Ross Martin

Gródek Jagiellonski, Lwowskie, Poland [now Horodok, Lviv Oblast, Ukraine]

Biography

Ross Martin (born Martin Rosenblatt, March 22, 1920 – July 3, 1981) was an American radio, voice, stage, film, and television actor. Martin was best known for portraying Artemus Gordon on the CBS Western series The Wild Wild West (1965 – 1969). He also provided the voice of Doctor Paul Williams in 1972's Sealab 2020, additional characters in 1973's Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kids, and additional characters in 1978's Jana of the Jungle. Born in Grodek, Poland, Ross Martin grew up on New York City's Lower East Side. He spoke Yiddish, Polish, and Russian before even learning English and later added French, Spanish, and Italian to his repertoire. Despite academic training (and receiving honors) in business, instruction, and law, Martin chose a career of acting. His first film was the George Pal production Conquest of Space (1955). Soon after, he caught the eye of Blake Edwards, who cast him in varied roles, including the title character's sidekick Andamo in Mr. Lucky (1959–1960), a menacing killer in Experiment in Terror (1962), and a scheming baron in The Great Race (1965).

Movies

Famous Classic Tales is a series that airs cartoons from production companies such as Filmation, Rankin-Bass, Ruby-Spears, Air Programs International, Hanna-Barbera, Hanna Barbera Australia, and Southern Star Group. Famous Classic Tales was shown on CBS, and distributed by Kids Klassics Home Video and Storybook World. It had cartoons from API's Family Classic Tales. Featured cartoons included adaptions of classic literature such as Gulliver's Travels, Treasure Island, Black Beauty, Moby-Dick, and many others. The creation of a series of animated features based on classic children's stories was conceived by Jack Thinnes, Media Director at Sive Advertising in Cincinnati, Ohio. The series was created for a Sive client, Kenner Products, and each program was fully sponsored by Kenner on CBS Television Network on Sunday, late afternoon or early evening, during the prime toy selling season before Christmas. The idea to use classic children's books sprang from Thinnes' viewing of a two minute demo of Dickens' A Christmas Carol, which was produced by Walter Hucker's studio, API, of Sydney, Australia. API was purchased later by Hanna-Barbera Studios after Thinnes introduced the owners of the studios to one another. After the series ran on CBS for nearly ten years, it was moved into local syndication by Sive's syndication department. However, their adaptation of A Christmas Carol was such a favorite that it continued to run on the network for fifteen years.

More info
Famous Classic Tales
1970