Actors - Ross Martin

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	Actors - Ross Martin

Ross Martin (March 22, 1920 - July 3, 1981) is an American actor most known for playing Artemus Gordon in the western TV series The Wild Wild West.

Martin was born as Martin Rosenblatt at March 22, 1920 in Grodek, Poland. Martin grew up on New York City's Lower East Side. He spoke Yiddish, Polish and Russian before even learning English and later added French, Spanish and Italian to his amazing repertoire.

Despite academic training (and receiving honors) in business, instruction, and law, Martin chose a career of acting. His first film was the George Pal production Conquest of Space
. Soon after, he caught the eye of Blake Edwards who cast him in a number of widely varied roles (Mr. Lucky and Experiment in Terror), culminating with a fantastic role in The Great Race
, as the smoothly villainous Baron Rolfe Von Stuppe.

After his suave performance in The Great Race, CBS cast him what was to become his most famous part, Secret Service agent Artemus Gordon in The Wild Wild West, opposite Robert Conrad. His character, a master gadgeteer and disguise artist, fit Martin perfectly. Unknown to most, Martin created most of his disguises for the show and most of the cast had no idea what he'd look like until seeing him during the shooting of the episode. At 1967, he married Olavee Grindrod and fathered three children. Perhaps the show's cancellation in 1969 was for the best; he suffered a near-fatal heart attack in 1968.

Afraid to take the risk of having a lead actor with a heart condition, the networks snubbed him with regards to lead role, yet he appeared as a guest star in an amazing number of programs (like Wonder Woman, Sanford and Son, Columbo, The Twilight Zone, Night Gallery, Mork and Mindy, Hawaii Five-O and Charlie's Angels), not all dramatic masterpieces. Yet Martin loved to act, and took every role which came his way. He even reprised the role of Artemus Gordon in a pair of Wild, Wild West television movies in 1979 and 1980, reunited with his co-star Conrad. Martin collapsed while playing tennis, in July 3, 1981 and died from a heart attack.

Martin is interred in Mount Sinai Memorial Park in Los Angeles, California.

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