Trevor Martin Passes On

British actor Trevor Martin died on October 5 2017 at the age of 87.

Trevor Martin was born on November 17 1929 in Enfield. Growing up he acted in several school plays. Following his national service, Trevor Martin enrolled at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. In 1953 he won the Carleton Hobbs Radio Award, which led to three 18 month contracts with the BBC Radio Drama Company.

After graduating from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, he helped set up the Guildhall Players. He played three summer seasons at Peter Bull’s Perranporth theatre in Cornwall. He made his television debut in the TV production Tomorrow Mr. Tompion! And About Time Too! in 1958. In the late Fifties he guest starred on Trouble for Two. The Splendid Spur, Scotland Yard, and Sheep's Clothing. He starred in the series Three Golden Nobles.

In 1962 Mr. Martin first worked with the Royal Shakespeare Company, an association that would last for forty years. In 1963 he became a member of Lord Laurence Olivier's company with the beginning of The Royal National Theatre. He appeared in the feature film Othello (1965). He had a recurring role on the TV series Orlando and was a storyteller on the classic show Jackanory. He guest starred on such shows as The Men from Room 13, Sherlock Holmes, No Hiding Place, ITV Play of the Week, Mogul, ITV Playhouse, Doctor Who, and Z Cars. He appeared in the 1970 television production Edward II.

In 1974 Trevor Martin became the first man ever to appear as The Doctor from Doctor Who on stage. The play was Doctor Who and the Daleks in the Seven Keys to Doomsday and it debuted at the Adelphi Theatre in London. It ran for four weeks. A tour had been planned, but never took place. In the Seventies Mr. Martin guest starred on such shows as Van der Valk, Special Branch, Within These Walls, Victorian Scandals, and Armchair Theatre. He appeared in the film Absolution (1978).

In the Eighties Trevor Martin had a recurring role on Coronation Street. He appeared in the mini-series A Brother's Tale. He guest starred on Angels, Mitch, and Inspector Morse. He provided a voice for the movie Krull (1983) and appeared in the movie Three Kinds of Heat (1987). In the Nineties he guest starred on Taggart, Dangerfield, Harry Enfield and Chums, Ain't Misbehavin', A Certain Justice, A Wing and a Prayer, and The Ambassador. He appeared in a TV production of Tess of the D'Urbervilles. He appeared in the film House of Mirth.

In the Naughts Mr. Martin guest starred on such shows as The Bill, The Romantics, Doctors, and Whitechapel. He appeared in the film Babel (2006). In the Teens he guest starred on Dead Boss and Call the Midwife.

He also appeared in the 1993 Doctor Who radio drama The Paradise of Death and the 2003 Doctor Who audio drama Flip-Flop.

There can be no doubt that Trevor Martin was a very talented actor. He also had an incredible voice. There should be little wonder that not only was he the first actor to play The Doctor on stage, but one of the first Time Lords (aside from The Doctor himself, as well as his granddaughter Susan) to appear on Doctor Who (it was in the serial "The War Games"). Over the years he played a wide array of roles, including Earl of Lancaster in a TV production of Edward II and Parson Tringham in Tess of the D'Urbervilles. He had a long career in stage, playing in everything from Becket to Troilus and Cressida to The Crucible.

Gilbert Roland: Latin Legend

Gilbert Roland as The Cisco Kid

The Golden Age of Hollywood was not particularly golden for Hispanic actors. If one was not particularly handsome, he might find himself playing a number of Mexican bandidos and buffoons. If one was particularly handsome, he might find himself playing a succession of stereotypical Latin lovers. It took actors of considerable talent to break free of the stereotypical roles in which the Hollywood studios insisted on casting Hispanic actors. Among the actors who was able to break free of the stereotypes was the extremely talented Gilbert Roland.

