...
, and The Goodbye People
The Goodbye People
The Goodbye People is a play by Herb Gardner.The dramedy focuses on elderly Max Silverman, who is determined to reopen the Coney Island boardwalk hot dog stand he closed twenty-two years earlier for renovation, despite the fact he's recovering from a severe heart attack and it's the middle of...
.
Along with Gregory Peck
Gregory Peck
Eldred Gregory Peck was an American actor.One of 20th Century Fox's most popular film stars from the 1940s to the 1960s, Peck continued to play important roles well into the 1980s. His notable performances include that of Atticus Finch in the 1962 film To Kill a Mockingbird, for which he won an...
and Robert Mitchum
Robert Mitchum
Robert Charles Durman Mitchum was an American film actor, author, composer and singer and is #23 on the American Film Institute's list of the greatest male American screen legends of all time...
, Martin Balsam appeared in both the original Cape Fear
Cape Fear (1962 film)
Cape Fear is a 1962 film starring Gregory Peck, Robert Mitchum and Polly Bergen. It was adapted by James R. Webb from the novel The Executioners by John D. MacDonald. It was directed by J. Lee Thompson, and released on April 12, 1962...
(1962), and the 1991 Martin Scorsese
Martin Scorsese
Martin Charles Scorsese is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film historian. In 1990 he founded The Film Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to film preservation, and in 2007 he founded the World Cinema Foundation...
remake
Cape Fear (1991 film)
Cape Fear is a 1991 thriller film directed by Martin Scorsese and a remake of the 1962 film of the same name. It stars Robert De Niro, Nick Nolte, Jessica Lange and Juliette Lewis and features cameos from Gregory Peck, Robert Mitchum and Martin Balsam, who all appeared in the 1962 original film...
.
In 1965, he won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry. Since its inception, however, the...
for his role as Arnold Burns in A Thousand Clowns
A Thousand Clowns
A Thousand Clowns is a 1962 American play by Herb Gardner, which tells the story of a young boy who lives with his eccentric uncle Murray, who is forced to conform to society in order to keep custody of the boy. A 1965 movie version was adapted from the play by Gardner and directed by Fred Coe.-...
. In 1967, he won a Tony Award
Tony Award
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...
for his appearance in the 1967 Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
production of You Know I Can't Hear You When the Water's Running
You Know I Can't Hear You When the Water's Running
You Know I Can't Hear You When the Water's Running is a collection of four unrelated one-act comedy plays by Robert Anderson.In The Shock of Recognition, playwright Jack Barnstable auditions Richard Pawling for a role that requires nudity and discovers the overeager actor is more than willing to...
.
Balsam played Washington Post editor Howard Simons
Howard Simons
Howard Simons was the managing editor of the Washington Post at the time of the Watergate scandal, and later curator of the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University....
in the 1976 blockbuster All the President's Men
All the President's Men (film)
All the President's Men is a 1976 Academy Award-winning political thriller film based on the 1974 non-fiction book of the same name by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, the two journalists investigating the Watergate scandal for The Washington Post...
. He also appeared in a film that eventually became a highly popular Mystery Science Theater 3000
Mystery Science Theater 3000
Mystery Science Theater 3000 is an American cult television comedy series created by Joel Hodgson and produced by Best Brains, Inc., that ran from 1988 to 1999....
episode, the 1975 Joe Don Baker
Joe Don Baker
Joe Don Baker is an American film actor, perhaps best known for his roles as a Mafia hitman in Charley Varrick, deputy sheriff Thomas Jefferson Geronimo III in Final Justice, real-life Tennessee Sheriff Buford Pusser in Walking Tall, brute force with a badge detective Mitchell in Mitchell, James...
police drama Mitchell
Mitchell (film)
Mitchell is a 1975 film starring Joe Don Baker as an abrasive, alcoholic police detective, released by Allied Artists Pictures Corporation in the USA on September 10, 1975....
. In 1973, he played Dr. Rudy Wells when the Martin Caidin
Martin Caidin
Martin Caidin was an American author and an authority on aeronautics and aviation.Caidin wrote more than 50 books, including Samurai!, Black Thursday, Thunderbolt!, Fork-Tailed Devil: The P-38, Zero!, The Ragged, Rugged Warriors, A Torch to the Enemy and many other works of military history...
novel Cyborg
Cyborg (novel)
Cyborg is the title of a science fiction/secret agent novel by Martin Caidin which was first published in 1972. The novel also included elements of speculative fiction, and was adapted as the television series The Six Million Dollar Man and also inspired its spin-off, The Bionic Woman.-Plot...
was adapted as the TV-movie, The Six Million Dollar Man
The Six Million Dollar Man
The Six Million Dollar Man is an American television series about a former astronaut with bionic implants working for the OSI...
