Barbara Bain - Early Life

Early Life

Bain was born in Chicago as Millicent Fogel, the daughter of Russian Jewish immigrants. She graduated from the University of Illinois with a bachelor's degree in sociology. Developing an interest in dance, she moved to New York City, where she studied with Martha Graham.

She became dissatisfied with her limitations as a dancer and disillusioned with the excessive insularity of the dance world. Moreover, neither her college degree nor her middling dance skills were paying the bills. Following a friend's advice, Bain tried her hand at modeling; jobs with Vogue, Harper's and many others followed over the next five years. While a reliable source of income, however, modeling was hardly inspiring or even interesting for Bain. On the contrary, it proved a bitter pill to swallow that her accidentally acquired looks should prove so much more lucrative than hard won knowledge and skills.

In the end, again following a friend's lead, after five years of posing, Bain finally found her true calling, studying acting at the Theatre Studio, first with Curt Conway, later Lonny Chapman, and, at the Actors Studio with Studio director Lee Strasberg. Bain's first acting job would take her on the road with Paddy Chayevsky's Middle of the Night, which, having recently ended its Broadway run, was embarking on a national tour in October 1957. Accompanying Bain on this journey was her cast mate - and newly acquired husband - Martin Landau; the final leg of the tour brought them to Los Angeles, where the couple would settle permanently. After relocating, Bain quickly established herself at the Actors Studio West, to which she would return throughout her career, and where, 55 years later, she has remained active in her eighties, both leading classes and doing scene work of her own.