Gilbert Roland was born Luis Antonio Dámaso de Alonso in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico on December 11 1905. His father, Francisco, was a bullfighter who had immigrated from Spain. In fact, young Luis had intended to follow in his father's footsteps as a bullfighter, but his destiny would take him in another direction entirely. When the Mexican Revolution began it was only a matter of time before Ciudad Juárez would become caught up in it. Francisco then moved his family to safety across the border to El Paso, Texas. Sadly, El Paso would not be a particularly pleasant experience for young Luis. There he faced anti-Hispanic bigotry. To cope young Luis escaped into the movies, spending any money he had to attend the cinema. Of course, being Hispanic he had to watch from the balcony, which was reserved "For Coloured People Only."

Having to sit in the balcony at movie theatres was the least of young Luis's worries, as he faced racism on a daily basis. He was once beaten for not knowing every single word of "The Star Spangled Banner". Regardless, he persevered. He became a newspaper boy and still later a messenger boy.  It was while he was a messenger boy that he was in an accident that would change his life. A car hit and almost killed him, and it took him a long time to recover. When his father went to perform bullfights in Tijuana, he took Luis with him. Luis stayed at a ranch outside San Diego, California, where he met actor Chris-Pin Martin. Chris-Pin Martin told Luis he could get work as an extra in Hollywood. Luis wound up hired to play a cowboy and then an American Indian. He later joked, "All day I chased myself on horseback for three dollars and lunch. My baptism in silent movies."

Luis found it difficult to make a living as an extra, and to make ends meet he eventually took a job answering fan mail for actor Antonio Moreno. In 1922 his knowledge of bullfighting got him a job as a dresser's assistant in order to get Rudolph Valentino ready for the bullfighting scenes in Blood and Sand (1922). Both as an extra and in bit parts, young Luis would appear in some memorable films. He was an extra in The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923). He was a matador in The Spaniard (1925).

It was an agent named Ivan Kahn who would get Luis his big break in films. He got him a bit part in The Midshipman (1925), which starred Ramon Novarro. By coincidence, Ramon Novarro's family had known Gilbert Roland's family before they had moved from Mexico. It was Ivan Kahn who suggested that Luis adopt a stage name Mr. Kahn's suggestion was George Adams. Instead Luis created a stage name by combining the last names of two of his favourite actors, John Gilbert and Ruth Roland. Luis Alonso then became Gilbert Roland.

Gilbert Roland received his first big break in a supporting role in the film The Plastic Age (1925) starring Clara Bow.  Curiously, Mr. Roland's first major role would not be a Hispanic character, but instead the very Northern European Carl Peters. It would be his role as Annibale in The Blonde Saint (1926) that would draw him his first overwhelmingly positive reviews. He was signed to Untied Artists and cast right away as Armand Duval in the studio's adaptation of Camille (1926). Unfortunately Gilbert Roland's first male lead role would prove to be a bit of a double-edged sword. While it guaranteed larger roles in movies (often the lead role), it also meant that he would spend a good deal of time playing stereotypical Latin lovers. Indeed, when Rudolph Valentino died, some in the Hollywood press declared Gilbert Roland as Valentino's successor.

While Gilbert Roland would play more than his fair share of Latin lovers, he would play other sorts of roles as well. In fact, not only were many of the characters he played over the years not lovers, but often they were not Latin either. In Men of the North (1930) he played Louis Le Bay, a French Canadian falsely accused of a gold theft. In Universal's Spanish language version of their adaptation of Leo Tolstoy's Resurrection (1931), he played Prince Dmitri Nekhludov. In The Woman in Room 13 (1932) he played Victor Legrand. Like many Hispanic actors of the era, Gilbert Roland was often cast in roles of ethnicities that did not originate in Northern Europe. In addition to the various Frenchmen he played, he played the Arabic roles of Kasim and his evil twin Hassan in the serial The Desert Hawk (1944). He played another Arabic character, Achmed Abdullah, in Around the World in 80 Days (1956).

