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Martin Gabel

 
American Theater Guide: Martin Gabel
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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.

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Actor: Martin Gabel
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  • Born: Jun 19, 1912 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
  • Died: May 22, 1986 in New York City, New York
  • Occupation: Actor, Director
  • Active: '50s-'70s
  • Major Genres: Drama, Thriller
  • 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
Wikipedia: Martin Gabel
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Martin Gabel
Born June 19, 1912
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Died May 22, 1986
New York City, New York

Martin Gabel (June 19, 1912 – May 22, 1986) was an American actor, film director and film producer.

Contents

Life and career

Gabel was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of Ruth (née Herzog) and Israel Gabel, who was a jeweler.[1] He married Arlene Francis on May 14, 1946, and they had a son named Peter Gabel, former president of New College of California.

Gabel's most noted work was as narrator and host of the May 8, 1945 CBS 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.

Gabel won the 1961 Tony Award for Best Supporting or Featured Actor (Dramatic) for Big Fish, Little Fish; he was also noted for his performances in the Broadway productions of Baker Street, in which he played Professor Moriarty; The Rivalry, in which he played Stephen A. Douglas; and several Mercury Theatre productions directed by Orson Welles.

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, starring Humphrey Bogart. Gabel played another mob figure in a Frank Sinatra private-detective film, Lady in Cement, and co-starred again with Sinatra in Contract on Cherry Street and The First Deadly Sin. He played a psychiatrist in the Billy Wilder remake of The Front Page with Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon.

He was also a frequent guest panelist on the popular CBS Sunday night game show "What's My Line?", on which his wife Arlene Francis regularly appeared.

He died in New York, New York, USA from a heart attack.

Filmography

References

  1. ^ Martin Gabel Biography (1912-1986)

External links

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Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play

Arthur Kennedy (1949) · Eli Wallach (1951) · John Cromwell (1952) · John Williams (1953) · John Kerr (1954) · Francis L. Sullivan (1955) · Ed Begley (1956) · Frank Conroy (1957) · Henry Jones (1958) · Charlie Ruggles (1959) · Roddy McDowall (1960) · Martin Gabel (1961) · Walter Matthau (1962) · Alan Arkin (1963) · Hume Cronyn (1964) · Jack Albertson (1965) · Patrick Magee (1966) · Ian Holm (1967) · James Patterson (1968) · Al Pacino (1969) · Ken Howard (1970) · Paul Sand (1971) · Vincent Gardenia (1972) · John Lithgow (1973) · Ed Flanders (1974) · Frank Langella (1975)

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American Theater Guide. The Oxford Companion to American Theatre. Copyright © 2004 by Oxford University Press, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
Actor. Copyright © 2009 All Media Guide, LLC. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Martin Gabel".  Read more