Ross Martin (March 22, 1920 – July 3, 1981) was an American radio, voice, stage, film and television actor. He appeared as Godfrey, the professional bum who takes Mork under his wing, in Season 3's Mork and the Bum Rap.
Biography[]
Born Martin Rosenblatt, March 22, 1920 to a Polish Jewish family in Gródek, Poland (now Horodok, Ukraine). He and his parents emigrated to New York City when he was an infant, arrived at Ellis Island on the 18 September. They settled in The Bronx. Martin spoke Polish, Yiddish and some Russian before learning English and later added French, Spanish and Italian to his repertoire.
Martin attended City College of New York, where he graduated magna cum laude, then earned a law degree from the National University School of Law (later part of the George Washington University).
Martin married his first wife, Muriel Weiss, in 1941. They had one child together, a daughter, Phyllis Rosenblatt (a New York artist). Weiss died from cancer in 1965. (Martin and Weiss were separated at the time of her death.)
In 1967, Martin married Olavee Lucile Parsons (a successful model and documentary director) and adopted her two children, Rebecca (Martin) Schacht and George Martin. Martin and Parsons remained married until Martin's death in 1981. She died in 2002.
On July 3, 1981, Martin suffered a fatal heart attack after a game of tennis at San Vincente Tennis Ranch, San Diego County Club of Ramona, California. He was rushed to the Pomerado Hospital in Poway, California, but was pronounced dead on arrival.
Career[]
Despite academic training in business, instruction, and law, Martin chose a career in acting. He was partners in a comedy team with Bernie West for several years, then appeared on many radio and live TV broadcasts before making his Broadway debut in Hazel Flagg in 1953, a musical based on the old Carol Lombard comedy, Nothing Sacred.
He got into TV 4 years before that appearing in Lights Out (1949 -51), but made his first feature film appearance in George Pal's classic Conquest of Space (1955), other movies included Underwater Warrior (1958), The Colossus of New York (1958), Experiment in Terror (1962), Geronimo (1962), The Ceremony (1963), The Man from Button Willow (1965) and The Great Race (1965)
After his performance in The Great Race, CBS cast Martin in what was to become his most famous role, the extremely dapper Secret Service agent Artemus Gordon in The Wild Wild West, opposite Robert Conrad. The Artemus Gordon character was a master gadgeteer and disguise artist, and these attributes fitted Martin perfectly. Martin himself created most of his disguises for the show, and most of the cast had no idea what he would look like until seeing him during the shooting of the episode
TV Filmography[]
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1949 | Lights Out | Episode: "I Dreamt I Died" | |
| 1950 | Lights Out | Episode: "A Toast to Sergeant Farnsworth" | |
| 1950 | Lights Out | Episode: "The Gloves of Gino" | |
| 1951 | Lights Out | Episode: "The Man with the Astrakhan Hat" | |
| 1950-1955 | Treasury Men in Action | Agent | 189 episodes |
| 1951 | Somerset Maugham TV Theatre | Episode: "Appearances and Reality" | |
| 1952 | Goodyear Television Playhouse | Episode: "The Cipher" | |
| 1953 | Suspense | Episode: "Needle in a Haystack" | |
| 1953 | Suspense | Episode: "The Riddle of Mayerling" | |
| 1954 | The Web | Episode: "The Hunted" | |
| 1954-1956 | The Big Story | William Fernandez | 3 episodes |
| 1955-1957 | Modern Romances' | 6 episodes | |
| 1956 | Sheriff of Cochise | Episode: "The Check Artist" | |
| 1957 | The Alcoa Hour | Tony | Episode: "A Double Life" |
| 1958 | The Court of Last Resort | Phillip Huston | Episode: "The Phillip Huston Case" |
| 1958 | Gunsmoke | Dan Clell | Episode: "Bottleman" |
| 1958 | The Walter Winchell File | Buckner | Episode: "Portrait of a Cop: File #27" |
| 1959 | Peter Gunn | Sal Matzi | Episode: "The Fuse" |
| 1959 | Twilight Zone | Johnny Foster | Episode: "The Four Of Us Are Dying" |