Perhaps because his father had been a bullfighter and Gilbert Roland had aspired to be one, he may well have been his best in adventure movies.  Indeed, his most famous role may well have been that of The Cisco Kid. Gilbert Roland was only the second Hispanic actor to ever play The Kid, after Cesar Romero. He took over the role of Cisco from Duncan Renaldo in 1946's The Gay Cavalier. He would go onto appear in five more Cisco Kid movies. In addition to the Cisco Kid movies, Gilbert Roland was also a popular choice for casting directors when it came to swashbucklers. He played Captain López, the sea captain of archvillain Don José Álvarez de Córdoba in The Sea Hawk (1940). In Captain Kidd (1945), he played Kidd's navigator, Jose Lorenzo. He was one of the stars of the obscure swashbuckler The Diamond Queen (1953).  He appeared in two episodes of Zorro as the villain El Cuchillo. He appeared as Don Alejandro Vega, Zorro's father, in the 1974 TV movie Zorro.

As might be expected, Gilbert Roland appeared in several Westerns over the years, beyond the Cisco Kid franchise. He was the lead in Thunder Trail (1937), based on Zane Gray's novel of the same name. He had a significant role in Anthony Mann's Western The Furies (1950) as Juan Herrera, close friend of rancher's daughter Vance Jeffords (played by Barbara Stanwyck) and her ally against her father. He would also have roles in such Westerns as Bandido! (1956) and The Last of the Fast Guns (1958). Not surprisingly, he would appear frequently on television Westerns, including Wagon Train, Bonanza, Frontier Circus, Gunsmoke, The High Chaparral, and Kung Fu. Later in his career he appeared in several Spaghetti Westerns, including Any Gun Can Play (1967), Johnny Hamlet (1968), God Was in the West, Too, at One Time (1968), and Sartana Does Not Forgive (1968). Unlike many Latin actors of the Studio Era, Gilbert Roland was fortunate in that he was almost never cast as stereotypical bandidos. That having been said, he played many military officers and aristocrats over the years.

Gilbert Roland's last role was in the Western Barbarosa in 1982. He died of cancer in 1994 at the age of 88.

Sadly, Gilbert Roland would spend much of his career acting in B movies. When he did appear in an A picture, it was generally in a supporting role. This is not to say that he did not give many great performances over the years, and it was not unusual for Mr. Roland to outshine a movie's leads. In The Last Train from Madrid (1937) he gave an admirable performance as the fugitive Eduardo de Soto. In Juarez (1939) he played Colonel Miguel Lopez, who would eventually betray Maximilian and his forces. The Miracle of Our Lady of Fatima (1952) gave him one of his very best roles, that of agnostic Hugo da Silva who nonetheless is friends to children who wholeheartedly believe in the miracle of the lady of Fatima. In The Bad and the Beautiful (1952) he played womanising actor Victor "Gaucho" Ribera. Even on television Gilbert Roland was capable of great performances. One of the best episodes of the Western anthology series Death Valley Days was "A Kingdom for a Horse", in which Gilbert Roland's played Brazil's Emperor Dom Pedro II. It was one of his finest television roles.

During a period when Hollywood was content to cast Hispanic actors as bandidos, Latin lovers, and buffoons, Gilbert Roland was able to overcome stereotypes and play a wide variety of roles in his career. Over the years he played everything from military officers to matadors to pirates to murder suspects. He could play heroes and villains equally with ease. Even though Hollywood never utilised him to his full extent, Gilbert Roland left behind a long list of great performances.

The Late Great Bob Schiller

Television writer Bob Schiller, who with his creative partner Bob Weiskopf, worked on some of the greatest sitcoms of all time, died on October 10 2017 at the age of 98.

Bob Schiller was born on November 8 1918 in San Francisco, California. He attended the University of California, Los Angeles, where he wrote a humour column for the university's paper, the Daily Bruin . He enlisted in the United States Army in 1940, where he was a humour columnist for Stars and Stripes. He also produced comedy variety shows for the troops. In 1945 he went to work on the radio show Duffy's Tavern. He remained there for four seasons. He also worked on such radio shows as  The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, Abbott and Costello, The Mel Blanc Show, The Jimmy Durante Show, and December Bride. It was in 1950 that he made the transition to television, writing for The Garry Moore Show.

The Fifties saw Mr. Schiller complete his transition from radio to television. He wrote for such shows as The Red Buttons Show, The Colgate Comedy Hour, and All Star Revue. It was in 1953 that he formed his professional partnership with Bob Weiskopf. Together in the Fifties they worked on such shows as That's My Boy, The Jimmy Durante Show, December Bride, Professional Father, The Bob Cummings Show, I Love Lucy, and The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour. The two of them served as story consultants on The Ann Southern Show.

