Klaus Kinski

However, this proved to be highly controversial. Martin is a member of Mensa International. Recently he was honoured by his city of birth, Sopot. 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 died of a heart attack in Lagunitas, California, United States. Martin is also an avid art collector, particularly modern American art, and a trustee of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. His brother Arme lives in Berlin, still bitter about the way Klaus portrayed him in his "autobiography". In 2002, Martin adapted the Carl Sternheim play The Underpants, which ran Off-Broadway at Classic Stage Company.

He was married four times and had three children, two daughters (Nastassja Kinski and Pola Kinski, both being actresses) and a son (Nikolai Kinski). In 2001, Martin hosted the 73rd Annual Academy Awards. Herzog's retrospective on his work with Kinski was released in the United States as My Best Fiend. In 1993, Martin wrote the play Picasso at the Lapin Agile, which had a successful run in several American cities. Due to him playing a lot of crazy, murderous villains in his films (for example in the Edgar Wallace series) and his determined, often obsessive behavior, he often was referred to as a crazy genius. He appeared in a version of Waiting for Godot as Vladimir (with Robin Williams as Estragon). In real life, Kinski often appeared as a drunken, sex-crazed maniac, chronicling his exploits in an (largely fictitious) autobiography that rivals Wilt Chamberlain's in terms of sexuality. He alienated all his family with claims of incest, and when he died, only his son Nikolai attended the burial (his ashes were sunk in the Pacific Ocean). They later appeared in the collection Pure Drivel.

Fritz Kortner (whom Kinski mentions in his autobiography) was also famous for being very harsh and brutal during rehearsals. Throughout the 90s, after Tina Brown took over The New Yorker, Martin wrote various pieces for the magazine. This was seen as the only way to achieve perfection. Karl Paryla, for example, saw it as part of his "methodology" to drive "his" actors close to a "nervous breakdown", because then they would perform better. In 1999, Martin and Goldie Hawn starred in a remake of the 1970 Neil Simon comedy, The Out-of-Towners. To scream and shout abuse uncontrollably was common behaviour of theatre directors during rehearsals. Martin starred in the Ron Howard film, Parenthood in 1989. He was a victim of the German directors he initially had to work with. 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.

He was an extremely hard worker and strove for perfection; however, he was frequently at odds with co-workers and directors and rarely a good team player. In 1987, Martin joined comedian John Candy in the John Hughes film, Planes, Trains and Automobiles. With his fluency in English, his unique appearance, and his ability to project on-screen intensity, Kinski was always able to get roles, although the quality of the productions varied wildly, most of them considered "junk" (Schrott) by Kinski himself. It was originally entitled The Three Caballeros and Martin was to be teamed with Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi. His international reputation was built on his collaborations with director Werner Herzog in such films as Aguirre: The Wrath of God (1972), Woyzeck (a deep and tender portrayal of the Woyzeck character, possibly the best performance Kinski ever produced on screen) (1978), Fitzcarraldo (1982) and Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979). 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. His film roles include A Time to Love and a Time to Die (1958), The Counterfeit Traitor (1962), Doctor Zhivago (1965), For a Few Dollars More (1966), Grand Slam (movie) (1968). 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.

He started on stage in Germany, became a legend as a monologist (presenting the prose and verse of William Shakespeare and Francois Villon, among others), and soon moved, pragmatically, to film, where the money was better. 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.". He began acting and changed his name to Klaus Kinski. To prepare for that film, he took acting lessons from the director, Herbert Ross, and spent months learning how to tap dance. After the war, he chose to return to West Germany rather than Poland because of the spread of communism. 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. When he was in a POW camp, he realized his acting talent as he performed for his fellow prisoners. He was executive producer for a prime-time TV series starring Martin Mull and a late-night series called Twilight Theater.

He spent most of his time during the war as a POW under British control. 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). Kinski went AWOL and surrendered himself to the British forces. The success of The Jerk opened more doors for him. Kinski supposedly spent his short term in the military flagging down American planes and begging them to shoot him. The movie was a huge success, grossing $100 million on a budget less than a twentieth of that amount. As World War II engulfed Europe, Kinski was drafted into the German Army and served in the Netherlands. In 1979, Martin wrote and starred in his first full-length movie, The Jerk, directed by Carl Reiner.

In 1930/31, the family moved to Berlin and Klaus attended the Prinz-Heinrich-Gymnasium in Schöneberg. The film was nominated for an Academy Award as Best Short Film, Live Action. Kinski was born Nikolaus Karl Günther Nakszynski to an ethnic Polish father, the pharmacist Bruno Nakszynski, and a Danzig (Gdansk) pastor's daughter named Susanne Lutze, in Zoppot (now Sopot, Poland), which was then located within the territory of the Free City of Danzig. The seven-minute long film was written by and starred Martin. Klaus Kinski (October 18, 1926–November 23, 1991) was an international film actor who was regarded as one of the best German actors of the second half of the 20th century. 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.