Stefanie Keenan/Getty Images for TCM(NEW YORK) — Veteran actor Martin Landau, who rose to fame on the 1960’s TV series Mission: Impossible and won an Oscar in 1994 for his portray of Bela Lugosi in Tim Burton’s Ed Wood, as died. He was 89.
Landau’s publicist confirmed to ABC News that the actor died from “unexpected complications during a short hospital stay” on Saturday.
The Brooklyn, New York-born Landau, became famous for his TV roles, including not only his portrayal of master of disguise Rollin Hand on Mission: Impossible‘s first three seasons — for which he earned three Emmy nominations — but also his role as Commander John Koenig on the 1970s British TV series Space: 1999.
But Landau had a long career in film appearing as a henchman in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1959 classic North by Northwest and dozens of other movies.
Landau earned three Academy Award nominations in his nearly 60 year career: first for his performance in Francis Ford Coppola’s Tucker: The Man and His Dream in 1988; then for his performance in Woody Allen’s Crimes and Misdemeanors in 1989; finally winning for his portrayal of Lugosi in Ed Wood in 1994.
Landau, who was a newspaper cartoonist in his native New York City before turning to acting, was devoted to the craft as founder and most recently artistic director of Actors Studio West, and as an acting coach. He appears in the upcoming film The Last Poker Game with Paul Sorvino, which premiered at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival.
He is survived by two daughters from his marriage to the late Barbara Bain — his Mission: Impossible and Space: 1999 co-star — writer, producer and casting director Susan Landau Finch and Buffy the Vampire Slayer actress Juliet Landau.
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