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• Article on Mr. Landau
• The Evidence
• Mr. Landau's bio

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Tavis: I am pleased to welcome Martin Landau to this program. The Oscar-winning actor has starred in classic films. 'North By Northwest,' 'Cleopatra,' 'They Call Me Mr. Tibbs.' In 1994, he won an Oscar for his role in the Tim Burton film 'Ed Wood.' His latest project, though, is for the small screen. The ABC drama "The Evidence.' The show airs Wednesday nights at 10:00 PM. Here now, a scene from "The Evidence."

Tavis: Martin Landau, an honor to meet you.

Martin Landau: Thank you, Tavis. I appreciate that.

Tavis: Glad to have you on the program. Let me, I wanna ask you to tell me about "The Evidence" from your perspective, after I tell you that what I think is cool about this particular show is that they give you, the viewer, all the evidence up front, at the top of the show. So you can kind of start trying to piece this thing together, trying to figure out where they're going with this evidence as the show goes on. But that's what I like about it. Tell me about "The Evidence."

Landau: Well, I like it a lot, too, and I love working with the two kids. And I call them kids, Orlando and Rob, Orlando Jones and Rob Estes. And they're fun to work with. There's tremendous energy on the set, and the writing's good. John Wells runs a good ship. And I just think it's an interesting show. My character has a lot of back story, which will be coming out.

I don't wanna tell you too much about it, but he's had a difficult life. And he's been with the San Francisco police department since the Eisenhower days, so he's very bright. He computer-dates older women, and (laugh) he uses all kinds of technology and seat of the pants thinking, and his knowledge. So he's been around a long time.

He's modern, he's traditional, he loves jazz, he loves classical music, he even loves hip hop. So, he's an interesting guy, and it'll develop as we go. And you'll learn more and more about all the characters on the show.

Tavis: Speaking of hip hop and a younger generation, two questions in that regard. Number one, when you mentioned Rob and Orlando earlier, I get the sense that for an actor who is aging, gracefully in your case, (laugh) for an actor who's aging, if I took your point correctly, there's a certain energy that you get working with younger actors.

Landau: Well, yeah. I still am very involved with The Actor's Studio. I moderate the sessions there. Mark Rydell and I run the West Coast studio. Pacino and Harvey Keitel and Ellen Burstyn run the New York studio. And it's young people, and over the years I've taught acting, and I love working with young people, and helping get them moving in the right directions.

Tavis: The other question about hip hop that I wanted to pose, I read or heard, somebody told me that you, like, have this iPod that you're really digging these days. But that you had to get one Orlando Jones to help program the iPod for you.

Landau: Well, Orlando has a library that's mind boggling. And so I made a list of things I wanted. And every, I've got all of Maria Callas' arias. I've got Louis Armstrong and Jack Teagarden. I've got, you name it. I've got...

Tavis: You got 4,000 songs, I hear.

Landau: Just over 4,000.

Tavis: Just over 4,000 songs?

Landau: I've got room for another 4,000, so I've gotta get Orlando to put a few more things on there.

Tavis: Right.

Landau: But he, yeah, it's a great collection. And I just made a list of things I wanted, and they're all in there.

Tavis: So is it true that he snuck a little hip hop in there on you?

Landau: A little hip hop, sure.

Tavis: Yeah. (Laugh)

Landau: Some very interesting jazz, too.

Tavis: Yeah.

Landau: And things like Hugh Masekela, the great trumpet, stuff like that.

Tavis: That mischievous Orlando Jones, sneaking some hip hop in on Martin Landau.

Landau: Well, it wasn't mischievous, because I asked for it. I said, but good stuff.

Tavis: Yeah, you want the good stuff, huh?

Landau: Well, I want the good stuff.

Tavis: (Laugh) I'm learning, first of all, I wanna talk about your doodling. You do a lot of doodling, I wanna talk about that in just a second. I did not know that you were a doodler, but I wanna see some of your stuff that we asked you...

Landau: I just brought a few of my doodles.

Tavis: Did you bring some with you?

Landau: I got thousands of them.

Tavis: Okay.

Landau: When I'm on the speakerphone, I doodle. And these are some of, on these cards, see?

Tavis: Just like that. There you go, there's one.

Landau: Here, this, I've got thousands and thousands of these. I just draw with a pen, and I don't know what's going to come out until they come out.

Tavis: You just doodle when you're on the phone.

Landau: Right.

Tavis: So in other words, when I call you next week to see how you're doing, you're really not paying attention to me.

Landau: I pay total attention, 'cause I don't have to think about this. I don't know what's gonna come out. It just comes out.

Tavis: Wow.

Landau: Out it goes.

Tavis: And you, oh, this is a great one. Turn that. I dig that. That's really cool. Yeah. So how many years you been doing this?

Landau: Since 2003, so I've got thousands of them.

Tavis: So why haven't we seen, like, the Martin Landau collection or a traveling art show? That stuff is really good.

Landau: Well, a couple of people wanna publish it, but I'm debating as to whether I should or not.

Tavis: Right.

Landau: Because I don't know, it's not what I do professionally. But I started as a cartoonist on the 'New York Daily News.' When I was 17, I lied about my age, I was still in high school. And I used to illustrate Billy Rose's column, 'Pitching Horseshoes.' And I did that, and one day I said, that's enough of this. I looked around, I saw guys 30 and 40 years my senior, and I said, well, done this. And I became an actor, much to my family's joy. I left a good paying job with a future to become an actor. That really pleased them. (Laugh)

Tavis: (Laugh) What convinced, 'cause your doodling is very good.

Landau: Well, I was a fine arts major. I went to Pratt Institute and stuff. And I could paint, too. I could, my ex-wife told me that I could have been a great art forger. But (laugh) I chose not to do that.

