Ross Martin

The title of this article is ambiguous. For the Australian cross-country skier of the same name, see Ross Martin (cross-country skier) .

Ross Martin (born March 22, 1920 in Gródek , Poland , † July 3, 1981 in Ramona , California as Martin Rosenblatt ) was a Polish- American actor .

Life

Martin's parents moved to the United States, New York 's East Side , shortly after he was born . At the age of eight he already drew attention to himself artistically with virtuoso violin playing and played in a symphony orchestra .

In the years that followed, Ross Martin began to rise slowly and steadily. In addition to an engagement in a local radio station , where he even got his own show, he also played theater. He was just as successful as part of the vaudeville duo Ross & West alongside Bernard West as well as appearing in the musical Guys and Dolls on Broadway in the 1950s .

Although Martin spoke many languages ​​(in addition to English , Polish , Russian , Spanish , Italian and French ) and possessed the ability to imitate various dialects , he was denied a great career as an actor. Martin played mostly in small to medium-sized feature films and television films as well as in many episodes of American television series . For the portrayal of "Red" Lynch in The Last Train , he received a Golden Globe nomination in 1962 .

Martin experienced the peak of his creative phase in the 1960s. In 1965, following the supporting role of Graf von Stubbe in The Great Race around the World alongside Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon , he was awarded one of the two leading roles in the CBS- produced series Crazy Wild West . For four years he played the government agent Artemus Gordon , who developed bizarre inventions in 19th century America and who went on various adventures with his partner James West , played by Robert Conrad . The series was very successful and was continued by two television films in the late 1970s. In the crime series Columbo he got a guest role as a sophisticated murderer in the episode Murder in Pastel .

Ross Martin suffered from health problems throughout his life. In 1969, when the series Crazy Wild West was drawing to a close , he had an angina attack. He died of a heart attack on July 3, 1981, after playing tennis . At this point he and Conrad were just preparing for a new edition of their series. Ross Martin's grave is in the Mount Sinai Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles .

Martin was married twice. He married his first wife Muriel Weis in 1941 and lived with her for 24 years until her death in 1965. Two years later he married Olavee Grindrod , with whom he stayed until his death in 1981. From this marriage there were three children.

Filmography (selection)

• 1955: The Conquest of Space
• 1958: The Colossus of New York
• 1958: Smoking Colts (Gunsmoke) (TV series, 2 episodes)
• 1959–1960: Mr. Lucky (TV series, 34 episodes)
• 1960: At the foot of the blue mountains (Laramie) (TV series, episode 2x13)
• 1962: The Last Train (Experiment in Terror)
• 1962: The last command (Geronimo)
• 1963: Bonanza (TV series, episode 4x34)
• 1963: Breakfast on Death Row (The Ceremony)
• 1965: The Great Race (The Great Race)
• 1965-1969: The Wild Wild West (Wild Wild West) (TV series, 99 episodes)
• 1971: Columbo (TV series, episode 1x04 Murder in Pastel )
• 1973: The Boss (Ironside) (TV series, episode 7x09)
• 1974: Skyway to Death (TV movie)
• 1977: Charlie's Angels (Charlie's Angels) (TV series, episode 2x07)
• 1978: Vegas (Vega $) (TV series, episode 3x01)
• 1978: The love stewardesses (Flying High) (TV series, episode 1x10)
• 1978–1979: Hawaii Five-Zero (Hawaii Five-O) (TV series, 5 episodes)
• 1979: The Wild Wild West Revisited (Movie made for TV)
• 1979–1980: Fantasy Island (TV series, 2 episodes)
• 1980: Love Boat (The Love Boat) (TV series, episode 3x17)
• 1980: Two Agents in Trouble (More Wild Wild West) (TV movie)
• 1981: Mork vom Ork (Mork & Mindy) (TV series, episode 3x10)

Web links

• Ross Martin in the Internet Movie Database (English)