VideoDetective.com

Strother Martin

Strother Martin
Strother Martin
Born: Mar 26, 1919 in Kokomo, Indiana
Died: Aug 01, 1980 in Thousand Oaks, California
Occupation: Actor
Active: '50s-'70s
Major Genres: Western, Comedy
Career Highlights: Cool Hand Luke, The Ballad of Cable Hogue, The Champ
First Major Screen Credit: Storm Over Tibet (1951)
17 Videos for Strother Martin
The Champ (1979) The Wild Bunch (1969) McLintock! (1963)
Up in Smoke (1978) True Grit (1969) The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
Slap Shot (1977) Cool Hand Luke (1967) The Horse Soldiers (1959)
Hard Times (1975) Shenandoah (1965) Cowboy (1958)
Rooster Cogburn (1975) The Sons of Katie Elder (1965) The Big Knife (1955)
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) Invitation to a Gunfighter (1964)
Photos


There are currently no photos.

Biography:

A graduate of the University of Michigan, Strother Martin was the National Junior Springboard Diving Champion when he came to Hollywood as a swimming coach in the late 1940s. He stuck around Lala-land to play a few movie bits and extra roles before finally receiving a role of substance in The Asphalt Jungle (1950).

Lean and limber in his early day, Martin was frequently cast in parts which called upon his athletic prowess (e.g. a drawling big-league ball player in 1951's Rhubarb). As his face grew more pocked and his body more paunched with each advancing year, Martin put his reedy, whiny voice and sinister squint to excellent use as a villain, most often in westerns.

It took him nearly 20 years to matriculate from character actor to character star. In 1967, Martin skyrocketed to fame as the sadistic prison-farm captain in Cool Hand Luke: his character's signature line, What we have here is a failure t' communicate, became a national catchphrase. While he continued accepting secondary roles for the rest of his career, Martin was awarded top billing in two sleazy but likeable programmers, Brotherhood of Satan (1971) and Ssssssss (1973).

A veteran of scores of television shows, Strother Martin was seen on a weekly basis as Aaron Donager in Hotel De Paree (1959) and as star Jimmy Stewart's country cousin in Hawkins (1973). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide.