Gabel, Martin (1912–86), character actor and producer. Born in Philadelphia and educated at Lehigh University and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, Gabel made his professional debut on Broadway at the age of twenty‐one and was busily employed thereafter. As a member of Orson Welles's Mercury Theatre, he played the conspirator Cassius in the modern dress Julius Caesar (1937), the title revolutionary in Danton's Death (1938), and other roles that brought him notice. He played both comic roles and sinister characters for decades in films and on Broadway, where he also directed productions and even produced a few, most notably the long‐run champ Life with Father (1939). But he became most famous for his many appearances on television quiz shows.
Career Highlights: Smash-Up: The Story of a Woman, M, Marnie
First Major Screen Credit: The Lost Moment (1947)
Biography
When he was an English student at Lehigh University, Martin Gabel decided to switch gears and become an actor, studying to that end at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. In 1933, he made his first Broadway appearance in Man Bites a Horse; his roles increased in size and stature in such subsequent New York productions as Dead End. Gabel joined Orson Welles' Mercury Theatre, appearing in Danton's Death, Julius Caesar and other ground-breaking productions; he also worked steadily on Welles' radio series, the Mercury Theatre on the Air. As the 1930s came to a close, Gabel joined several fellow actors in helping to raise money for the 1939 stage production of Life with Father, which would become the longest-running comedy in theatrical history. Collectors of old-time radio broadcasts know Gabel best as the fervent narrator of Norman Corwin's VJ Day drama, On a Note of Triumph. Gabel made his entree into films as the director of The Lost Moment (1947); as a movie actor, he was often cast in blunt, villainous roles, as in 1952's Deadline USA. His stage work in the 1950s and 1960s included a Tony-winning assignment in Big Fish Little Fish, and the role of Moriarty in the short-lived Sherlock Holmes musical Baker Street. Martin Gabel was the husband of actress/TV personality Arlene Francis, and the brother of actors Olive Deering and Alfred Ryder. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Undoubtedly the most widely remembered work in Gabel's career was the May 8, 1945CBS radio broadcast of Norman Corwin's
epic dramatic poem On a Note of Triumph, a commemoration of the fall of the Nazi regime in Germany and the end of
World War II in Europe. The broadcast was so popular that the CBS, NBC, Blue and Mutual networks broadcast a second live production of the program on May 13. The Columbia Masterworks record label subsequently
published an album of the May 13 production. The production became the title focus of the Academy
Award-winning short film A Note of Triumph: The
Golden Age of Norman Corwin in 2005, the 60th anniversary year of the broadcast.
As noted below, Gabel made few films over his career, usually in small roles. A notable large supporting part was as crime
boss Tomas Rienzi in Richard Brooks's Deadline -
U.S.A. in 1952.
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