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. 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), the ship doctor Lieutenant Commander Chester Potter in The Bedford Incident (1965), 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 recurring television roles as Dr. Milton Orloff on the medical drama Dr. Kildare (1963–66) and as Murray Klein on the sitcom Archie Bunker's Place (1979–83).

In addition to his Oscar and Tony Awards, Balsam was a BAFTA Award, Golden Globe Award, and Emmy Award nominee. He and wife Joyce Van Patten are the parents of actress Talia Balsam.

Early life and education Martin Henry Balsam was born on November 4, 1919, in the Bronx borough of New York City to Russian Jewish parents Lillian (née Weinstein) and Alberto Balsam, who was a manufacturer of shampoo. He attended DeWitt Clinton High School where he participated in the drama club. He served as a sergeant radio operator in a B-24 in the China-Burma-India Theater of Operations. After World War II he resumed his acting career in New York.

From 1947 to 1949 Balsam was a resident member of the summer stock company Town Hall Players in West Newbury, Massachusetts, a community-sponsored summer theatre. 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 film 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 Actors Studio, 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 Route 66 episode, "Somehow It Gets To Be Tomorrow"; The Twilight Zone as a psychologist in the 1958 pilot episode "The Time Element" and appearing in the episodes "The Sixteen Millimeter Shrine" and "The New Exhibit"; Five Fingers; Target: The Corruptors!; The Eleventh Hour; Breaking Point; Alfred Hitchcock Presents; The Fugitive; 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 in the two-part Murder, She Wrote episode, "Death Stalks the Big Top".

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 an episode of the film parody 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 TV movie 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, culminating in a scene in which Mrs. Bates surprises him, quickly stabbing him in the chest, at the top of a flight of stairs, which he then falls down, to his death. 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. He told a journalist in August 1966, "I'm not actually seen in the picture at any time, but I sure create a lot of excitement projecting my voice through that machine. And I'm getting an Academy Award winner price for doing it, too." 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 Poitier, The Man with James Earl Jones, 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 film Everybody Go Home. He would star in several poliziottesco 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 there 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 (from 1958 until 1962) 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.

Filmography Film Year Title Role Notes 1954 On the Waterfront Gillette, Secondary Investigator for Crime Commission Uncredited1957 12 Angry Men Juror #1 Time Limit Sergeant Baker 1958 Marjorie Morningstar Dr. David Harris 1959 Al Capone Mac Keeley Middle of the Night Jack 1960 Psycho Detective Milton Arbogast Tutti a casa Sergeant Quintino Fornaciari 1961 Ada Steve Jackson Breakfast at Tiffany's O.J. Berman 1962 Cape Fear Police Chief Mark Dutton La città prigioniera Joseph Feinberg 1963 Who's Been Sleeping in My Bed? Sanford Kaufman 1964 Seven Days in May Presidential aide Paul Girard The Carpetbaggers Bernard B. Norman Youngblood Hawke Cameo appearance; uncredited1965 Harlow Everett Redman The Bedford Incident Lieutenant Commander Chester Potter, USNR, MD A Thousand Clowns Arnold Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor1966 Caccia alla volpe Harry Granoff Anyone Around My Base Is It Narrator Short documentary 1967 Hombre Mendez 1969 Me, Natalie Harold Miller The Good Guys and the Bad Guys Mayor Wilker Trilogy Ivor Belli Segment: "Among the Paths to Eden"1970 Catch-22 Colonel Cathcart Tora! Tora! Tora! Admiral Husband E. Kimmel Little Big Man Mr. Merriweather 1971 Confessions of a Police Captain Inspector Bonavia The Anderson Tapes Tommy Haskins 1972 Chronicle of a Homicide Judge Aldo Sola The Hassled Hooker District Attorney Turrisi The Man Jim Talley The Infamous Column 1973 The Stone Killer Al Vescari Counselor at Crime Don Antonio Macaluso Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams Harry Walden 1974 The Taking of Pelham One Two Three Harold "Green" Longman Murder on the Orient Express Bianchi 1975 Smiling Maniacs Carlo Goja Cry, Onion! Petrus Lamb Mitchell James Arthur Cummings Season for Assassins Commissioner Katroni 1976 All the President's Men Howard Simons Meet Him and Die Giulianelli Death Rage Commissario Two-Minute Warning Sam McKeever 1977 The Sentinel Professor Ruzinsky Silver Bears Joe Fiore Blood and Diamonds Rizzo 1978 Eyes Behind the Stars Inspector Jim Grant 1979 Gardenia Salluzzo Cuba General Bello 1980 There Goes the Bride Elmer Babcock The Warning Questore Martorana 1981 The Salamander Captain Steffanelli 1984 The Goodbye People Max Silverman Innocent Prey Sheriff Virgil Baker 1985 St. Elmo's Fire Mr. Beamish Death Wish 3 Bennett 1986 The Delta Force Ben Kaplan Whatever It Takes Hap Perchicksky 1987 P.I. Private Investigations Cliff Dowling Brothers in Blood Major Briggs 1988 The Brother from Space Father Howard 1990 Two Evil Eyes Mr. Pym Segment: "The Black Cat"1991 Ľultima meta Lawyer Cape Fear Judge 1993 The Black Cat Short 1994 The Silence of the Hams Detective Martin Balsam 1995 Soldato ignoto English meaning: Unknown Soldier 1997 Legend of the Spirit Dog Gramps Released posthumously on August 19, 1997 (final film role)

