Marty Feldman
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| Marty Feldman | |
 Marty Feldman in his television comedy series "Marty" (DVD) |
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| Birth name | Martin Alan Feldman |
| Born | July 8, 1934 London, England |
| Died | December 2, 1982 (aged 48) |
| Notable roles | Igor in Young Frankenstein |
Martin Alan "Marty" Feldman (July 8, 1934 – December 2, 1982) was an English writer, comedian and film and television actor, famous for his bulging eyes, which were the result of a thyroid condition known as Graves Disease.
He was born in London's East End, the son of Jewish immigrants from Kiev, Ukraine. Leaving school at 15, Feldman started his show-business career as a trumpet player but soon turned to comedy. He formed a flourishing writing partnership with Barry Took in 1954. For British television, they wrote situation comedies such as The Army Game, Bootsie and Snudge, and most notably the ground-breaking BBC radio show Round the Horne, which starred Kenneth Horne and Kenneth Williams. Feldman was also a writer on The Frost Report with several future members of Monty Python.
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[edit] Career
The television sketch comedy series At Last the 1948 Show featured Feldman's first on-screen performances. In one memorable sketch first broadcast on March 1, 1967, Feldman harassed a patient shop assistant (John Cleese) for a series of fictitious books, finally achieving success with Ethel the Aardvark goes Quantity Surveying. The sketch was revived as part of the Monty Python stage show repertoire, and on Monty Python's Contractual Obligation Album (both without Feldman).
Marty Feldman was co-author, with John Cleese, Graham Chapman and Tim Brooke-Taylor, of the "Four Yorkshiremen" sketch, which was written for their television comedy series At Last the 1948 Show. The "Four Yorkshiremen" sketch was performed during Amnesty International concerts (by members of Monty Python — once including Rowan Atkinson in place of Python member Eric Idle), as well as during Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl and other Monty Python shows and record albums. This has led to the "Four Yorkshiremen" sketch now being considered a Monty Python sketch, with the origin and co-authorship of the sketch by non-Monty Python writers Marty Feldman and Tim Brooke-Taylor being overlooked or forgotten by many people.
Following his success on At Last the 1948 Show, Feldman had a series of his own on the BBC called Marty (1968), which also featured Tim Brooke-Taylor, John Junkin and Roland MacLeod. The second series (made in 1969) was renamed It's Marty (with the second title being retained for the DVD release of the show). In 1974, Denis Main Wilson (producer for the UK television show Till Death Us Do Part) produced a short sketch series for Feldman entitled Marty Back Together Again — a reference to reports about the star's health. But this series never recaptured the impact of the earlier series. The Marty series proved popular enough with an international audience (the first series won the Golden Rose Award at Montreaux) to launch a film career. His first feature role was in 1970's Every Home Should Have One.
Marty Feldman's performances on American television included The Dean Martin Show and Marty Feldman's Comedy Machine. He is best remembered for his role as the hunchback Igor (pronounced 'eye-gor') in Young Frankenstein in which, as usual, many of his lines were improvised. At one point, Dr. Frankenstein (Gene Wilder) scolds Igor with the phrase "Damn your eyes!" Feldman then turns to the camera, points to his already-misaligned eyes, grins and says, "Too late!"
Feldman met American comedy writer Alan Spencer on the set of Young Frankenstein when Spencer was just a teenager. Spencer was a devout fan of Feldman as both a writer and performer. Feldman took Spencer under his wing and offered him key guidance that eventually led the young scribe to create the offbeat, critically-acclaimed television show Sledge Hammer!.
He also released one long-playing record called I Feel a Song Going Off (1969), re-released as The Crazy World of Marty Feldman. The songs were written by Dennis King, John Junkin and Bill Solly (a writer for Max Bygraves and The Two Ronnies).[1]
Feldman appeared in The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother and Mel Brooks' Silent Movie, as well as directing and starring in The Last Remake of Beau Geste. He guest-starred in the "Arabian Nights" episode of The Muppet Show.
[edit] Death
Feldman died from a heart attack (as a result of shellfish food poisoning) in a hotel room in Mexico City, Mexico during the making of the film Yellowbeard. The famous cartoonist Sergio Aragones was filming a movie nearby and when he introduced himself to Feldman earlier that night, he frightened Feldman and possibly induced his heart attack. He has told the story with the punchline "I killed Marty Feldman". The story was converted into a story in Aragones' issue of DC Comics' Solo.[2]
Mel Brooks on the DVD commentary of Young Frankenstein, cites a number of factors that may have contributed to Feldman's early death from a heart attack. He was a very heavy smoker (smoking 4-5 packs of cigarettes a day), drank copious amounts of coffee and, although a vegetarian, ate a diet high in eggs and dairy products. The increased stress placed upon his body by the high altitude environment of Mexico City (it is located at an altitude of 2,300m where the air contains 30% less oxygen than at sea level) may also have been a factor in his sudden death.
He is buried in Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Los Angeles, California near his idol, Buster Keaton, in the Garden of Heritage, lot 5420.
He had one younger sister, Pamela.[3] It was long thought that he was brother to actress Fenella Fielding, but the actress has debunked this notion.
[edit] Further reading
Further information about Marty Feldman can be found in the book:
- From Fringe to Flying Circus -- Celebrating a Unique Generation of Comedy 1960-1980 — Roger Wilmut, Eyre Methuen Ltd, 1980.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Kettering Magazine Issue #2
- ^ I Killed Marty Feldman; Solo #11, p.4-11, August 2006
- ^ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
[edit] External links
- Marty Feldman at the Internet Movie Database
- Marty Feldman - Comedy Zone
- Marty Feldman's Gravesite
- Laughterlog.com - article with complete list of television series and discography
- Angels Don't Swear - a tribute to Marty Feldman presented by Gene Wilder - requires RealPlayer
- [http://www.myspace.com/feldmanmarty - MySpace Tribute Page
| At Last the 1948 Show |
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| Tim Brooke-Taylor — Graham Chapman — John Cleese — Marty Feldman — Aimi MacDonald |
Categories: English comedy writers | English radio writers | English television actors | English television writers | Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills) | Deaths from cardiovascular disease | English actors | Jewish actors | English comedians | English film actors | English Jews | People from London | English vegetarians | Round the Horne | 1934 births | 1982 deaths
