Marty Feldman

Feldman was born on 8 July 1934 in Canning Town, east London, the son of Cecilia (née Crook) and Myer Feldman, a gown manufacturer. His parents were Ukrainian Jewish immigrants from Kyiv. He recalled his childhood as "solitary" especially during his years of evacuation to the countryside during the Second World War. Feldman suffered from thyroid disease and developed Graves' ophthalmopathy, causing his eyes to protrude and become misaligned. A childhood injury, a car crash, a boating accident and reconstructive eye surgery may also have contributed to his appearance. He later described his appearance as a factor in his career success: "If I aspired to be Robert Redford, I'd have my eyes straightened and my nose fixed and end up like every other lousy actor, with two lines on Kojak. But this way, I'm a novelty." ==Career==

Early career Leaving school at the minimum age of 15, Feldman worked at the Dreamland funfair in Margate, Feldman joked that he was "the world's worst trumpet player." Feldman was co-author—along with Chapman, Cleese and Brooke-Taylor—of the sketch "Four Yorkshiremen", which was written for At Last the 1948 Show, later adapted by Monty Python for their stage performances. In 1974, Dennis Main Wilson produced a short BBC sketch series for Feldman titled Marty Back Together Again—a reference to reports about the star's health—but it never captured the impact of the earlier series. On film, in Mel Brooks' Young Frankenstein (1974), Feldman played Igor (pronounced "EYE-gore", a comic response to Gene Wilder's claim that 'it's pronounced FRONK-en-steen'). Many lines in Young Frankenstein were improvised. Wilder said he had Feldman in mind when he wrote the part. It was later released as a CD in 2007. ==Personal life==

From January 1959 until his death in 1982, Feldman was married to Lauretta Sullivan. She died in 2010, at the age of 74, in Studio City, Los Angeles. Feldman's peers have reported, in a number of biographies, that he was highly attractive to women in spite of his unconventional facial appearance. He spent time in jazz clubs, as he found a parallel between 'riffing' in a comedy partnership and the improvisation of jazz. Politically, Feldman was described as an "avowed socialist", telling one interviewer, "I'm a socialist by conviction, if not by lifestyle", and another, "I'm a socialist from way back, but in order to pay my back taxes I have to live in America to earn enough money to pay the back tax I owe to the socialist government that I voted in." Nevertheless, he generally did not seriously discuss politics in public, and once stated: "I feel it would be presumptuous for me to make any statements about American politics because I'm a guest here." An exception was during a promotional tour for The Last Remake of Beau Geste, when he denounced the campaign led by Anita Bryant against homosexuality. Another exception was after the murder of his friend John Lennon. Feldman subsequently became an anti-gun advocate in the US, even wearing an anti-gun t-shirt and hat pin during his appearance on the late night TV show Fridays. In 1971, Feldman gave evidence in favour of the defendants in the obscenity trial for Oz magazine. Feldman wrote an autobiography, Eye Marty: The Newly Discovered Autobiography of a Comic Genius, which was brought to light following Lauretta's death. It was published in 2012 with a foreword by Eric Idle. ==Death==

Feldman died of a heart attack His funeral was held on 6 December 1982, in the Hollywood Hills, where eulogies were given and the services were "tinged with laughter and jazz music". The 20-minute service was attended by about 100 relatives and friends, including fellow comedians Cheech Marin, Dom DeLuise and Mel Brooks. Feldman is buried in the Garden of Heritage at Forest Lawn – Hollywood Hills Cemetery, California, near the graves of Stan Laurel and Buster Keaton, two comics he idolized. ==Filmography==

Film Television ==Radio series==

• Round the Horne (co-writer with Barry Took) ==References==