Topic: Martin Balsam

Martin Henry Balsam (November 4, 1919 – February 13, 1996) was an Academy Award and Tony Award-winning American actor.

Balsam was born in The Bronx to Jewish parents Lillian (née Weinstein) and Albert Balsam, who was a manufacturer of ladies sportswear. He studied at the Dramatic Workshop of The New School in New York with the influential German director Erwin Piscator and then served in the Army Air Corps during World War II.

In 1947, Martin Balsam was selected by Elia Kazan and Lee Strasberg to be a player in the Actors Studio television program. He appeared in many other television drama series, including The Twilight Zone, Five Fingers, Target: The Corruptors!, The Eleventh Hour, Breaking Point, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and Mr. Broadway, starring Craig Stevens.