WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Oscar winning actor Martin Landau, 89, has died.
The tall, all-purpose actor died Saturday in Los Angeles of 'unexpected complications' following a brief stay at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, his publicist Dick Guttman said.
Best known for roles in the hit suspense drama Mission: Impossible and 1960s blockbusters like Cleopatra, Landau won the Academy award for best actor in a supporting role for his performance as a broken-down horror movie star Bela Lugosi in Ed Wood.
The New York born cartoonist-turned-actor shot to fame by playing a homosexual henchman in Alfred Hitchcock's 1959 classic North by Northwest.
After he quit Mission: Impossible after three seasons in 1969 because of a contract dispute, Landau's feature films career saw two decades of recess.
Landau returned to the screen through Francis Ford Coppola's Tucker: The Man and His Dream in 1988.
The following year, he acted in Woody Allen's comedy drama Crimes and Misdemeanours.
He received Oscar nomination for best supporting actor for his roles in these two films.
The big award that eluded Landau twice came his way in Tim Burton's 1994 biographical comedy drama Ed Wood.
Landau, who had a relationship with Marilyn Monroe for few months, was also a known acting teacher.
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