, though he did not reprise the role for the subsequent weekly series. He appeared as a spokesman/hostage in the 1976 TV movie Raid on Entebbe
Raid on Entebbe (film)
Raid on Entebbe is a 1977 TV movie directed by Irvin Kershner. It is based on an actual event: Operation Entebbe and the freeing of hostages at Entebbe Airport in Entebbe, Uganda on July 4, 1976. It was the last movie to be released featuring Academy Award-winning actor Peter Finch who died just...
and as a detective in the 1977 TV movie Contract on Cherry Street
Contract on Cherry Street
Contract on Cherry Street, a novel by Phillip Rosenberg about a New York police detective who turns vigilante against the mob when one of his partners is gunned down, was adapted for television in 1977 by Frank Sinatra's production company Artanis. Directed by William A...
. He also appeared on an episode of Quincy ME. Balsam starred as Murray Klein on the All in the Family
All in the Family
All in the Family is an American sitcom that was originally broadcast on the CBS television network from January 12, 1971, to April 8, 1979. In September 1979, a new show, Archie Bunker's Place, picked up where All in the Family had ended...
spin-off
Spin-off (media)
In media, a spin-off is a radio program, television program, video game, or any narrative work, derived from one or more already existing works, that focuses, in particular, in more detail on one aspect of that original work...
Archie Bunker's Place
Archie Bunker's Place
Archie Bunker's Place is an American sitcom originally broadcast on the CBS network, conceived in 1979 as a spin-off and continuation of All in the Family. While not as popular as its predecessor, the show maintained a large enough audience to last for four seasons, until its cancellation in 1983...
for two seasons (1979–1981). He even filled in for Charles Nelson Reilly
Charles Nelson Reilly
Charles Nelson Reilly was an American actor, comedian, director and drama teacher known for his comedic roles in theater, movies, children's television, animated cartoons, and as a panelist on the game show Match Game....
on Match Game
Match Game
Match Game is an American television game show in which contestants attempted to match celebrities' answers to fill-in-the-blank questions...
for one question when Reilly was late for a taping.
Personal life
In 1952, Balsam married his first wife, actress Pearl Somner. They divorced two years later. His second wife was actress Joyce Van PattenJoyce Van Patten
Joyce Benignia Van Patten is an American stage, film and television actress.-Personal life:Van Patten was born in New York City, the daughter of Josephine Rose , an Italian American magazine advertising executive, and Richard Byron Van Patten, a Dutch American interior decorator.She is the younger...
. This marriage lasted for three years (from 1959 until 1962), and produced one daughter, Talia Balsam
Talia Balsam
Talia Balsam is an American actress.-Early life:Balsam was born in New York City to actors Martin Balsam and Joyce Van Patten.-Career:...
. He married his third wife, Irene Miller, in 1963. They divorced in 1987.
Death
Balsam died in Rome, Italy, of a heart attack at the age of 76. He is interred at Cedar Park CemeteryCedar Park Cemetery, Emerson, New Jersey
Cedar Park Cemetery is a cemetery located in Emerson, in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States.- Noted interments :*Martin Balsam won an Academy Award in 1965 for best supporting actor in A Thousand Clowns...
, in Emerson, New Jersey
Emerson, New Jersey
Emerson is a borough in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States, a suburb in the New York metropolitan area. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough population was 7,401....
. He was survived by Renee Landau, his companion.
Awards
National Board of Review -- (1964) Best Supporting Actor - The CarpetbaggersThe CarpetbaggersThe Carpetbaggers is the title of a 1961 bestselling novel by Harold Robbins, which was adapted into a 1964 film of the same title.The term "carpetbagger" refers to an outsider relocating to exploit locals . It derives from post-bellum South usage, where it referred specifically to opportunistic...
Academy Awards
Academy Awards
An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...
-
- (1966) Best Actor in a Supporting Role - A Thousand ClownsA Thousand ClownsA Thousand Clowns is a 1962 American play by Herb Gardner, which tells the story of a young boy who lives with his eccentric uncle Murray, who is forced to conform to society in order to keep custody of the boy. A 1965 movie version was adapted from the play by Gardner and directed by Fred Coe.-...
Golden Globe Awards -
- (1974) Best Supporting Actor - Summer Wishes, Winter DreamsSummer Wishes, Winter DreamsSummer Wishes, Winter Dreams is a 1973 film which tells the story of a New York City homemaker who rethinks her relationships with her husband, her children and her mother...
(Nominated)
BAFTA Awards -
- (1976) Best Supporting Actor - The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (Nominated)
- (1977) Best Supporting Actor - All the President's MenAll the President's Men (film)All the President's Men is a 1976 Academy Award-winning political thriller film based on the 1974 non-fiction book of the same name by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, the two journalists investigating the Watergate scandal for The Washington Post...
(Nominated)
Primetime Emmy Awards -
- (1977) Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie - Raid on EntebbeRaid on Entebbe (film)Raid on Entebbe is a 1977 TV movie directed by Irvin Kershner. It is based on an actual event: Operation Entebbe and the freeing of hostages at Entebbe Airport in Entebbe, Uganda on July 4, 1976. It was the last movie to be released featuring Academy Award-winning actor Peter Finch who died just...
(Nominated)