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Marty Feldman Biography |
Marty Feldman (July 8, 1933 - December 2, 1982). English writer, comedian and film and television actor, famous for his bulging eyes, which were the result of a thyroid condition.
Like Spike Milligan, 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 sit-coms 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 and also benefitted from future Pythonites Michael Palin and Terry Jones co-writing with Barry Took. Feldman had a memorable series of his own shows on British commercial television (ITV) ? called Marty. His performances on American television included the Dean Martin Show and Marty Feldman's Comedy Machine. He was also a writer on The Frost Report with several future Pythons.
He is remembered for his role as the hunchback Igor in Young Frankenstein in which, as usual, many of his lines were improvised.
In a memorable sketch for "At Last the 1948 Show" (1/3/1967) ambiguous date - see Talk Page, (a series which featured Feldman's first screen performances) Feldman harassed a patient shop assistant John Cleese for the (sadly) fictitious book Ethel the Aardvark goes Quantity Surveying. The sketch was revived as part of the Monty Python stage show repertoire (without Feldman).
Feldman appeared in The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes's Smarter Brother and Silent Movie, and several Mel Brooks films. He directed and starred in The Last Remake of Beau Geste and died from a heart attack in Mexico filming his last performance in the film Yellowbeard.
He was the brother of actress Fenella Fielding. Feldman was an active member of the Communist Party of Great Britain. |
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