Marty Feldman - Career

Career

In 1954, Feldman formed a writing partnership with Barry Took. They wrote situation comedies such as The Army Game and Bootsie and Snudge for British television, and the BBC radio show Round the Horne, which starred Kenneth Horne and Kenneth Williams. This put Feldman and Took "in the front rank of comedy writers" according to Denis Norden.

The television sketch comedy series At Last the 1948 Show featured Feldman's first screen performances. The other three performers - future Pythons Graham Chapman and John Cleese and future Goodie Tim Brooke-Taylor needed a fourth and had Feldman in mind. In one sketch on 1 March 1967, Feldman's character harassed a patient shop assistant (played by Cleese) for a series of fictitious books, achieving success with Ethel the Aardvark Goes Quantity Surveying. The sketch was revived as part of the Monty Python stage show and on Monty Python's Contractual Obligation Album (both without Feldman).

Feldman was co-author, along with Cleese, Chapman and Brooke-Taylor of the "Four Yorkshiremen" sketch, which was also written for At Last the 1948 Show. The "Four Yorkshiremen" sketch was performed during Amnesty International concerts (by members of Monty Python — once including Rowan Atkinson in place of Python member Eric Idle), as well as during Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl and other Monty Python shows and recordings. This association has led to the common misconception that the "Four Yorkshiremen" sketch was a Python sketch, with the origin and co-authorship by non-Python writers Marty Feldman and Tim Brooke-Taylor overlooked or forgotten. Feldman was also script editor on The Frost Report with future members of Monty Python. He co-wrote the much-repeated Class sketch with John Law, in which Cleese, Ronnie Barker and Ronnie Corbett faced the audience, with their descending order of height suggesting their relative social status as upper class (Cleese), middle class (Barker) and working class (Corbett).

Following his At Last the 1948 Show, Feldman was given his own series on the BBC called Marty (1968); it featured Brooke-Taylor, John Junkin and Roland MacLeod, with Cleese as one of the writers. Feldman won two BAFTA awards. The second series in 1969 was renamed It's Marty (the second title being retained for the DVD of the show); in 1971 he was signed to a series co-produced by ATV and ABC TV entitled The Marty Feldman Comedy Machine; this show lasted one season. In 1974, Dennis Main Wilson (producer for the UK television show Till Death Us Do Part) produced a short sketch series for Feldman on the BBC entitled Marty Back Together Again — a reference to reports about the star's health. But this never captured the impact of the earlier series. The Marty series proved popular enough with an international audience (the first series won the Golden Rose Award at Montreux) to launch a film career. His first feature role was in 1970's Every Home Should Have One.

Feldman spent time in Soho jazz clubs. He found a parallel between "riffing" in a comedy partnership and the improvisation of jazz.

In 1971 Feldman gave evidence in favour of the defendants in the Oz trial. He would not swear on the Bible, choosing to affirm. Throughout his testimony he was disrespectful to the judge after it was implied that he had no religion for not being Christian.

Feldman's performances on American television included The Dean Martin Show and Marty Feldman's Comedy Machine. On film, he was Igor (pronounced "EYE-gore" - an ironic response to Wilder's claim that "it's pronounced FRONK-EN-STEEN") in Young Frankenstein where many lines were improvised. Gene Wilder says he had Feldman in mind when he wrote the part. At one point, Dr Frankenstein (Wilder) scolds Igor with the phrase, "Damn your eyes!" Feldman turns to the camera, points to his misaligned eyes, grins and says, "Too late!"

Feldman met American comedy writer Alan Spencer on the set of Young Frankenstein when Spencer was a teenager. Spencer was a fan of Feldman as a writer and performer. Feldman offered Spencer guidance that led him to create the television show Sledge Hammer!

He also made one LP, I Feel a Song Going Off (1969), re-released as The Crazy World of Marty Feldman. The songs were written by Dennis King, John Junkin and Bill Solly (a writer for Max Bygraves and The Two Ronnies). It was re-released as a CD in 2007.

In 1976, Feldman ventured into Italian cinema, starring with Barbara Bouchet in 40 gradi all'ombra del lenzuolo (Sex with a Smile), a sex comedy. He appeared in The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother and Mel Brooks' Silent Movie, as well as directing and starring in The Last Remake of Beau Geste. He guest-starred in the "Arabian Nights" episode of The Muppet Show with several Sesame Street characters.