In the Sixties Bob Schiller and Bob Weiskopf developed the classic sitcom The Lucy Show and also wrote several of its episodes. They served as producers on the sitcom The Good Guys. They wrote for such shows as Pete and Gladys; The Red Skelton Hour; The Beautiful Phyllis Diller Show; Love, American Style; The Carol Burnett Show; and The Flip Wilson Show.

In the Seventies Messrs. Schiller and Weiskopf served as producers on the sitcoms Maude and All's Fair. They wrote episodes of the shows Maude, All in the Family, and Archie Bunker's Place. In the Eighties they wrote episode of the shows Checking In, Sanford, Comedy Factory, He's the Mayor, and The Boys, as well as the pilot W*A*L*T*E*R.

Bob Schiller and Bob Weiskopf were two of the greatest television comedy writers of all time. They were equally at ease writing for sitcoms and for variety shows. They were responsible for some of the best television episodes ever made, including "Lucy's Italian Movie" on I Love Lucy (in which Lucy stomps grapes), "Uncle Paul's Insurance" on Pete and Gladys (in which Pete is afraid to ask Uncle Paul to get him insurance), and "Edith's 50th Birthday" on All in the Family (for which they won an Emmy). What made Bob Schiller and Bob Weiskopf so great as comedy writers is that they could write both slapstick and both verbal humour. Indeed, in their prestigious career they worked on shows that emphasised physical humour (I Love Lucy and The Lucy Show) and shows that relied more on verbal humour (All in the Family). Few writers produced as much quality television as they did.

Suzan Farmer R.I.P.

Suzan Farmer, an actress who appeared frequently on British television and in several Hammer Films, died on September 17 2017 at the age of 75. The cause was cancer.

Suzan Farmer was born in Kent on June 16 1942. She made her film debut in The Supreme Secret in 1958. She studied acting at the Central School of Speech and Drama and was still studying there when she appeared in The Dawn Killer (1959). The next year she appeared in Design for Living (1960).

She appeared frequently on British television in the Sixties. Miss Farmer played Aglaria in the mini-series adaptation of The Idiot. She guest starred on such shows as Call Oxbridge 2000, No Hiding Place, Love Story, Danger Man, Gideon C.I.D., Sherlock Holmes, The Flying Swan, Armchair Theatre, The Saint, Out of the Unknown, and Omnibus. She appeared in the films Young and Willing (1962), 80,000 Suspects (1963), The Scarlet Blade (1963), The Devil-Ship Pirates (1964), 633 Squadron (1964), Die, Monster, Die! (1965), Dracula: Prince of Darkness (1966), Doctor in Clover (1966), Where the Bullets Fly (1966), and Talk of the Devil (1968).

In the Seventies Suzan Farmer played Sally Robson on Coronation Street. She appeared on such shows as UFO, The Persuaders!, ITV Play of the Week, Thriller, Dixon of Dock Green, Blake's 7, and Breakaway. She appeared in the film Persecution (1974).

The Late Great Len Wein

Comic book writer Len Wein, who co-created Swamp Thing with artist Bernie Wrightson and revitalised The X-Men, died on September 2017 at the age of 69. He had experienced problems with his heart for some time.

Len Wein was born on June 12 1948 in New York City. He was a comic book fan from childhood, although initially he wanted to be an artist. He and his friend Marv Wolfman (who also attained fame as a comic book writer) regularly attended National Periodical Publications' (now DC Comics) tour of their offices as teenagers. Mr. Wein received a degree in art from Farmingdale State College on Long Island.

It was in 1968 that DC Comics editor Joe Orlando hired Len Wein. His first published work was the story "Eye of the Beholder" in Teen Titans #18 (Dec. 1968).  Later in the year he wrote for DC Comics' horror anthology House of Secrets and Marvel Comics' horror anthology Chamber of Darkness. He also wrote for DC Comics' romance anthology Secret Hearts and the Mattel toy tie-in Hot Wheels. He did a good deal of work for Skywald Publications' black-and-white magazines, including the horror titles Nightmare  and Psycho, as well as their The Bravados and The Sundance Kid. He also did a good deal of work at Gold Key, writing on such titles as Boris Karloff's Tales of Mystery, Star Trek, and The Twilight Zone.

