Marty Feldman
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.
Marty Feldman Facts
Occupation | Director |
Birthday | July 8, 1933 |
Sign | Cancer |
Birthplace | United Kingdom |
Date of death | December 2, 1982 (age 49) |
Selected Filmography
The Last Remake of Beau Geste | ||
Young Frankenstein | ||
In God We Trust | ||
Every Home Should Have One | ||
Final Curtain | ||
When Things Were Rotten | ||
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