Martin Landau

On this day in 1931 American actor Martin Landau was born in Brooklyn, NY. At age 17 he worked as a cartoonist and illustrator for the New York Daily News. Landau attended Lee Strasberg’s Actors Studio in 1955 and eventually went on to coach modern stars like Jack Nicholson and Anjelica Houston. At age 28 he made his major film debut in Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest (1959), alongside actors Cary Grant, Eva Saint Marie and James Mason. A few years later Landau landed the role of “Rollin Hand” on the hit television show “Mission: Impossible.” Landau has been nominated for several Oscars, including a win for Best Actor in 1994 for his role as Bela Lugosi, the original Dracula, in Tim Burton’s Ed Wood.

Factoid: Martin Landau has his own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.