Tavis: What convinced you to leave your well paying job at 17 to do the acting thing?

Landau: I don't know. I just had to. Certain things, there are certain windows of opportunity that open once in a while, and you have to dive through them headfirst, or they slam shut. Why? I don't know. I just did.

Tavis: You've been vindicated with this Oscar and all the other great work you've done. But I guess what I'm trying to get at is what made you think, sitting there, doodling, that you could be an actor?

Landau: I went to an off-Broadway show that a friend of mine who was also an artist, it was T.S. Eliot's 'The Family Reunion.' And he'd been talking about acting and stuff. And I went to see the show, it was directed by a guy I knew from The Actor's Studio years later, Frank Rosaro, (sp?) and he was terrible. He had studied and worked, and I said, my God, I could do better than that now. (Laugh)

And I said, wow, I didn't know you could do that. I think I could do that. So I went away to summer stock. I auditioned and I did 12 shows in 13 weeks, straight play, a musical. I sang, without any training. And then I came back, said this is for me, and I was paid $35 a week at that summer stock theater. There were 40 young people. A lot of hormones flying around, too. (Laugh) And I, $35 a week, they took out 25 for room and board. After taxes, I had enough for a bowl of soup and a pack of cigarettes.

Tavis: And you gave up how much at the paper?

Landau: A lot.

Tavis: Yeah, see?

Landau: In those days, a lot. A real, I was a member of the newspaper guild, the unions, and all. I was being paid handsomely. Well, it was foolish of me, I guess, but not necessarily. (Laugh)

Tavis: So I assume after all these many years, you don't regret that decision to leave the paper.

Landau: Oh, no. I still draw. And I realized, I looked around, I saw all these guys 30 or 40 years my senior doing what I was doing, and what I liked doing, I did at home anyway. So, how could I regret it?

Tavis: Let me take you back, a couple of things in your career I just wanna get you to comment on for me, because I've been dying to ask you these questions. The big movies I'll come to in just a second. But on a good day, when I get out of the studio early or get out of my office early, or just quit and go home 'cause I've had a bad day, on a good day, I will get home, and there's a local TV station here that runs two of my favorite shows, in rerun, of course, back to back every day. So they run 'Hawaii Five-0,' I'm a huge, my daddy loved 'Hawaii Five-0.'

Landau: Jack Lord was a friend of mine.

Tavis: He was a friend of yours, Jack Lord was?

Landau: Oh, sure, I knew Jack.

Tavis: Wow.

Landau: I knew Jack.

Tavis: Steve McGarrett.

Landau: Well, he was a member of The Actor's Studio. See, I knew Jack before anyone knew Jack.

Tavis: See, my dad got me watching 'Hawaii Five-0,' so I watch the reruns every day in the afternoon, I won't tell you what time, so you won't know how much cheating I'm doing when I go home early. But I watch 'Hawaii Five-0,' and it's followed by 'Mission: Impossible,' another one of my great shows, starring Martin Landau.

Landau: (singing) Do you have to pay a royalty if I do that?

Tavis: (Laugh) How cool was that, working on 'Mission: Impossible?'

Landau: It was great. We had fun. And that's my ex-wife in that picture, Barbara Bain. We did it together. We did two series in a row together. And those, I still see Peter Lupus, I have Thanksgiving dinner at his house. He's the fellow in the (unintelligible).

Tavis: Down in the corner.

Landau: He's a strong fellow. Greg passed away a few years ago, but Greg and I used to talk on New Year's Day every year from the time I left that show till the time he passed away. No matter where we were in the world, we would say Happy New Year to each other. His passing was a loss. His son Phil is an actor.

Tavis: So literally and figuratively, you all were family on that show.

Landau: We were indeed, yeah. And we were generous with each other, and really liked each other. And Peter Graves, and...

Tavis: So what do you make of these Tom Cruise 'Mission: Impossible' remakes?

Landau: Well, it has nothing to do with the series at all. We weren't an action adventure show. We were kind of a puzzle. The ideal mission was getting in there as a team, and getting out without anyone ever knowing we were in there, and letting them do themselves in. That's the ideal mission. Everyone knows Tom's there, because he's hanging off the side of something. (Laugh)

Tavis: (Laugh) And getting paid handsomely to hang off the side of something.

Landau: Well, yes, he's being paid handsomely. (Laugh) Much more handsomely than we were at that time.

Tavis: How grateful are you for this career? 'Cleopatra,' Alfred Hitchcock.

Landau: Yeah, well, I'll keep doing it till I get it right. I love doing it. I still love doing it. And that's why I'm doing this series, is because I was getting a lot of scripts where there was an old guy sitting at a table who grunted a lot, (laugh) and it wasn't something, and I figured movies are about younger people. So, a television series, you got a chance to kind of develop a character and deepen it, and work with young people.

Tavis: When you said you wanna keep doing it until you get it right, you serious about that? You still think you can become better as an actor, even now?

Landau: Well, I think that yeah, as you experience life, you can add more into the bouillabaisse, into the soup. I played Astrov and Uncle Vanya when I was in my twenties, playing a 50 year old. I replaced (unintelligible) in that play. And I thought I was pretty good, but now I look back on it, I must have been disastrously bad. Because what I didn't know in my twenties about being 50, I certainly know at this age. Which is over 70.

Tavis: Well, it all worked out, and you can see how well it worked out by checking out "The Evidence" on ABC, starring one Martin Landau. It is an honor to have you on the program.

Landau: Thank you so much, Tavis.

Tavis: I'm glad to have you here. I gotta talk you out of one of those doodles to add to my collection. That's our show for tonight, you can catch me on the weekends on PRI, Public Radio International. Check your local listings. See you back here next time on PBS. Until then, good night from Los Angeles. Thanks for watching, and keep the faith.