Martin Balsam

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Martin Henry Balsam (born November 4, 1919 in New York , † February 13, 1996 in Rome ) was an American actor . Between the 1950s and 1970s, he played high-profile character roles in a number of classic films, including The Twelve Jurors , Psycho, and Breakfast at Tiffany's . For his appearance in A Thousand Clowns he was awarded the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in 1966 .

life and career

Martin Balsam was born in the Bronx , New York, as the son of the women's fashion seller Albert Balsam and his wife Lillian Weinstein . Some sources also give the year of birth 1914, but these are now considered refuted. He served in World War II and in 1947 the Actors Studio by Lee Strasberg added to which it under the famous acting teacher and director Elia Kazan studied. His fellow students included Marlon Brando and Rod Steiger .

In 1954, Martin Balsam received his first film role from his former acting teacher Kazan in his film Die Faust im Nacken . In 1957 he drew attention to himself as the good-natured but overwhelmed jury head of the twelve jury members in the classic film of the same name. Perhaps his best-known role was in Psycho in 1960 , in which he fell victim to a classic knife attack as a private detective Arbogast. From the mid-1950s he appeared in many well-known films as a character actor in concise supporting roles. He played a Hollywood producer in Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961) and impersonated a police chief in A Lure for the Beast (1962). Balsam was also in Seven Days in May (1964), It was called Hombre (1967), Catch-22 - The Bad Trick (1970), Stop the Death Ride of Subway 123 (1974) and Murder on the Orient Express (1974) ) to see. One of his main roles is that of the husband E. Kimmel in the war film Tora! Torah! Torah! (1970).

In the 1970s, Martin Balsam was a preferred actor in Italian films and, for example, played a mafia investigator in the well-known political thriller The Clan Walling His Enemies Alive in 1971 . He later appeared regularly as a television actor. During his over 40-year career, Balsam has appeared in almost 170 cinema and television films.

From 1952 Balsam was married three times. He left three children; his daughter Talia Balsam from his marriage to actress Joyce Van Patten is also an actress. Balsam died unexpectedly in his hotel room in Rome while he was filming there.

Filmography (selection)

Awards

Web links

Commons : Martin Balsam  - Collection of Images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.nytimes.com/1996/02/14/nyregion/martin-balsam-is-dead-at-76-ubiquitous-character-actor.html
personal data
SURNAME Balm, Martin
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Balsam, Martin Henry (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION US-American actor
DATE OF BIRTH November 4, 1919
PLACE OF BIRTH New York City , New York, United States
DATE OF DEATH February 13, 1996
Place of death Rome , Lazio, Italy