Martin Balsam

Acting

Martin Henry Balsam (November 4, 1919 – February 13, 1996) was an American character actor. He is best known for a number of film roles, including detective Milton Arbogast in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960), Arnold Burns in A Thousand Clowns (1965), which earned him the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, Juror #1 in 12 Angry Men (1957), and Mr. Green in The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974), as well as for his role as Murray Klein in the television sitcom Archie Bunker's Place (1979–1983).

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Acting: —0 ratings

Filmography

Acting

24 titles

La Classe américaine

George Abitbol, the classiest man in the world, dies tragically during a cruise. The director of an American newspaper, wondering about the meaning of these intriguing final words, asks his three best investigators, Dave, Peter and Steven, to solve the mystery. (Sixteen French actors dub scenes from various Warner Bros. films to create a parody of Citizen Kane, 1941.)

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Cape Fear

Sam Bowden is a small-town corporate attorney. Max Cady is a tattooed, cigar-smoking, Bible-quoting, psychotic rapist. What do they have in common? 14 years ago, Sam was a public defender assigned to Max Cady's rape trial, and he made a serious error: he hid a document from his illiterate client that could have gotten him acquitted. Now, the cagey Cady has been released, and he intends to teach Sam Bowden and his family a thing or two about loss.

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Two Evil Eyes

A duo of Edgar Allan Poe adaptations about a greedy wife's attempt to embezzle her dying husband's fortune, and a sleazy reporter's adoption of a strange black cat.

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The Delta Force

A 707 aircraft jetliner, en route from Athens to Rome and then to New York City, is hijacked by Lebanese terrorists, who demand that the pilot take them to Beirut. What the terrorists don't realize is that an elite team of commandos have been called in to eliminate all terrorists on the jetliner.

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Death Wish 3

Architect/vigilante Paul Kersey arrives back in New York City and is forcibly recruited by a crooked police chief to fight street crime caused by a large gang terrorizing the neighborhoods.

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St. Elmo's Fire

A group of friends graduates from the halls of Georgetown University into lives that revolve around sex and career aspirations. Kirby waits tables to pay for law school. His roommate Kevin struggles at a D.C. newspaper as he searches for the meaning of love. Jules may be an object of adoration and envy, but secretly she has problems of her own. Demure Wendy is in love with Billy—a loveable sax player and an irresponsible drunk. Alec wants it all: a career in politics and the appearance of a traditional home life. Alec’s girlfriend, Leslie, is an ambitious architect who doesn't know about his infidelity, but his new allegiance to the Republican Party is already enough to put her off marriage.

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The Sentinel

When a beautiful model, Alison Parker, rents an apartment in a gloomy New York brownstone, little does she realize that an unspeakable horror awaits her behind its doors... a mysterious gateway to hell.

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All the President's Men

During the 1972 elections, two reporters' investigation sheds light on the controversial Watergate scandal that compels President Nixon to resign from his post.

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"Mitchell"!

A tough-guy cop pursues two drug runners across the city to bust a large syndicate. Very much an anti-hero, Mitchell often ignores the orders of his superiors and demonstrates disdain for by-the-book development work as well as normal social graces.

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Murder on the Orient Express

In 1935, when his train is stopped by deep snow, detective Hercule Poirot is called on to solve a murder that occurred in his car the night before.

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The Taking of Pelham One Two Three

In New York, armed men hijack a subway car and demand a ransom for the passengers. Even if it's paid, how could they get away?

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The Stone Killer

A Los Angeles detective is sent to New York where he must solve a case involving an old Sicilian Mafia family feud.

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The Anderson Tapes

Thief Duke Anderson—just released from ten years in jail—takes up with his old girlfriend in her posh apartment block, and makes plans to rob the entire building. What he doesn't know is that his every move is being recorded on audio and video, although he is not the subject of any surveillance.

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Catch-22

A bombardier in World War II tries desperately to escape the insanity of the war. However, sometimes insanity is the only sane way to cope with a crazy situation.

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Little Big Man

Jack Crabb, looking back from extreme old age, tells of his life being raised by Indians and fighting with General Custer.

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Tora! Tora! Tora!

In the summer of 1941, the United States and Japan seem on the brink of war after constant embargos and failed diplomacy come to no end. "Tora! Tora! Tora!", named after the code words use by the lead Japanese pilot to indicate they had surprised the Americans, covers the days leading up to the attack on Pearl Harbor, which plunged America into the Second World War.

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Hombre

John Russell, disdained by his "respectable" fellow stagecoach passengers because he was raised by Indians, becomes their only hope for survival when they are set upon by outlaws.

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The Bedford Incident

During a routine patrol, a reporter is given permission to interview a hardened cold-war warrior and captain of the American destroyer USS Bedford. The reporter gets more than he bargained for when the Bedford discovers a Soviet sub and the captain begins a relentless pursuit, pushing his crew to breaking point.

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Cape Fear

Sam Bowden witnesses a rape committed by Max Cady and testifies against him. When released after 8 years in prison, Cady begins stalking Bowden and his family but is always clever enough not to violate the law.

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Breakfast at Tiffany's

Holly Golightly is an eccentric New York City playgirl determined to marry a Brazilian millionaire. But when young writer Paul Varjak moves into her apartment building, her past threatens to get in their way.

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Psycho

When larcenous real estate clerk Marion Crane goes on the lam with a wad of cash and hopes of starting a new life, she ends up at the notorious Bates Motel, where manager Norman Bates cares for his housebound mother.

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12 Angry Men

The defense and the prosecution have rested and the jury is filing into the jury room to decide if a young Spanish-American is guilty or innocent of murdering his father. What begins as an open and shut case soon becomes a mini-drama of each of the jurors' prejudices and preconceptions about the trial, the accused, and each other.

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On the Waterfront

A dim-witted yet kind-hearted boxer, Terry Malloy, who failed to succeed unintentionally lures a man to his death after being tricked by a criminal called Johnny Friendly whose men pick of every man who has the courage to speak up to their crimes. As he works on the waterfronts that Friendly owns, he is sent to a church meeting run by a good preacher about how to deal with the problem and runs into the dead man’s sister. Slowly, he falls in love with her and begins to feel guilt about his crime.

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The Greatest Gift

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