Tuesday, July 18, 2017

LANDAU GENTRY - THE CHARACTERS OF MARTIN LANDAU (INTRODUCTION)



In ‘Entourage’, Martin Landau played Bob Ryan, a fading movie producer whose star burned brightest in the 1970s.  Always trying to get back in the game, he kept pestering Ari Gold with ideas which he wanted to produce.

“Does that sound like something you might be interested in?” was his catchphrase.

Here’s something I’m not interested in: Martin Landau passed away the other day at the age of 89.  It’s a respectable age, but as he proved with Bob Ryan, Mr. Landau had so much more in his talents with which he could have graced us.

One of my Facebook friends pointed out that people like himself (and I include myself in that group) have not lived in a world where Martin Landau did not play a role in our collective pop culture memories, from the movies (“North By Northwest”, “Crimes and Misdemeanors”, “Cleopatra” and his Oscar-winning turn as Bela Lugosi in “Ed Wood”), animation (‘The Simpsons’, ‘Spider-Man’, and the movie “9”). 

He had starring roles in TV shows (‘Mission: Impossible’ &  ‘Space: 1999’), and guest roles in many iconic series (among them: ‘The Twilight Zone’, ‘Columbo’, ‘I Spy’, ‘The Man From UNCLE’, ‘Murder, She Wrote’, ‘The Wild, Wild West’ ‘Alfred Hitchcock Presents’, and ‘The X-Files’.) 

Some of his TV characters appeared in movie continuations of TV shows, appearing with Kwai Chang Caine, as well as the Six Million Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman, and in a theatrical released film about Vinnie Chase and his “Entourage”.

As time marches on, I will have articles which will put a spotlight on a particular TV character played by Mr. Landau.  It may take a while because there are so many I want to showcase.  This being Tuesday, when we sometimes launch a “Two For Tuesday” feature, I’m going to start with the twin brothers Norman and Dexter Paris.

Does that sound like something you might be interested in?

Stay tuned…..



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