Jack Klugman

In the early 1990s, Klugman lost a vocal chord to cancer but has continued acting on stage and on television. Martin is a member of Mensa International. He is best known for his starring roles in two popular television series of the 1970s and early 1980s: The Odd Couple (1970-1975) and Quincy, M.E. (1976-1983). Martin's personal collection has at one time included the art of O'Keeffe, Twachtman, Diebenkorn, de Kooning, Kline, Twombly, Frankenthaler, Hopper, Hockney, Lichtenstein, and Picasso. He also won an Emmy Award for his work on the television series The Defenders and appeared in four episodes of the acclaimed series The Twilight Zone. Martin is also an avid art collector, particularly modern American art, and a trustee of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. He starred in several classic films including 12 Angry Men and Days Of Wine And Roses. In 2002, Martin adapted the Carl Sternheim play The Underpants, which ran Off-Broadway at Classic Stage Company.

Klugman began acting after serving in the United States Army during World War II. In 2001, Martin hosted the 73rd Annual Academy Awards. Jack Klugman (born April 27, 1922 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is an American television and movie actor. In 1993, Martin wrote the play Picasso at the Lapin Agile, which had a successful run in several American cities. He appeared in a version of Waiting for Godot as Vladimir (with Robin Williams as Estragon). They later appeared in the collection Pure Drivel.

Throughout the 90s, after Tina Brown took over The New Yorker, Martin wrote various pieces for the magazine. In 1999, Martin and Goldie Hawn starred in a remake of the 1970 Neil Simon comedy, The Out-of-Towners. Martin starred in the Ron Howard film, Parenthood in 1989. That same year, Roxanne, a film he cowrote, won him a Writers Guild of America award and more importantly, the recognition from Hollywood and the public that he was more than a comedian.

In 1987, Martin joined comedian John Candy in the John Hughes film, Planes, Trains and Automobiles. It was originally entitled The Three Caballeros and Martin was to be teamed with Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi. In 1986, Martin joined fellow Saturday Night Live veterans Martin Short and Chevy Chase in Three Amigos!, which was directed by John Landis, and written by Martin, Lorne Michaels and Randy Newman. Martin was in two more Reiner-directed comedies after The Jerk: Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid in 1982, and The Man with Two Brains in 1983.

The film was a financial failure; Martin's comment at the time was "I don't know what to blame, other than it's me and not a comedy.". To prepare for that film, he took acting lessons from the director, Herbert Ross, and spent months learning how to tap dance. It emboldened him to try his hand at his first serious film, Pennies From Heaven, a movie he was anxious to do because of the desire to avoid being typecast. He was executive producer for a prime-time TV series starring Martin Mull and a late-night series called Twilight Theater.

Stanley Kubrick met with him to discuss him starring in an early, screwball comedy version of Traumnovelle (Kubrick later changed his approach to the material). The success of The Jerk opened more doors for him. The movie was a huge success, grossing $100 million on a budget less than a twentieth of that amount. In 1979, Martin wrote and starred in his first full-length movie, The Jerk, directed by Carl Reiner.

The film was nominated for an Academy Award as Best Short Film, Live Action. The seven-minute long film was written by and starred Martin. Martin's first film was a short, The Absent-Minded Waiter (1977). His real goal was to get into film.

But unknown to his audience, stand-up comedy was "just an accident" for him. By the end of the 1970s, he had acquired the kind of following normally reserved for rock stars, with his tour appearances typically occurring at sold-out arenas filled with tens of thousands of screaming fans.
. A typical gag might be interrupted for a sip from a glass of water, and just as he was about to speak again, he forcefully spits the water onto the floor.

His style is off kilter and ironic, and sometimes makes fun of stand-up comedy traditions. It mixes philosophical riffs with sudden spurts of "happy feet", deft banjo playing with balloon depictions of concepts like venereal disease. In these and his two other albums, Martin's stand-up comedy was self-referential, sometimes self-mocking. Both albums won Grammys for Best Comedy Recording in 1977 and 1978.

Both were million sellers. A top 40 hit King Tut, from the album, released in 1978, was backed by the Toot Uncommons (better known as the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band). His next album, A Wild and Crazy Guy, was an even bigger success reaching the number two spot on the chart, and spawning another catch phrase, this time based on an SNL skit where Martin and Dan Aykroyd played a couple of bumbling Czechoslovakian playboys. The album was a huge success; one of its tracks, Excuse Me, helped establish a national catch phrase.

That exposure, together with appearances on NBC's Saturday Night Live (SNL), led to his first of four comedy albums, Let's Get Small. In the mid-1970s he made frequent appearances as a stand-up comedian on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. He continued to write, earning an Emmy nomination for his work on Van Dyke and Company in 1975. He appeared at San Francisco's The Boarding House among other locations.

He then started performing his own material, sometimes as an opening act for groups such as the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and Carpenters, and sometimes appearing on camera:. Martin also wrote for John Denver (a neighbor of his in Aspen, Colorado at one point) and The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour. Martin, along with the other writers for that show, won an Emmy Award in 1969. A girlfriend helped him get his first real job in 1967, as a comedy writer on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, the show she was on as a dancer.

Nevertheless, his time there changed his life:. Martin majored in philosophy at California State University, Long Beach, but dropped out. Martin worked at the Bird Cage Theater in Knott's Berry Farm and at the Magic Shop at Disneyland as a teenager, where he developed his talents for magic, juggling, playing the banjo and creating balloon animals. Stephen Glenn Martin (born August 14, 1945) is an American comedian, writer, producer, actor, musician and composer born in Waco, Texas and raised in Orange County, California.

Looney Tunes: Back In Action (2003). Cheaper by the Dozen (2003). Bringing Down the House (2003). Rutles 2: Can't Buy Me Lunch (2002, TV).

Novocaine (2001). Fantasia 2000 (1999) host. Bowfinger (1999). The Out-of-Towners, (1999).

The Prince of Egypt (1998, voice). The Spanish Prisoner (1997). Bilko (1996). Sgt.

HouseSitter (1992). Grand Canyon (1991). Father of the Bride (1991). Story (1991), also written by Martin.

L.A. My Blue Heaven (1990). Parenthood (1989). Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988).

Pennies from Heaven (1981). The Jerk, (1979) also co-written by Martin. The Muppet Movie (1979). Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, (1978).

Sgt. The Absent-Minded Waiter (1977) (short). The Steve Martin Brothers (1981). Comedy is Not Pretty! (1979).

Shopgirl (2001). Pure Drivel (1998). Story and Roxanne: Two Screenplays (1997). L.A.