Martin Landau, the tall, intense, sometimes mischievously sinister actor best known for his role in the television series "Mission: Impossible" and his Oscar-winning portrayal of Bela Lugosi in the film "Ed Wood," died on Saturday in Los Angeles. He was 89.
His death was confirmed by his publicist.
Mr. Landau starred in "Mission: Impossible," a hit suspense drama on CBS, as Rollin Hand, a versatile covert-operations agent, from its debut in 1966 until 1969.
After the show's third season, he and Barbara Bain, his wife and co-star, left because of a contractual dispute. But the series had served its purpose. Because Mr. Landau's character was a master of disguise, morphing into a different character every week, casting people began to think of him for a variety of roles - and not only villains, which he had so often played earlier in his career.
Almost two decades later, after some lean years, Mr. Landau enjoyed a career revival in feature films. In Francis Ford Coppola's "Tucker: The Man and His Dream" (1988), he was cast as the title character's amiable hustler of a business partner as they challenged the Big Three automakers in the 1940s. The film brought him an Academy Award nomination.