Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#3826
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Martin Landau represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 60 years in, and Martin is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Martin Landau appears in 20 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Martin. Joseph is the clearest case: a film rated 8.2 by our editors, where the performance carries weight the script only implies.
The recognisable elements are versatility, transformation, quiet performance. Watch two of these films back to back and the method separates from the material — the same instrument, tuned differently for documentary, comedy, drama. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Garret Price, Doug Ellin, Tim Burton and others, Martin Landau helped set a standard other performers now audition against. Awards bodies have been slower than the work, which is usually the sign of a career built on choices rather than campaigns.
Joseph (1995) as Jacob · North by Northwest (1959) as Leonard · Love, Antosha (2019) as Self (archive footage)
Career snapshot
Ranked #3826 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
20
1959–2019
Career length
60 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
8.2
Joseph
Average Nutevio score
6.6
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
8.2
Joseph
Most frequent director
Tim Burton
3 films together
Longest collaboration
3×
With Tim Burton
Most common genre
Drama
9 titles
Average runtime
2h 7m
Across catalogue work
Golden Globe wins
—
Unknown
Nutevio metric
Ten weighted categories, applied identically to everyone we cover.
Nutevio Performer Score
7.1
out of 10
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio metric
Cultural impact and legacy, measured separately from craft — how far the work travelled once it left the cinema.
Nutevio Influence Score
7.0
out of 10
A quieter influence — felt inside the films rather than across the industry.
How far the work travelled past the people who saw it first.
What survives once the release-week conversation has burned off.
Institutional acknowledgement, weighted but never decisive.
Years of chosen, relevant work rather than years merely employed.
Statuettes, read as evidence rather than verdict.
Roles named without needing the film named alongside them.
Directors who wrote parts because this performer existed.
The reading other performers now have to answer.
Actor DNA
A fingerprint derived from the roles themselves — register, range and the kind of film they carry.
The shape of a career
Every performance plotted in time. Hover a point to read the title behind it.
Peak years
Where the scores, the awards and the sheer volume of work agree with each other.
Best decade
1950s
7.9 average MV
The 1950s are where the work and the material meet. North by Northwest — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1950s
7.9
Across 1 catalogue film in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
1950s
8.0
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
1950s
0 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. North by Northwest.
Most productive era
1990s
8 films
The busiest stretch of the catalogue — volume that reads as appetite rather than availability.
Range, mapped
Genres down the side, decades across the top. Warmer cells mean stronger titles.
| Genre | 1950s | 1960s | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | — | 6.72 films | 6.75 films | 6.81 film | 6.21 film |
| Action | — | — | — | 5.83 films | — |
| Thriller | 7.91 film | — | 6.73 films | 6.12 films | — |
| Comedy | — | — | 6.72 films | 5.22 films | 6.62 films |
| Crime | — | — | 7.01 film | — | — |
| Romance | — | 6.91 film | 5.11 film | 6.81 film | — |
| Horror | — | — | 7.31 film | — | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Leonard.
Highest rated performance · Career peak
1995Joseph
8.2 on the Nutevio scale, the top of the catalogue for this performer. Weighing billing against the film's own quality, this is the point where everything aligned at once.
Most recent film
2019Love, Antosha
The current state of the argument, as Self (archive footage).
Our order
Every performance in the catalogue, ordered by Nutevio Score.
Every title
Filter by genre or decade, and compare any two titles side by side.
20 of 20 films
as Jacob
Directed by Roger Young
as Bela Lugosi
Directed by Tim Burton
as Leonard
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
as Mr. Rzykruski (voice)
Directed by Tim Burton
From the library
Every movie and TV credit stored for this name in the Nutevio catalogue — filter by media, role or sort by rating.
Loading credits…
The defining work
#1
Jacob
Joseph (1995)
Performance score8.2
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Jacob gives Martin Landau a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Bela Lugosi
Ed Wood (1994)
Performance score7.7
Ed Wood asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Bela Lugosi is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Leonard
North by Northwest (1959)
Performance score7.7
North by Northwest asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Leonard is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Mr. Rzykruski (voice)
Frankenweenie (2012)
Performance score7.4
Frankenweenie asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Mr. Rzykruski (voice) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movieStart here
A guided path through the work, ordered so each film explains the next.