Len Wein's first work on a superhero title for Marvel was a one-shot story co-written with Roy Thomas in  Daredevil #71 (Dec. 1970). He worked on various DC superhero titles, including Adventure Comics (featuring Supergirl ), The Flash, and Superman. It was in  The House of Secrets #92 (July 1971) that Len Wein and artist Bernie Wrightson introduced the character of Swamp Thing. Set in the Victorian Era, the story centred around a scientist who is transformed into a monster made of muck and vegetable matter. The story proved so successful that Swamp Thing was given his own title, although it was updated to modern times. Len Wein was the writer on Swamp Thing for its first 13 issues. He also wrote several issues of The Phantom Stranger.

Len Wein wrote issues 100 to 114 of Justice League of America, including issues 100-102, which re-introduced The Seven Solders of Victory and issues 107-108 which reintroduced various Quality Comics characters. With artist Carmine Infantino he co-created Christopher Chance, the Human Target, who first appeared in Action Comics #419 (December 1972).

Len Wein also wrote a good deal for Marvel Comics in the Seventies. In 1974 he succeeded Roy Thomas as editor-in-chief of Marvel's colour line. He remained as editor-in-chief at Marvel for only about a year, being succeeded in the position by his friend Marv Wolfman. He did stay at Marvel as a writer, and wrote on such titles as Marvel Team-Up, The Amazing Spider-Man, The Incredible Hulk, Thor Fantastic Four, and The Defenders. It was while he was writing The Incredible Hulk that he co-created the character of Wolverine with artists John Romita Sr. and Herb Trimpe. Wolverine first appeared in The Incredible Hulk vol. 2, no. 182 (Dec. 1974).

It was in 1975 that Mr. Wein and artist Dave Cokrum revived the Marvel superhero team The X-Men, originally created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. A new team was introduced in Giant-Size X-Men #1 (May 1975) that included the characters Colossus, Nightcrawler, and Storm. Len Wein plotted the early stories of the revived X-Men, with the scripts themselves being written by Chris Claremont. Afterwards Mr. Claremont took over the title entirely.

It was a the end of the Seventies that Len Wein returned to DC Comics. With Batman no. 307 (January 1979) he began scripting Batman. It was with that issue that he introduced Wayne Foundation executive Lucius Fox. He also scripted Green Lantern, taking the character of John Stewart, previously a rarely used substitute Lantern when Hal Jordan was not available, and turned him into a major character. As an editor he worked on such diverse titles as The New Teen Titans, All-Star Squadron, and Batman and the Outsiders, as well as Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons's legendary mini-series Watchmen.

In the early Nineties Len Wein worked as editor in chief for Disney Comics for three years. Afterwards he worked on various animated series, including Phantom 2040, Iron Man, Hypernauts, Street Fighter: The Animated Series, and others. In 2006 he collaborated with writer Kurt Busiek on Dark Horse Comics' mini-series Conan: Book of Thoth. Since then he has written various one-shots and mini-series for DC Comics.

Len Wein was one of the most influential comic book writers to emerge from the Seventies. He would have been influential if Swamp Thing had been the only character he had ever created. As it was he created several important characters, including Wolverine, many of the New X-Men, and Lucius Fox. While John Stewart was created by Denny O'Neil and Neal Adams, it was Len Wein who turned him into a major character. As to why Len Wein proved to be so influential, it was perhaps because he rooted his writing in tradition, while at the same time bringing in something new. He was responsible for reviving The Seven Soldiers of Victory at DC Comics and reviving The X-Men at Marvel. He wrote for such classic characters as Batman and Green Lantern. At the same time, however, he was able to introduce new elements into classic comic books, whether it was the character of Lucius Fox in the Batman titles or adding new characters to The X-Men. Len Wein was truly one of the great comic book writers, and his influence will be felt for years to come.