Balsam, Martin (1919–96), character actor. He was born in New York and studied at the Actors Studio, making his Broadway debut in 1941. The gruff‐looking, flexible actor made hundreds of films and television appearances but also managed some noteworthy stage performances, such as the Son‐in‐Law dealing with his father‐in‐law's autumnal romance in Middle of the Night (1956), a variety of perplexed characters in You Know I Can't Hear You When the Water's Running (1967), and the terminally ill patient Joseph Parmigian in Cold Storage (1977).
Martin Balsam
| American Theater Guide: Martin Balsam |
| Actor: Martin Balsam |
- Born: Nov 04, 1919 in Bronx, New York City, New York
- Died: Feb 13, 1996
- Occupation: Actor
- Active: '50s-'80s
- Major Genres: Drama, Thriller
- Career Highlights: All the President's Men, Psycho, A Thousand Clowns
- First Major Screen Credit: 12 Angry Men (1957)
Biography
Bronx-raised actor Martin Balsam was the oldest of three children of a ladies' sportswear salesman. "Actors are bums" was dad's reaction when Balsam announced his intention of going into show business; still, young Martin took full advantage of lunch breaks from his "real" jobs to rehearse for amateur theatricals. After World War II, Balsam joined New York's Actors Studio, supporting himself by waiting on tables and ushering at Radio City Music Hall. During his formative years he was briefly married to actress Joyce Van Patten; their daughter Talia Balsam would later become a successful film and TV performer. Working steadily if not profitably in nightclubs and TV, Balsam made his first film, the Actors Studio-dominated On the Waterfront, in 1954. Averaging a movie and/or a play a year starting in 1957 (among his best-known film roles were Juror #1 in Twelve Angry Men [1957] and the unfortunate detective Arbogast in Psycho [1960]), Balsam went on to win a Tony for the Broadway play I Know You Can't Hear Me When the Water's Running, an Obie for the off-Broadway production Cold Storage, and an Academy Award for his performance as Jason Robards' older brother in the 1965 film version of A Thousand Clowns. Unfortunately for Balsam, the Oscar was as much a curse as a blessing on his career, and soon he was playing little more than variations on his Thousand Clowns role. In 1979, he was engaged by Norman Lear to play "lovable bigot" Archie Bunker's acerbic Jewish business partner Murray Klein on the CBS sitcom Archie Bunker's Place; he remained with the series until 1981. In 1991, Balsam appeared in Martin Scorsese's Cape Fear, the remake of a film in which Balsam had co-starred (in an entirely different role) in 1962. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide| Filmography: Martin Balsam |
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| Wikipedia: Martin Balsam |
| Martin Balsam | |
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 in Ada (1961) |
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| Born | Martin Henry Balsam November 4, 1919 Bronx, New York, U.S. |
| Died | February 13, 1996 (aged 76) Rome, Italy |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 1947–1995 |
| Spouse(s) | Pearl Somner (1952–1954) Joyce Van Patten (1959–1962) Irene Miller (1963–1996) |
Martin Henry Balsam (November 4, 1919 – February 13, 1996) was an American actor.
Contents |
Early life
Balsam was born in The Bronx to Jewish parents Lillian (née Weinstein) and Albert Balsam, who was a manufacturer of ladies sportswear.[1][2] He attended DeWitt Clinton High School, where he participated in the drama club.[3] 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.
Career
In 1947, Martin Balsam was selected by Elia Kazan 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,as a psychologist in the pilot episode, Five Fingers, Target: The Corruptors!, The Eleventh Hour, Breaking Point, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and Mr. Broadway, starring Craig Stevens.
Balsam appeared in such films as On the Waterfront, 12 Angry Men (as Juror #1), Time Limit, Psycho, Cape Fear (1962), Breakfast at Tiffany's, Seven Days in May, The Anderson Tapes, Hombre, Catch-22, Tora! Tora! Tora!, The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, Two-Minute Warning, The Delta Force, Death Wish 3, The Goodbye People, and the 1991 Martin Scorsese remake of Cape Fear. (Balsam, Gregory Peck, and Robert Mitchum all appeared in both the 1962 and 1991 versions of the film.)
Balsam played Washington Post editor Howard Simons in the 1976 blockbuster All the President's Men.[4] 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. In 1965, he won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Arnold Burns in A Thousand Clowns. 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). 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.
Personal life
In 1952, Balsam married his first wife, actress Pearl Somner. They divorced two years later. His second wife was actress Joyce Van Patten. This marriage lasted for three years, from 1959 until 1962, and their only child is a daughter, Talia Balsam. He married his third wife, Irene Miller, in 1963.
Balsam died in Rome, Italy, of a heart attack at the age of 76. He is interred at Cedar Park Cemetery, in Emerson, New Jersey.[5] He was survived by Irene Miller and their two children Adam and Zoe, daughter Talia, his brother Warren, and grandson Harry.
Awards
- (1964) Best Supporting Actor - The Carpetbaggers
- (1966) Best Actor in a Supporting Role - A Thousand Clowns
- (1974) Best Supporting Actor - Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams (Nominated)
- (1976) Best Supporting Actor - The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (Nominated)
- (1977) Best Supporting Actor - All the President's Men (Nominated)
- (1977) Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie - Raid on Entebbe (Nominated)
References
- ^ Martin Balsam Is Dead at 76; Ubiquitous Character Actor - New York Times
- ^ Great Character Actors
- ^ Van Gelder, Lawrence. "Martin Balsam Is Dead at 76; Ubiquitous Character Actor", The New York Times, February 14, 1996. Accessed September 14, 2009. "He grew up on Mosholu Parkway and became involved in theater and music at DeWitt Clinton High School."
- ^ All the President's Men (1976)
- ^ "Sometimes the Grave Is a Fine and Public Place". New York Times. March 28, 2004. "Cedar Park Cemetery in Paramus [sic] tends toward performers. Martin Balsam, who won both a Tony and an Oscar was buried there in 1996. Joe E. Lewis, the comic whose rough life was portrayed by Frank Sinatra in the 1957 movie, The Joker Is Wild, is nearby. (As are two illustrious nonperformers, the Nobel Prize writer Isaac Bashevis Singer and the poet Delmore Schwartz.)"
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Martin Balsam |
- Martin Balsam at the Internet Movie Database
- Martin Balsam at the Internet Broadway Database
- Martin Balsam at the Internet off-Broadway Database
- Martin Balsam at Allmovie
- Martin Balsam at Find a Grave
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| Siege (1978 Thriller Film) |
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Mentioned in
- Bad Cop Chronicles #1: Confessions of a Police Captain (1971 Thriller Film)
- Mitchell (1975 Action Film)
- Siege (1978 Thriller Film)
- A Brand New Life (1972 Drama Film)
- The House on Garibaldi Street (1979 Spy Film)
- Il Consigliori (1973 Crime Film)
- Trapped Beneath the Sea (1974 Action Film)
- The Defender (TV Episode) (1957 Drama TV Episode)
- Final Arrangements: Alfred Hitchcock Presents (TV Episode) (1961 TV Episode)
- Stolen Tears: Quincy, M.E. (TV Episode) (1982 TV Episode)
- A Killing in the Second House: Kojak (TV Episode) (1974 TV Episode)
- Damiano Damiani (Director, Writer, Actor, Drama/Crime)
- Grown Ups (1986 Drama Film)
- Hard Frame (1970 Drama Film)