Best entry point
as Jacob
Start here. Joseph is the clearest statement of what Martin Landau does — accessible, 185 minutes, and rated 8.2 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Martin at the most legible performance, then move forward in time so each film reads as a response to the one before it rather than a repetition of it.
North by Northwest (1959)
Keeps the adventure register of Joseph but asks for a colder reading of it.
Ed Wood (1994)
A deliberate change of key after North by Northwest — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
9 (2009)
A deliberate change of key after Ed Wood — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Frankenweenie (2012)
Keeps the animation register of 9 but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Tim Burton
Director
3 films together
Notably Ed Wood
Alfred Hitchcock
Director
1 film together
Notably North by Northwest
Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Director
1 film together
Notably Cleopatra
George Stevens
Director
1 film together
Notably The Greatest Story Ever Told
Henry Hathaway
Director
1 film together
Notably Nevada Smith
Mark Rydell
Director
1 film together
Notably Intersection
Roger Young
Director
1 film together
Notably Joseph
John Dahl
Director
1 film together
Notably Rounders
Rob Bowman
Director
1 film together
Notably The X-Files
Ron Howard
Director
1 film together
Notably EDtv
Brian Robbins
Director
1 film together
Notably Ready to Rumble
Frank Darabont
Director
1 film together
Notably The Majestic
Ron Shelton
Director
1 film together
Notably Hollywood Homicide
Doug Ellin
Director
1 film together
Notably Entourage
Garret Price
Director
1 film together
Notably Love, Antosha
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Tim Burton
Director
3 films together · 7.2 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 3 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Ed WoodRoger Young
Director
1 film together · 8.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
JosephAlfred Hitchcock
Director
1 film together · 7.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
North by NorthwestGarret Price
Director
1 film together · 7.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Love, AntoshaJohn Dahl
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
RoundersRob Bowman
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The X-FilesJoseph L. Mankiewicz
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
CleopatraFrank Darabont
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The MajesticHenry Hathaway
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Nevada SmithGeorge Stevens
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Greatest Story Ever ToldDoug Ellin
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
EntourageRon Howard
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
EDtvRon Shelton
Director
1 film together · 5.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Hollywood HomicideBrian Robbins
Director
1 film together · 5.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Ready to RumbleMark Rydell
Director
1 film together · 5.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
IntersectionSix degrees
Follow the thread outward — director, film, co-star, and the film after that.
Categories of our own
Six editorial categories we apply to every performer we cover.
Most rewatchable
North by Northwest
as Leonard
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Cleopatra
as Rufio
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
North by Northwest
as Leonard
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Entourage
as Bob Ryan
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Joseph
as Jacob
If the career had to be argued in a single scene, our editors would pick one from this film and rest the case.
In their films' words
“You can build a whole film around a performer who knows when not to speak. Martin Landau has known it for a long time.”
Head to head
Put two careers on the same scale and see where the argument actually sits.
Ours alone
Recognitions handed out by this desk, on criteria no awards body uses.
Career Achievement
Awarded
60 years of relevant work — not merely a long career, but a long career of choices.
Modern Classic Performer
Awarded
Defining performances delivered inside the last twenty-five years, in films already being taught rather than merely remembered.
Drama Legend
Awarded
9 catalogue titles in drama, each one a reference point for the films that followed.
Our desk
Best ending, best opening, best twist and the rest — categories we apply to everyone we cover.
Best ending
Sleepy Hollow
as Peter Van Garrett (uncredited)
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Sleepy Hollow
as Peter Van Garrett (uncredited)
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
The Majestic
as Harry Trimble
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Sleepy Hollow
as Peter Van Garrett (uncredited)
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Joseph
as Jacob
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
9
as #2 (voice)
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Ed Wood
as Bela Lugosi
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Sleepy Hollow
as Peter Van Garrett (uncredited)
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
If you like this performer
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Works with the same directors — shared collaborators
Morgan Freeman
Works with the same directors — shared collaborators
Matt Damon
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Michael Caine
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Harry Dean Stanton
Works with the same directors — shared collaborators
Have your say
Community
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Reference
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