Strother Martin - Acting Career

Acting Career

After the war, Martin moved to Los Angeles and worked as a swimming instructor and as a swimming extra in water scenes in films, eventually earning bit roles in a number of pictures. He quickly became a frequent fixture in small character roles in movies and television through the 1950s, having appeared in such programs as Frontier on NBC and the syndicated American Civil War drama Gray Ghost. He appeared in the first Brian Keith series, Crusader, a Cold War drama. He guest starred as a circus tight rope walker in one of the 1957 Have Gun Will Travel TV westerns. He guest starred in 1958 as a henpecked soldier in an episode of the syndicated Boots and Saddles. In 1960, Martin guest starred in James Whitmore's crime drama, The Law and Mr. Jones on ABC. In 1966, he appeared twice as "Cousin Fletch" in the short-lived ABC comedy western The Rounders, with Ron Hayes, Patrick Wayne, and Chill Wills.

Martin's distinctive, reedy voice and menacing demeanor made him ideal for villainous roles in many of the best-known Westerns of the 1960s and 1970s, including The Horse Soldiers and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. By the late 1960s, Martin was almost as well-known a figure as many top-billed stars. In 1967, the same year as his role in "Cool Hand Luke," he appeared in the episode "A Mighty Hunter Before the Lord" of NBC's The Road West series starring Barry Sullivan. In 1972, he appeared as James Garner's uncle in the "Zacharia" episode of Nichols.

The play The Time of Your Life was revived in March 17, 1972 at the Huntington Hartford Theater in Los Angeles with Martin, Henry Fonda, Richard Dreyfuss, Gloria Grahame, Lewis J. Stadlen, Ron Thompson, Jane Alexander, Richard X. Slattery and Pepper Martin among the cast with Edwin Sherin directing.

Martin appeared in all three of the classic Westerns released in 1969: Sam Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch (as Coffer, a bloodthirsty bounty hunter); George Roy Hill's Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (as Percy Garris, the "colorful" Bolivian mine boss who hires the two title characters); and Henry Hathaway's True Grit (as Colonel Stonehill, a horse dealer). He frequently acted alongside L. Q. Jones, who in real life was one of his closest friends.

Though he usually appeared in supporting roles, he had major parts in Hannie Caulder, The Brotherhood of Satan (both 1971), Pocket Money (1972) with Paul Newman and Lee Marvin, and SSSSSSS (1973). Martin later appeared in another George Roy Hill film, Slap Shot (1977), again with Paul Newman, as the cheap general manager of the Charlestown Chiefs hockey club. He appeared six times each with both John Wayne and Paul Newman. Strother Martin can also be seen in Cheech and Chong's Up in Smoke (1978) as Arnold Stoner, the father of Tommy Chong's character Anthony.

Martin made many guest appearances on Gunsmoke, including the two-part episode "Island in the Desert," in which he portrayed a crazy desert hermit named Ben Snow. He also made many guest appearances on Perry Mason throughout the nine-year run from 1957-1966, including a college employee in "The Case of the Brazen Bequest", and the murderer in "The Case of the Drowsy Mosquito". In 1963, he appeared in Glynis Johns's short-lived comedy series Glynis in the episode "Ten Cents a Dance." In 1965, Martin appeared in the episode "Most Precious Gold" of the NBC comedy/drama series Kentucky Jones, starring Dennis Weaver. In 1965, he guest-starred as Meeker in the episode "Return to Lawrence" on the ABC western The Legend of Jesse James. In 1966, he guest-starred in the Lost In Space episode "Blast Off Into Space" as a gritty mining engineer. On a Gilligan's Island episode, Martin played a man living supposedly alone on the island for a radio show contest. He also starred in a two- part The Rockford Files 1977 episode as T.T. Flowers, an episode that took on urban invasion and the environment. One of his last acting jobs was as host of Saturday Night Live on April 19, 1980. In one of the skits, Martin played the strict owner of a French Language camp for children - a role based on his role as the prison captain from the film, Cool Hand Luke. He even paraphrased his most famous line from the film - "What we have here is failure to communicate BI-LINGUALLY!" In another, he played a terminally ill man who videotaped his last will and testament. This episode was supposed to be rerun during the summer of 1980, but was pulled and replaced with another episode due to his death.