Television Year Title Role Notes 1949 Suspense Abramson 1949–1950 Actors Studio Soldier 4 episodes 1950 Danger 2 episodes1951 The Living Christ Series Innkeeper Miniseries The Big Story Bill Pinney Frontiers of Faith 1952 The Living Bible Nobleman 1953 Man Against Crime Tony / Jean Pinay Valiant Lady Joey Gordon 1954 The Greatest Gift Harold Matthews #2 Inner Sanctum Mystery Wesley / Hanson / Larkin 3 episodes 1954–1955 The Philco Television Playhouse Charlie Malick / Mike Galloway 3 episodes 1954–1956 Goodyear Television Playhouse Perkins / Walter Gregg 3 episodes 1955 The United States Steel Hour Petty Officer 1957–1958 Studio One Francis Toohey / Ed Coyne 3 episodes1958 Kraft Television Theatre Dino Father Knows Best Teacher Pursuit Holden Decoy Nick Santos Alfred Hitchcock Presents Eldon Marsh Season 3 Episode 19: "The Equalizer"1958–1959 Playhouse 90 Sam Gordon / Captain Mantell 3 episodes Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse Gambetta / Dr. Gillespie 2 episodes 1958–1960 Have Gun – Will Travel Marshall Jim Brock / Charles Dawes 2 episodes1959 Rawhide Father Fabian The Further Adventures of Ellery Queen 2 episodes Brenner Arnold Joplin The DuPont Show of the Month Charlie Davis Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre Sam Butler Winterset Garth The Twilight Zone Danny Weiss Episode: "The Sixteen Millimeter Shrine" 1959–1962 Naked City Captain Russell Barris / Joseph Creeley / Caldwell Wyatt / Arnold Fleischman 4 episodes 1960 Five Fingers Monteverdi Goodyear Theater Joe Lane The Robert Herridge Theater NBC Sunday Showcase Nicola Sacco Episode: "Sacco-Vanzetti Story"1961 Way Out Bill Clayton Alfred Hitchcock Presents Leonard Thompson Season 6 Episode 36: "Final Arrangements" The New Breed Frank Eberhardt The Untouchables Barry Leimer Route 66 Corelli 1961–1964 The Defenders District Attorney / Bernard Maxwell / Floyd Harker 4 episodes1962 Cain's Hundred Jack Garsell The Untouchables Arnold Justin Target: The Corruptors Jeffrey Marvin 1962–1966 Dr. Kildare Dr. Milton Orliff / Benny Orloff / Ned Lacey 7 episodes 1963 Route 66 Mike The Eleventh Hour Frank Dunlear The Twilight Zone Martin Lombard Senescu Episode: "The New Exhibit" Breaking Point Rabbi Eli Oringer 1964 Arrest and Trial Leo Valera Espionage Richard Carey Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre Dave Breslaw Wagon Train Marcey Jones Suspense Detective Jack Gross Mr. Broadway Nate Bannerman 1965 ITV Play of the Week Doc Delaney The Man from U.N.C.L.E Albert Sully Episode: "The Odd Man Affair" 12 O'Clock High Army Doctor Uncredited1967 The Fugitive Andrew Newmark Among the Paths to Eden Ivor Belli 1968 The Name of the Game Angie Around the World of Mike Todd Michael Todd TV movie / Documentary; Voice1970 CBS Playhouse Jesse Hunters Are for Killing Wade Hamilton TV movie The Old Man Who Cried Wolf Stanley Pulska The Name of the Game Herb Witmer 1972 Night of Terror Captain Caleb Sark