Oscar Winner Martin Landau Dies at 89

Academy Award winning actor, Martin Landau has died at the age of 89.

Landau, best known for his roles in Cleopatra, Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest and Tim Burton’s Ed Wood died at 1:30 p.m. PST at UCLA Medical Center.

TMZ reports Landau died after a short hospitalization where he suffered unexpected complications.

Before becoming one of the greatest actors of our generation and going on to star in some of the most iconic roles of all-time, Landau was a cartoonist in the early ’50s. But it was in 1966 that he got his big break and caught wind of the acting bug when he starred the Mission: Impossible series. It was during his stint on the beloved spy show that he met his then wife, Barbara Bain.

His portrayal of Rollin Hand, the actor, magician, and a master of disguise who billed himself as “The Man Of A Million Faces,” got him nominated for Emmys over the years and won the Best Male TV Star Golden Globe in 1968.

Known as a lanky, offbeat-looking actor, Landau had a slew of ups and downs in his career, but his greatest successes came later in life when he returned to character roles like the one that first won him notice, as James Mason’s sinister gay henchman in Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest.

Over the years, he was nominated for supporting roles, including Francis Ford Coppola’s Tucker: The Man and His Dream. In 1994, he finally won an Academy Award for his portrayal of Bela Lugosi in Tim Burton’s biopic, Ed Wood.

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