| 1959 | Naked City | Carlo | Episode: "Ten Cent Dreams" |
| 1959 | Sea Hunt | Finch | Episode: "The Dam" |
| 1959 | Sea Hunt | USCG Captain Stevens | Episode: "The Briefcase" |
| 1959 | Steve Canyon | Aly Brahma | Episode: "Room 313" |
| 1959 | One Step Beyond | Paul Marlin | Episode: "Echo" |
| 1959-1960 | Mr. Lucky | Andamo | 34 episodes |
| 1960 | Laramie | Angel | Episode: "A Sound of Bells" |
| 1960 | The Twilight Zone | Johnny | Episode: "The Four of Us Are Dying" |
| 1961 | The Law and Mr. Jones | Frank Brody | Episode: "The Enemy" |
| 1961 | 87th Precinct | Joe Czepreghi | Episode: "Occupation: Citizen" |
| 1961 | Zorro | Marcos Estrada | Episode: "Auld Acquaintance" |
| 1963 | Wagon Train | Sam Pulaski | Episode: "The Sam Pulaski Story" |
| 1963 | The Twilight Zone | Lt. Ted Mason | Episode: "Death Ship Episode #108" |
| 1963 | Bonanza | Nick Biancci | Episode: "Little Man... Ten Feet Tall" |
| 1963 | The Danny Thomas Show | Copa Club Musician | Season 11, episode 11 "The Two Musketeers" |
| 1964 | Vacation Playhouse | Claudie Hughes | Episode: "I and Claudie" |
| 1965-1969 | The Wild Wild West | Artemus Gordon | 95 episodes |
| 1970 | The Immortal | Eddie Yoman | Episode: " White Elephants Don't Grow on Trees" |
| 1970 | Swing Out, Sweet Land | Alexander Hamilton | Television special |
| 1971 | The Sheriff | Larry Walters | Television movie |
| 1971 | Columbo | Dale Kingston | Episode: "Suitable for Framing" |
| 1971 | Night Gallery | Mr. Gingold | Episode: "Camera Obscura" |
| 1972 | The F.B.I. | George Barrows | Episode: "The Wizard" |
| 1972 | ABC Afterschool Special | Stan | Episode: "The Last of the Curlews" |
| 1972 | The Crooked Hearts | Sgt. Daniel Shane | Television movie |
| 1973 | Dying Room Only | Jim Cutler | Television movie |
| 1973 | Tenafly | Grady Hall | Episode: "Joyride to Nowhere" |
| 1973 | Ironside | Arthur Damien | Episode: "Mind for Murder" |
| 1973 | Night Gallery | Bradley Meredith | Episode: "The Other Way Out" |
| 1973 | The Return of Charlie Chan | Charlie Chan | Television movie |
| 1974 | Skyway to Death | Martin Leonard | Television movie |
| 1974 | Barnaby Jones | Maxwell Imry | Episode: "Friends Till Death" |
| 1975 | The Invisible Man | Amb Diego Devega | Episode: "The Fine Art of Diplomacy" |
| 1975 | Ellery Queen | Dr. Otis Tremaine | Episode: " The Adventure of the Pharaoh's Curse" |
| 1976 | Gemini Man | Carl Victor | Episode: "Minotaur" |
| 1976 | Sanford and Son | Aram | Episode: "California Crude" |
| 1977 | Blansky's Beauties | Sheik Ben-Ali | Episode: "Nancy Goes Sheik" |
| 1977 | Charlie's Angels | Dr. Perine | Episode: "Unidentified Flying Angels" |
| 1978 | Quark | Zorgon the Malevolent | 2 episodes "All the Emperor's Quasi-Norms, Parts 1 & 2" |
| 1978 | Vega$ | Werner Worthmeyer | Episode: "Mother Mishkin" |
| 1978-1979 | Hawaii Five-O | Tony Alika | 4 episodes |
| 1978 | Wild and Wooly | Otis Bergen | TV movie |
| 1979 | The Return of Mod Squad | Buck Prescott | Television movie |
| 1979 | The Seekers | Supply Pleasant | Television movie |
| 1979 | The Wild Wild West Revisited | Artemus Gordon | Television movie |
| 1980 | The Love Boat | Tom Thornton | Episode: "April's Love/Happy Ending/We Three" |
| 1980 | Fantasy Island | Ace Scanlon | Episode: "The Devil and Mandy Breem/The Millionaire" |
| 1980 | More Wild Wild West | Artemus Gordon | Television movie |
| 1981 | Mork & Mindy | Godfrey | Episode: "Mork and the Bum Rap" |
| 1983 | I Married Wyatt Earp | Jacob Spiegler | Television movie
Released posthumously, (final film role) |
Mork & Mindy[]
Martin's role as the bum Godfrey, was deliberately done against type of his immaculately dressed Artemus in Wild, Wild West. In addition a gag was added, with Mork, after he has given all his money away, offering Godfrey the only thing he has left, a button of Robert Conrad, Ross Martin's co-star in the show.
Sadly, his episode, Mork and the Bum Rap, was the last thing Ross Martin ever filmed, as he died later that same year after a 35 year career.