Martin Balsam

Martin Henry Balsam (November 4, 1919 – February 13, 1996) was an American actor. He had a prolific career in character roles in film, in theatre, and on television. An early member of the Actors Studio, he began his career on the New York stage, winning a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for Robert Anderson’s ''You Know I Can't Hear You When the Water's Running'' (1968). He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in '' A Thousand Clowns'' (1965).

His other notable film roles include Juror #1 in ''12 Angry Men'' (1957), private detective Milton Arbogast in '' Psycho'' (1960), Hollywood agent O.J. Berman in '' Breakfast at Tiffany's'' (1961), Bernard B. Norman in ''The Carpetbaggers'' (1964), Lt. Commander Chester Potter, the ship doctor, in ''The Bedford Incident'', Colonel Cathcart in ''Catch-22'' (1970), Admiral Husband E. Kimmel in ''Tora! Tora! Tora!'' (1970), Mr. Green in '' The Taking of Pelham One Two Three'' (1974), Signor Bianchi in ''Murder on the Orient Express'' (1974), and Howard Simons in ''All the President's Men'' (1976). He had a recurring role as Dr. Milton Orloff on the television drama ''Dr. Kildare'' (1963–66), and Murray Klein on the sitcom ''Archie Bunker's Place'' (1979–83).

In addition to his Oscar and Tony Awards, Balsam was also a BAFTA Award, Golden Globe Award, and Emmy Award nominee. With Joyce Van Patten, he was the father of actress Talia Balsam.

Early life and education

Martin Henry Balsam was born November 4, 1919, in the Bronx borough of New York City, to Russian Jewish parents, Lillian (''née'' Weinstein) and Albert Balsam, who was a manufacturer of women's sportswear. He attended DeWitt Clinton High School, where he participated in the drama club. He studied at the Dramatic Workshop of The New School in New York with the German director Erwin Piscator and then served in the United States Army Air Forces from 1941 to 1945 during World War II, achieving the rank of Sergeant. He served as a sergeant radio operator in a B-24 in the China-Burma-India Theater of Operations.

Career

Theatre

Balsam made his professional debut in August 1941 in a production of '' The Play's the Thing'' in Locust Valley. After World War II, he resumed his acting career in New York.

In early 1948, he was selected by Elia Kazan to be a member in the recently formed Actors Studio. He appeared consistently in Broadway and off-Broadway plays, something he would continue to do well into his screen acting career. Columnist Earl Wilson dubbed him "The Bronx Barrymore".

In 1968, he won a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for his performance in the 1967 Broadway production of ''You Know I Can't Hear You When the Water's Running.''

Television

Balsam performed in several episodes of the studio's dramatic television anthology series, broadcast between September 1948 and 1950. He appeared in many other television drama series, including ''Decoy'' with Beverly Garland, ''The Twilight Zone'' (episodes "The Sixteen Millimeter Shrine" and "The New Exhibit"), as a psychologist in the pilot episode, '' Five Fingers'', '' Target: The Corruptors!'', '' The Eleventh Hour'', '' Breaking Point'', ''Alfred Hitchcock Presents'', '' The Fugitive'', and '' Mr. Broadway'', as a retired U.N.C.L.E. agent in ''The Man from U.N.C.L.E.'' episode, "The Odd Man Affair", and guest-starred in the two-part ''Murder, She Wrote'' episode, "Death Stalks the Big Top". He also appeared in the ''Route 66'' episode, "Somehow It Gets To Be Tomorrow".

He played Dr. Rudy Wells when the Martin Caidin novel ''Cyborg'' was adapted as a TV-movie pilot for ''The Six Million Dollar Man'' (1973), though he did not reprise the role for the subsequent series. In 1975, he appeared as James Arthur Cummins in the Joe Don Baker police drama ''Mitchell'', a film that was eventually featured in a highly popular episode of the comedy film-riffing series ''Mystery Science Theater 3000'' in 1993. He appeared as a spokesman/hostage in the TV movie '' Raid on Entebbe'' (1976) and as a detective in the TVM '' Contract on Cherry Street'' (1977), starring Frank Sinatra. He also appeared on an episode of ''Quincy, M.E.''. Balsam starred as Murray Klein on the ''All in the Family'' spin-off ''Archie Bunker's Place'' for two seasons (1979–81) and returned for a guest appearance in the show's fourth and final season.

Film

Balsam made his film debut with an uncredited role in ''On the Waterfront'' (1954), directed by his Actors' Studio colleague Elia Kazan. Balsam played an official of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey investigating mob involvement in the city's waterfront unions. His breakthrough role came a few years later, when he played Juror #1 in ''12 Angry Men'' (1957). He would collaborate with the film's director, Sidney Lumet, twice more with ''The Anderson Tapes'' (1971) and ''Murder on the Orient Express'' (1974).

In 1960, he appeared in one of his best-remembered roles as private investigator Arbogast in Alfred Hitchcock's '' Psycho''. Along with Gregory Peck and Robert Mitchum, Balsam appeared in both the original '' Cape Fear'' (1962), and the 1991 Martin Scorsese remake. He won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Arnold Burns in '' A Thousand Clowns'' (1965). Balsam also performed the original voice of the HAL 9000 computer in '' 2001: A Space Odyssey''. After his lines were recorded, director Stanley Kubrick decided "Marty just sounded a little bit too colloquially American," and hired Douglas Rain to perform the role for the released film.

Balsam also appeared in such notable films as ''Time Limit'' with Richard Widmark, '' Breakfast at Tiffany's'' with Audrey Hepburn and George Peppard, ''The Carpetbaggers'' with George Peppard and Alan Ladd, ''Seven Days in May'' with Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas, ''The Bedford Incident'' with Richard Widmark and Sidney Portier, '' Hombre'' with Paul Newman and Fredric March, ''Catch-22'' with Alan Arkin and Jon Voight, ''Tora! Tora! Tora!'' (as Admiral Husband E. Kimmel), ''Little Big Man'' with Dustin Hoffman, '' The Taking of Pelham One Two Three'' with Walter Matthau and Robert Shaw, ''All the President's Men'' with Dustin Hoffman and Robert Redford, ''The Delta Force'' with Lee Marvin, and ''The Goodbye People''. One of his final acting appearances was in the 1994 horror parody ''The Silence of the Hams'', which paid homage to his iconic role in ''Psycho''.

Beyond Hollywood, Balsam was also a popular character actor in Italian films, beginning in 1960 when he starred in the Luigi Comencini

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