Martin Balsam


Martin Henry Balsam was an American actor who 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. His best known film roles include Juror #1 in 12 Angry Men, detective Milton Arbogast in Psycho, Arnold Burns in A Thousand Clowns , Colonel Cathcart in Catch-22, Mr. Green in The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, Signor Bianchi in Murder on the Orient Express, and Howard Simons in All the President's Men. He also had a starring role as Murray Klein in the television sitcom Archie Bunker's Place.

Early life and education

Martin Henry Balsam was born in the Bronx borough of New York City, to Russian-Jewish parents, Lillian 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, reaching 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

Martin 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'd 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, as a psychologist in the pilot episode, Five Fingers, , 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, 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 and as a detective in the TVM 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 and returned for a guest appearance in the show's fourth and final season. He even filled in for Charles Nelson Reilly on Match Game for one question when Reilly was late for a taping.

Film

Balsam made his film debut with an uncredited role in On the Waterfront, directed by his Actors' Studio colleague Elia Kazan. Balsam played an official of the New York Port Authority 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. He would collaborate with the film's director, Sidney Lumet, twice more with The Anderson Tapes and Murder on the Orient Express.
In 1960, he appeared in one of his best-remembered roles as private investigator Milton Arbogast in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho. Along with Gregory Peck and Robert Mitchum, Balsam appeared in both the original Cape Fear, 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. Balsam also performed the original voice of the HAL 9000 computer in . 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, Breakfast at Tiffany's, The Carpetbaggers, Seven Days in May, Hombre, Catch-22, Tora! Tora! Tora!, Little Big Man, The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, All the President's Men, The Delta Force, 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 film Everybody Go Home. He would star in several poliziottescho films throughout the 1970s, directed by the likes of Fernando Di Leo and Enzo G. Castellari. Balsam's roles in these films would be re-dubbed into Italian, but he would loop his own lines in the English-language export versions. Balsam maintained close ties to Italy even after the end of the poliziottesco trend, traveling their for both professional and personal reasons, and starring in the Italian-produced television series Ocean and La piovra.

Personal life

In 1951, Balsam married his first wife, actress Pearl Somner. They divorced three years later. His second wife was actress Joyce Van Patten. This marriage lasted for four years with one daughter, Talia Balsam. He married his third wife, Irene Miller, in 1963. They had two children, Adam and Zoe Balsam, and divorced in 1987.

Death

On February 13, 1996, Balsam died suddenly of a stroke in his hotel room while vacationing in Rome, Italy. He was 76 years old. He is interred at Cedar Park Cemetery, in Emerson, New Jersey.

