Damn. Truly one of the greats.
Don’t hate me, but - aside from Bela Lugosi in Ed Wood of course - I loved him in Ready to Rumble as Sal Bandini:
Little known factoid: He turned down the role of Mr. Spock on Star Trek.
Little known, unless you read the OP ;)
Seriously though, it bothered me that the Associated Press obit spent so much time focused on that decision and relatively little on his many actual accomplishments.
Pfft. Nobody reads anymore.
Oops.
:)
Every obit I’ve read makes a point of his North by Northwest character being gay, but that never struck me.
Maybe my gaydar needs adjusting.
Damn. Nimoy owns that role, but if anyone else could have pulled it off…
Adjusting for 1950s opacity, heh. I didn’t really notice either but I’m generally terrible at spotting LGBT subtexts. I guess he seems to have a crush on James Mason in the movie?
Every obit I’ve read makes a point of his North by Northwest character being gay, but that never struck me.
It’s a very pre-Stonewall, straight-world idea of gay signaling. For example, James Mason asks him how he knows something, at one point, and Landau replies, a little bitchily, “Call it a woman’s intuition.” To a contemporary audience it’s unmistakable; to an audience today it just seems like a weird thing for someone to say.
I know, right? :)
I dunno - maybe some actor in Hollywood will pull off their face and there will be good old Martin.
Which reminds me that I have to watch Ed Wood again. Such a great film.
I mistook Martin for Walter Matthau when I saw this thread title, who has been dead for a while now.
And as the one who started the thread, I get an email with each and every bump! The gift that keeps on giving…
Sorry. No more bumps. After this one. ;)