TV movie1973 A Brand New Life Jim Douglas TV movie The Six Million Dollar Man Dr. Rudy Wells TV movie: "The Moon and the Desert" Money to Burn TV movie Police Story Detective Al Koster 1974 Trapped Beneath the Sea T.C. Hollister TV movie Kojak Ray Kaufman 1975 Miles to Go Before I Sleep Ben Montgomery TV movie Death Among Friends Ham Russell Buckner TV movie1976 The Lindbergh Kidnapping Case Edward J. Reilly TV movie Maude Chester Raid on Entebbe Daniel Cooper TV movie1977 Contract on Cherry Street Captain Ernie Weinberg The Storyteller Ira Davidoff TV movie1978 Siege Henry Fancher TV movie Rainbow Louis B. Mayer TV movie The Millionaire Arthur Haines TV movie The Joe Franklin Show Himself Television interview A Salute to American Imagination Himself TV movie / Documentary1979 The Seeding of Sarah Burns Dr. Samuel Melman TV movie The House on Garibaldi Street Isser Harel TV movie Aunt Mary Harry Strasburg TV movie 1979–1983 Archie Bunker's Place Murray Klein series regular / guest star; 46 episodes 1980 The Love Tapes David Franklin 1981 The People vs. Jean Harris Joel Aurnou TV movie 1982 Quincy, M.E. Hyam Sigerski Little Gloria... Happy at Last Nathan Burkan TV movie Night of 100 Stars Himself TV special 1983 I Want to Live! Jack Brady TV movie Cold Storage Parmigian TV movie1985 Space Senator Glancey Miniseries Murder in Space Alexander Rostov TV movie Great Performances Jack Glitter Bo 1986 La piovra Frank Carrisi ; 5 episodes Second Serve Dr. Beck TV movie Murder, She Wrote Edgar Carmody Episodes: "Death Stalks The Big Top" Parts 1 & 2 The Twilight Zone Rockne O'Bannon Segment: "Personal Demons"1987 Hotel Dr. Gilbert Holt Queenie Marty TV miniseries The Twilight Zone Professor Donald Knowles Segment: "Voices in the Earth" Kids Like These Grandpa TV movie Once Again TV movie 1988 The Child Saver Sidney Rosenberg TV movie 1989 Ocean Don Matias Quintero TV miniseries1990 Midnight Caller Gil Solarski La piovra Don Calogero Barretta 1992 The Sands of Time TV movie 1996 O. Henry's Christmas Wash TV movie segment: The Gift of the Magi

Awards and nominations NominationsAcademy AwardsTony AwardsBAFTA Film AwardsGolden Globe AwardsPrimetime Emmy Awards

Academy Awards

YearCategoryWorkResult 1966 Best Supporting Actor A Thousand Clowns

Tony Awards YearCategoryWorkResult 1968Best Actor in a PlayYou Know I Can't Hear You When the Water's Running

BAFTA Awards

Golden Globe Awards YearCategoryWorkResult 1974Best Supporting Actor – Motion PictureSummer Wishes, Winter Dreams

Primetime Emmy Awards YearCategoryWorkResult 1977Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or MovieRaid on Entebbe

National Board of Review Awards YearCategoryWorkResult 1964Best Supporting ActorThe Carpetbaggers

Drama Desk Awards YearCategoryWorkResult 1977Outstanding Actor in a PlayCold Storage

Obie Award YearCategoryWorkResult 1977Distinguished Performance by an ActorCold Storage

Outer Critics Circle Awards