Filmography

YearTitleRoleNotes
1949SuspenseAbramson
1949–1950Actors StudioSoldier4 episodes
1950Danger2 episodes
1951The Living Christ SeriesInnkeeperMiniseries
1951The Big StoryBill Pinney
1951Frontiers of Faith
1952The Living BibleNobleman
1953Man Against CrimeTony / Jean Pinay
1953Valiant LadyJoey Gordon
1954On the WaterfrontGillette, Secondary Investigator for Crime CommissionUncredited
1954The Greatest GiftHarold Matthews #2
1954Inner Sanctum MysteryWesley / Hanson / Larkin3 episodes
1954–1955Philco Television PlayhouseCharlie Malick / Mike Galloway3 episodes
1954–1956Goodyear Television PlayhousePerkins / Walter Gregg3 episodes
1955The United States Steel HourPetty Officer
195712 Angry MenJuror #1
1957Time LimitSargeant Baker
1957–1958Studio OneFrancis Toohey / Ed Coyne3 episodes
1958Kraft Television TheatreDino
1958Marjorie MorningstarDr. David Harris
1958Father Knows BestTeacher
1958PursuitHolden
1958DecoyNick Santos
1958Alfred Hitchcock PresentsLeonard Thompson
1958–59Playhouse 90Sam Gordon / Captain Mantell3 episodes
1958–59Westinghouse Desilu PlayhouseGambetta / Dr. Gillespie2 episodes
1958–1960Have Gun – Will TravelMarshall Jim Brock / Charles Dawes2 episodes
1959RawhideFather Fabian
1959Al CaponeMac Keeley
1959The Further Adventures of Ellery Queen2 episodes
1959Middle of the NightJack
1959BrennerArnold Joplin
1959The DuPont Show of the MonthCharlie Davis
1959Dick Powell's Zane Grey TheaterSam Butler
1959WintersetGarth
1959The Twilight ZoneDanny WeissEpisode: "The Sixteen Millimeter Shrine"
1959–1962Naked CityCaptain Russell Barris / Joseph Creeley / Caldwell Wyatt / Arnold Fleischman4 episodes
1960Five FingersMonteverdi
1960Goodyear TheaterJoe Lane
1960The Robert Herridge Theater
1960Sunday ShowcaseNicola Sacco
1960PsychoDetective Milton Arbogast
1960Tutti a casaSergeant Quintino Fornaciari
1961Way OutBill Clayton
1961Alfred Hitchcock PresentsElon Marsh
1961AdaSteve Jackson
1961Breakfast at Tiffany'sO.J. Berman
1961The New BreedFrank Eberhardt
1961The UntouchablesBarry Leimer
1961Route 66Corelli
1961–1964The DefendersDistrict Attorney / Bernard Maxwell / Floyd Harker4 episodes
1962Cain's HundredJack Garsell
1962The UntouchablesArnold Justin
1962Cape FearPolice Chief Mark Dutton
1962Jeffrey Marvin
1962La città prigionieraJoseph Feinberg
1962–1966Dr. KildareDr. Milton Orliff / Benny Orloff / Ned Lacey7 episodes
1963Route 66Mike
1963The Eleventh HourFrank Dunlear
1963The Twilight ZoneMartin Lombard SenescuEpisode: "The New Exhibit"
1963Breaking PointRabbi Eli Oringer
1963Who's Been Sleeping in My Bed?Sanford Kaufman
1964Arrest and TrialLeo Valera
1964EspionageRichard Carey
1964Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler TheatreDave Breslaw
1964Seven Days in MayPresidential aide Paul Girard
1964Wagon TrainMarcey Jones
1964SuspenseDetective Jack Gross
1964The CarpetbaggersBernard B. Norman
1964Youngblood HawkeCameo AppearanceUncredited
1964Mr. BroadwayNate Bannerman
1965ITV Play of the WeekDoc Delaney
1965The Man from U.N.C.L.EAlbert SullyEpisode: "The Odd Man Affair"
1965HarlowEverett Redman
1965The Bedford IncidentLieutenant Commander Chester Potter, USNR, MD
1965A Thousand ClownsArnoldAcademy Award for Best Supporting Actor
1966Caccia alla volpeHarry Granoff
1966"Anyone Around My Base Is It"NarratorShort Documentary
1967The FugitiveAndrew Newmark
1967HombreMendez
1967Among the Paths to EdenIvor Belli
1968The Name of the GameAngie
1968Around the World of Mike ToddMichael ToddTV movie / Documentary; Voice
1969Me, NatalieUncle Harold
1969The Good Guys and the Bad GuysMayor Wilker
1969TrilogyIvor Belli
1970CBS PlayhouseJesse
1970Hunters Are for KillingWade HamiltonTV movie
1970Catch-22Colonel CathcartGroup Commander, 256th Bomb Group
1970Tora! Tora! Tora!Admiral Husband E. Kimmel
1970The Old Man Who Cried WolfStanley Pulska
1970The Name of the GameHerb Witmer
1970Little Big ManMr. Merriweather
