Martin Landau: Like fine wine, getting better with age

Martin Landau in his Oscar-nominated role in "Tucker: Th Man and His Dream" in 1988.

Source: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096316/characters/nm0001445/

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When the calendar flipped to 1999, for the briefest of moments I had the thought, “I sure hope the moon doesn’t break its orbit and go hurtling into space.”

After all, during the early part of the 1980s, I used to tune in to CBC Channel 9 on the peasant vision dial to watch the latest adventures of Commander John Koenig on “Space:1999”. It was set in the near future on Moon Base Alpha, where the moon had been used to dump radioactive waste. Ultimately, it reached a critical mass and exploded with such force it dislodged the moon from its orbit around Earth and sent it reeling into space.

Martin Landau played Commander John Koenig, but he had an interesting and prolific career beyond his time on Moon Base Alpha.

It is the late actor’s birthday today, and a good time to look back at his career.

The years before
Martin Landau had a prolific career before “Space: 1999”, with roles in both film and television.

He appeared in motion pictures such as “North by Northwest”; “Cleopatra”; “The Greatest Story Ever Told”; “They Call me Mr. Tibbs!”; “Meteor”; and many more.

On television, he was in two separate episodes of “Gunsmoke”; two separate episodes of “The Twilight Zone”; “Wagon Train”; “Bonanza”; “The Rifleman”; two separate episodes of “The Outer Limits; “The Defenders”; “The Alfred Hitchcock Hour”; “I Spy’; “The Wild Wild West”; “The Big Valley”; “Branded”; “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.”; “Get Smart”; “Columbo”; and much more

He made his deepest mark with a stint on “Mission: Impossible” from 1966 to 1969 for 76 episodes. He played Rollin Hand, a master of disguise. Playing alongside him was Barbara Bain as Cinnamon Carter, a model and actress. They would also co-star in “Space: 1999”, and were married in real life. For his efforts in “Mission: Impossible”, Landau was nominated for the Emmy for Outstanding Actor in a Drama Series all three years he was on the show. He also won the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Television Series Drama in 1967.

“Space: 1999” was actually on for two seasons and 48 episodes, from 1975 to 1977. I always thought it butted up against the ‘80s, but that is probably because CBC Channel 9 on the peasant vision dial aired reruns for years and years.

Dawn of the decade
Landau would find a lot of work on television in the ‘80s and find success on the big screen as well. On television he would appear in TV movies such as “The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan’s Island” in 1981; and guest spots in series such as “Matt Houston”; “Hotel”; “Buffalo Bill”; “Murder, She Wrote”; “The Twilight Zone”; “Kung Fu: The Movie”; “Blacke’s Magic”; “Alfred Hitchcock Presents”; “The Return of the Six Million Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman”; and more.

On the big screen, he appeared in a variety of movies, most not commercially successful, but hit it big with two to end the decade.

Dreamer
It was a movie that shone a light on an interesting character in the history of the automotive industry in the United States. “Tucker: The Man and His Dream”, released in 1988, looks at the life of Preston Tucker, played by Jeff Bridges, who tried to take on the Big Three auto makers in the 1950s with an innovative car of his own.

Landau played financier Abe Karatz. There is one scene that really sticks out. Tucker is being put through the wringer, and Karatz tells him, “I caught your dreams.” At one point he thought he said he’d caught his germs, but in fact being around the charismatic, idealistic, visionary Tucker he had caught his dreams. It was powerful and touching.

A few years later, I went to a leadership presentation put on by my friend Wayne Messner, and he used that exact clip to illustrate a point about leaders having vision.

For his efforts, Martin Landau was nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for “Tucker: The Man and His Dream”, and won the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture.

Criminal behaviour
Landau concluded the decade with another outstanding performance in the Woody Allen film “Crimes and Misdemeanors”. It received a lot of critical acclaim, and Landau received his second Oscar nomination, for Best Supporting Actor.

Sadly, this movie came out when I was so involved with school and student leadership, I never did see it to this date.

The years after
Martin Landau just kept on acting in the ‘90s and beyond in film and television.

He was in a variety of movies before his career culminated with an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. He won for his role as Bela Lugosi in “Ed Wood” in 1994, a film about the legendary “B” movie director. He also won the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture for the role.

In addition, Landau was in movies such as “Sliver”; “City Hall”; “The X-Files”; “Rounders”; “EDtv”; “The Majestic”; and much more. One of his last great roles was in “Remember” opposite Christopher Plummer. It is a Canadian movie about a Holocaust survivor who sets out to kill a Nazi war criminal in retaliation for the death of his family.

He did quite a lot of TV as well, including “Without a Trace”, for which he was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series in 2004 and 2005; “Entourage”, where he was nominated for an Emmy fot Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series; “In Plain Sight”; “The Simpsons”; and the TV movies “Have a Little Faith”; The Anna Nicole Story”; and “Outlaw Prophet: Warren Jeffs”.

Martin Landau received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame as well.

He died in 2017 at the age of 89.

Parting thoughts
It’s funny. I was introduced to Martin Landau as the stern and serious John Koenig, commander of Moon Base Alpha in “Space: 1999”. Every time I saw him after that, it was what I thought of.

That all really changed with his role as Abe Karatz in “Tucker: The Man and His Dream”, and went from there.

Martin Landau really was like fine wine – he just got better with age.