Martin Alan "Marty" Feldman was an English comedy writer, comedian and actor, easily identified by his bulbous and crooked eyes. He starred in several British television comedy series, including At Last the 1948 Show and Marty, the latter of which won two BAFTA awards. He wa...
July 8, 1934, East End of London, London, United Kingdom
Died
December 2, 1982, Mexico City, Mexico
Place Of Birth
East End of London
Height
5 ft 7 in (1.72 m)
Profession
Actor, Writer, Screenwriter, Comedian
Nationality
United Kingdom
Spouse
Lauretta Sullivan (m. 1959–1982)
Parents
Myer Feldman, Cecilia Crook
Siblings
Pamela Feldman
Nicknames
Martin Alan Feldman
Awards
Saturn Award, British Academy Television Award for Best Entertainment Performance, British Academy Television Writer Award
Nominations
Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture
Movies
Young Frankenstein, Silent Movie, The Last Remake of Beau Geste, The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother, Yellowbeard, In God We Tru$t, Every Home Should Have One, Sex with a Smile, The Bed-Sitting Room, Slapstick of Another Kind, Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl, How to Irritate Pe...
TV Shows
Bootsie and Snudge, At Last the 1948 Show, The Marty Feldman Comedy Machine, Marty, Marty Back Together Again
Star Sign
Cancer
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Trademark
1
Huge, bulging eyes
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Quote
1
I do have a lot of violence in me, though. It's usually directed against objects. When I'm angry I may throw or kick something. But the last time I kicked something I almost sprained my toe, and when I threw a bottle, it smashed all over me. I really shouldn't do those things.
2
I don't enjoy anything while I'm doing it. I enjoy having done things, though.
3
To have an effect on the audience, that's the most enjoyable thing I think, you know? To convey a real emotion, to communicate something more than information. To be able to move an audience in some way; either to laughter or proverbially to tears. Days when you feel you've done it, when you've done a good scene, you know it.
4
I don't know any jokes, which is embarrassing. I wish I did.
5
I do not disbelieve in anything. I start from the premise that everything is true until proved false. Everything is possible.
6
I like to be by myself, reading, wandering about art galleries. I like solitude, walking.
7
Money can't buy poverty.
8
I won't eat anything that has intelligent life, but I'd gladly eat a network executive or a politician.
9
Comedy, like sodomy, is an unnatural act.
10
I don't want to be a director. I want to direct. There's a difference.
11
The pen is mightier than the sword, and is considerably easier to write with.
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Fact
1
Suffered from Graves' disease during his early childhood in which, after a botched surgical operation, his condition resulted in his eyes being more protruded and misaligned (strabismus).
2
In A Clockwork Orange, when Alex (Malcolm McDowell) returns home from prison one of the smaller headlines in the newspaper his father is reading says: "Marty Feldman's Wife Banned".
3
Befriended a young teen who crashed the Young Frankenstein (1974) set named Alan Spencer and offered encouragement to his writing career. The young scribe eventually created the TV show Sledge Hammer! (1986).
4
According to various sources, Feldman was known to get physically sick when having to watch screenings of his own work or performance.
5
Liked to write poetry and, as a teenager, was even introduced to famous poet Dylan Thomas. Thomas reportedly told the young Feldman that he had talent, thus he continued to write.
6
Was deported from Paris for vagrancy as a teenager when he pretended to be an innocent youth, impressed with the work of an American sculptor pretending to be French. Feldman, working on commission for the sculptor, lured gullible tourists as customers.
7
Had a number of absurd and varied jobs in his youth. These included being a kitchen hand, message boy for an advertising agency, jazz musician in clubs, greyhound racetrack tipster, and an assistant to an Indian fakir in his side-show acts.
8
Liked to play soccer and also enjoyed watching Baseball, calling it, "Cricket on speed".
9
His wife Lauretta asked him to marry her, when he supposedly made no move to do so, after nine months of daily dating.
10
Subject of a novelty song by Bruce Baum. The song was a parody of the hit "Bette Davis Eyes" by Kim Carnes ("All the boys think she's a guy / she's got Marty Feldman eyes").
11
In his DVD commentary for Young Frankenstein (1974), director Mel Brooks provides a further explanation for Marty Feldman's early death. According to Brooks, who worked with him on Young Frankenstein and Silent Movie (1976), Feldman smoked about half a carton of cigarettes (four or five packs) a day as well as drank copious amounts of black coffee (the tannic acid in coffee, which can be partly neutralized by milk, in some studies has been found to increase the risk of heart attack). Feldman was also a vegetarian and compensated for the lack of meat in his diet by eating large amounts of eggs and dairy products on a daily basis which may have clogged his arteries. The high altitude of Mexico City (over 7,000 feet above sea level) with the air about 10% thinner, where Feldman was filming most of Yellowbeard (1983), would have added still more stress by forcing his heart and lungs to work harder. The food poisoning that Feldman and Michael Mileham contracted would only have been the final straw, which would explain why Mileham survived, and Feldman didn't.
12
Biography in: "Who's Who in Comedy" by Ronald L. Smith, pg. 157-158. New York: Facts on File, 1992. ISBN 0816023387
13
Despite persistent published reports. Marty Feldman was NOT the brother of actress Fenella Fielding. The two are not related in any way.
14
When presenting the 1976 Live Action Short Oscar, he called the two winning producers to the stage, threw the statue to the floor, then handed a shard of the award to each one. He said, "It said, 'Made in Hong Kong' on the bottom."
15
Interred at Forest Lawn - Hollywood Hills, Los Angeles, California - Garden of Heritage, Lot 5420
Died in Mexico City of shellfish poisoning on the last day of filming a scene from Yellowbeard (1983), in which he was supposed to die. A double completed the death scene. His illness was discovered by filmmaker friend Michael Mileham who had also suffered from the same poisoning but survived.
$5 Million