1971Confessions of a Police CaptainInspector Bonavia
1971The Anderson TapesTommy Haskins
1972Chronicle of a HomicideJudge Aldo Sola
1972The Hassled Hooker District Attorney Turrisi
1972The ManJim Talley
1972Night of TerrorCaptain Caleb SarkTV movie
1972The Infamous Column
1973A Brand New LifeJim DouglasTV movie
1973The Six Million Dollar ManDr. Rudy WellsTV movie: "The Moon and the Desert"
1973The Stone KillerAl Vescari
1973Counselor at CrimeDon Antonio Macaluso
1973Summer Wishes, Winter DreamsHarry Walden
1973Money to BurnTV movie
1973Police StoryDetective Al Koster
1974The Taking of Pelham One Two ThreeHarold "Green" Longman
1974Trapped Beneath the SeaT.C. HollisterTV movie
1974KojakRay Kaufman
1974Murder on the Orient ExpressBianchi
1975Miles to Go Before I SleepBen MontgomeryTV movie
1975Smiling ManiacsCarlo Goja
1975Death Among FriendsHam Russell BucknerTV movie
1975Cry, Onion!Petrus Lamb
1975MitchellJames Arthur Cummings
1975Season for AssassinsCommissioner Katroni
1976The Lindbergh Kidnapping CaseEdward J. ReillyTV movie
1976All the President's MenHoward Simons
1976MaudeChester
1976Meet Him and DieGiulianelli
1976Death RageCommissario
1976Two-Minute WarningSam McKeever
1976Raid on EntebbeDaniel CooperTV movie
1977The SentinelProfessor Ruzinsky
1977Silver BearsJoe Fiore
1977Contract on Cherry StreetCaptain Ernie Weinberg
1977The StorytellerIra DavidoffTV movie
1977Blood and DiamondsRizzo
1978Eyes Behind the StarsInspector Jim Grant
1978SiegeHenry FancherTV movie
1978RainbowLouis B. MayerTV movie
1978The MillionaireArthur HainesTV movie
1978The Joe Franklin ShowHimselfTelevision interview
1978A Salute to American ImaginationHimselfTV movie / Documentary
1979The Seeding of Sarah BurnsDr. Samuel MelmanTV movie
1979GardeniaSalluzzo
1979The House on Garibaldi StreetIsser HarelTV movie
1979Aunt MaryHarry StrasburgTV movie
1979CubaGeneral Bello
1979–1983Archie Bunker's PlaceMurray Kleinseries regular / guest star; 46 episodes
1980The Love TapesDavid Franklin
1980There Goes the BrideElmer Babcock
1980The WarningQuestore Martorana
1981The SalamanderCaptain Steffanelli
1981The People vs. Jean HarrisJoel AurnouTV movie
1982Quincy, M.E.Hyam Sigerski
1982Little Gloria... Happy at LastNathan BurkanTV movie
1982Night of 100 StarsHimselfTV special
1983I Want to Live!Jack BradyTV movie
1983Cold StorageParmigianTV Movie
1984The Goodbye PeopleMax Silverman
1984Innocent PreySheriff Virgil Baker
1985SpaceSenator GlanceyMiniseries
1985St. Elmo's FireMr. Beamish
1985Murder in SpaceAlexander RostovTV movie
1985Death Wish 3Bennett
1985Great PerformancesJack
1985GlitterBo
1986La piovra, Frank CarrisiMiniseries; 5 episodes
1986The Delta ForceBen Kaplan
1986Whatever It TakesHap Perchicksky
1986Second ServeDr. BeckTV movie
1986Murder, She WroteEdgar CarmodyEpisodes: "Death Stalks The Big Top" Parts 1 & 2
1986The Twilight ZoneRockne O'BannonSegment: "Personal Demons"
1987HotelDr. Gilbert Holt
1987QueenieMartyTV miniseries
1987P.I. Private InvestigationsCliff Dowling
1987The Twilight ZoneProfessor Donald KnowlesSegment: "Voices in the Earth"
1987Brothers in BloodMajor Briggs
1987Kids Like TheseGrandpaTV movie
1987Once AgainTV movie
1988The Child SaverSidney RosenbergTV movie
1988The Brother from Space Father Howard
1989OceanDon Matias QuinteroTV miniseries
1990Two Evil EyesMr. Pym
1990Midnight CallerGil Solarski
1990La piovra, Don Calogero Barretta
1991Ľultima metaLawyer
1991Cape FearJudge
1992The Sands of TimeTV movie
1993"The Black Cat"Movie Short
1994The Silence of the HamsDetective Martin Balsam
1995Soldato ignotoEnglish meaning: Unknown Soldier
1997Legend of the Spirit DogGrampsReleased posthumously on August 19, 1997, 9 months after his death

Awards and nominations

Academy Awards

YearCategoryWorkResult
1966Best Supporting ActorA Thousand Clowns

National Board of Review –
Tony Awards –
Golden Globe Awards –
BAFTA Awards –
Primetime Emmy Awards –