Martin Landau

Born: 20 June 1931
Where: New York

At the age of 17, Martin worked for five years as an assistant cartoonist for newspapers in New York, but he caught the acting bug performing in regional and off-Broadway theatre and auditioned for the Actors Studio in 1955.

Martin's career in features got off to an auspicious start. His second film was Alfred Hitchcock's much-loved suspense thriller, North by Northwest, in which he played Leonard, one of the film's more prominent - and covertly gay - villains.

Martin's career revival began with his role as Abe Karatz, the sympathetic money man in Francis Ford Coppola's Tucker: The Man and His Dream, which netted him a first supporting Oscar nomination. He scored a second Oscar nod for his role in Jerry Orbach.

For his portrayal of faded film star Bela Lugosi in Tim Burton's Ed Wood, Martin won Best Supporting Actor at both the Oscars and the Golden Globe Awards.

Since then, he has remained in demand, playing a wide range of characters including an honest judge in the political corruption drama City Hall and a woodcarver in a live-action version of The Adventures of Pinocchio.

Martin played a mentor to Matt Damon in Rounders, appeared as Matthew McConnaughy's wheelchair-bound stepfather in Ron Howard's EDtv, and took a pivotal supporting role in The Majestic.