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Dick Martin
Dick Martin
	Martin on Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, 1968
Birth name	Thomas Richard Martin
Born	January 30, 1922; Battle Creek, Michigan, U.S.
Died	May 24, 2008 (aged 86); Santa Monica, California, U.S.
Medium	Television; film; radio;
Years active	1951–2002
Spouse	Peggy Connelly (m. 1957, divorced); Dolly Read (m. 1971; div. 1974); (m. 1978);
Children	2

Thomas Richard Martin (January 30, 1922^[1] – May 24, 2008) was an American comedian and director. He was known for his role as the co-host (and comic foil of Dan Rowan) of the sketch comedy program Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In from 1968 to 1973.

Early life and career

Martin was born in Battle Creek, Michigan, to William, a salesman, and Ethel Martin, a homemaker. In the early 1930s, the family moved to Detroit, where his teenage years included a bout with tuberculosis, which kept him out of the military.^[1]

Early in his career, Martin was a staff writer for Duffy's Tavern, a radio situation comedy. He and Dan Rowan formed the comedy team Rowan and Martin in 1952 and played in nightclubs throughout the United States and overseas. Martin played a drunk heckling a Shakespearean performer, a mainstay of their act for years. They could frequently be seen as host-performers on NBC's Colgate Comedy Hour, alternating with Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis and other more established names. In 1958, they starred in Hal Kanter's comedy Western Once Upon a Horse..., which was a box office failure. In 1960, they asked NBC to cancel their contract four years early and the network agreed.^[2]

In 1962, Martin worked solo, playing the next-door neighbor to Lucille Ball during the first season of her comeback comedy The Lucy Show. He and Rowan returned to the nightclub circuit until 1966, when they were asked to host the summer replacement series for The Dean Martin Show. He co-starred in the 1966 Doris Day movie The Glass Bottom Boat.^[3]

Laugh-In

The exposure led to an opportunity for Rowan and Martin to team up with producers Ed Friendly and George Schlatter and create Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In (1968–1973) on NBC. The comedy show was an immediate hit, becoming the number one American television program within two months of its debut. It was the top-rated show in its second and third seasons. Laugh-In had a uniquely fast-paced stream-of-consciousness style of blackout gags, double entendre, topical satire, and catchphrases, much of it delivered by a cast of then-unknowns such as Goldie Hawn, Lily Tomlin, Arte Johnson, and Ruth Buzzi.^{[citation needed]}

At the center of the maelstrom stood the veterans Rowan and Martin, who bemusedly made no effort to slow down the program. Martin later said, "We designed it so that we are two relatively normal guys wandering through a sea of madness," and described his comic persona as "a kind of inept lech" who could be laughed at as well as laughed with. At the height of the show's popularity, Rowan and Martin starred in the 1969 film The Maltese Bippy, which was a notorious failure.^[4] After Rowan retired from show business, Martin was a frequent panelist on game shows such as Match Game, Password Plus, and Tattletales, and he also hosted a parody game show called The Cheap Show in 1978, and the game show Mindreaders in 1979.

Personal life

Martin married singer Peggy Connelly in 1957.^[5] They divorced prior to 1968 and he married Playboy Playmate and Beyond the Valley of the Dolls star Dolly Read in 1971.^[6] Martin and Read divorced in June 1974, but remarried in 1978 and remained married until his death.^[7]^[8]

Death

Martin died on May 24, 2008, of breathing complications in Santa Monica, California. He had lost the use of a lung due to tuberculosis as a teenager and suffered respiratory problems late in life.^[1]

Dan Rowan and Dick Martin as caricatured for NBC by Sam Berman

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1951	Father's Little Dividend	Baby Stanley's Holder at Christening	Uncredited
1958	Once Upon a Horse...	Doc Logan
1962–1963	The Lucy Show	Harry Conners	10 episodes
1966	The Glass Bottom Boat	Zack Molloy
1968–1973	Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In	Dick Martin
1969	The Maltese Bippy	Ernest Grey
1975–1979	Match Game	Dick Martin	102 episodes
1978	Zero to Sixty	Arthur Dunking
1981	Carbon Copy	Victor Bard
1982–1990	Newhart	Director	33 episodes
1992	North of Pittsburgh	Irving Kent III
1993	Blossom	Frosty the Clown	S4 E9 "38 Special"
1998	The Nanny	Preston Collier	S5 E16 "The Dinner Party"
1998	Air Bud: Golden Receiver	Phil Phil
2001	Bartleby	The Mayor	(final film role)

References

^ ^a ^b ^c Genzlinger, Neil (May 26, 2008). "Dick Martin, 'Laugh-In' Host, Dies at 86". The New York Times. Retrieved May 21, 2015.
^ Torre, Marie (January 29, 1960). "Rowan and Martin Out, Call Contract a Mistake". New York Herald Tribune. p. 20. ProQuest 325795169. Three years ago, when NBC put a television contract where its enthusiasm was and acquired the team's services on an exclusive seven-year basis, Rowan and Martin were said to be well on their way to matching the success of predecessors Martin and Lewis.[...] For the first time in three years, Rowan and Martin are able to perform on other channels and their first appearance since the break with NBC (a mutual agreement, incidentally), occurs Feb. 7 on CBS' 'Ed Sullivan Show.')
^ Cassyd, Syd (August 16, 1965). "Hollywood Report". Boxoffice. p. 10. ProQuest 1673774573. 'The Glass Bottom Boat,' starring Doris Day, Rod Taylor and Arthur Godfrey, is now before the cameras on location in Northridge in San Francisco Valley. [...] The Melchor-Freeman production also has an all-star supporting cast including John McGiver, Paul Lynde, Edward Andrews, Eric Fleming, Dom DeLuise and comedian Dick Martin.
^ "The Maltese Bippy". All Movie Guide. Retrieved November 1, 2021.
^ Lentz III, Harris M. (2009). Obituaries in the Performing Arts, 2008: Film, Television, Radio, Theatre, Dance, Music, Cartoons and Pop Culture. McFarland. pp. 282–83. ISBN 978-0-7864-5384-9.
^ Darr, Burt (June 30, 1968). "Bert Darr's TV and Radio Question Box". Honolulu Star-Bulletin. p. 40 TV Aloha. Retrieved April 22, 2022.
^ "Dick Martin Divorced from Dolly Read". Kansas City Star. Associated Press. June 14, 1974. p. 21. Retrieved April 22, 2022.
^ "TV Notes". Corvallis Gazette-Times. Newspaper Enterprise Association. October 16, 1978. p. 25. Retrieved April 22, 2022.