Strother Martin
(1919 - 1980)A very familiar face to movie fans, he was a short-statured, whiny, grizzled looking character with piercing eyes. He most often played sniveling, seedy and sneaky characters but could be maliciously evil also. He is best remembered for a single line: "What we have here...is failure to communicate!" spoken as the sadistic Captain of a chain gang from the film "Cool Hand Luke." He was born Strother Martin Jr. on March 26, 1919 in Kokomo, Indiana and attended the University of Michigan where he became a world class NCAA diver while working towards a degree in theatre. His education was interrupted by a stint in the Navy in World War II and then after his return and graduation he moved to Hollywood to pursue an acting career. He worked for a time as a swimming instructor until he was offered a job on a children's TV show, "Mable's Fables", as a leprechaun and he was on his way. He worked virtually unnoticed as a character actor for years until his roles in the Sam Peckinpah films which drew him some acclaim. His films include: "Asphalt Jungle" (1950) in an uncredited role as William Doldy, his film debut; "The Magnetic Monster" (1953) as Co-Pilot; "A Star is Born" (1954) with Judy Garland, uncredited as a Delivery Boy; "The Silver Chalice" (1954) with Paul Newman; "Drum Beat" (1954) as Scotty; "Attack!" (1956) as Sgt. Ingersol; "The Horse Soldiers" (1959) as Virgil; "The Shaggy Dog" (1959) as Thurm; "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" (1962) in an excellent small role as Floyd, one of Liberty's henchmen; "McLintock!" (1963) as Agard; "The Sons of Katie Elder" (1965) as Jeb Ross; "Harper" (1966) as Claude; "Cool Hand Luke" (1967) as Captain, his best known role; "The Flim Flam Man" (1967) as Storekeeper Lovick; "True Grit" (1969) as Col. G. Stonehill; "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" (1969) as Percy Garris; "The Wild Bunch" (1969) as Coffer; "The Ballad of Cable Hogue" (1970) as Bowen; "Fools' Parade" (1971) as Lee Cottrill; "Hannie Caulder"; "Sssss" (1973) as Dr. Carl Stoner, in an odd film in which he had the starring role of a man who turned people into snakes; "Slap Shot" (1977) with Paul Newman, as Joe McGrath; "Up in Smoke" (1978) with Cheech & Chong, as Arnold Stoner; "The Villain" (1979) a comedy-western with Kirk Douglas, as Parody Jones; "The Champ" (1979) with Ricky Schroder and Jon Voight, as Riley and "Hotwire" (1980) as The Weasel, his last film. On television he was quite busy with regular roles on "Hotel De Paree" (1959-60) as Aaron Donager and "Hawkins" (1973-74) as R.J. Hawkins and guest star roles on such series as: "I Love Lucy"; "Frontier"; "Perry Mason"; "The Dick Van Dyke Show"; "Gilligan's Island"; "Gunsmoke"; "Bonanza"; "The Virginian"; "The Invaders"; "The Fugitive" and "The Rockford Files." He died on August 1, 1980 in Thousand Oaks, California of a heart attack at age 61.
From Great Character Actors, Page 3.
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