Biographie

26 janvier 1935 · Dublin, Irlande

6 mai 2020 · Los Angeles, Californie, États-Unis

Martin Gleeson

It took me eight years to break through in Hollywood. I was groping around trying to figure out where the path was to the big time. Connections are everything.

You have to do everything, particularly if you want to avoid being typecast. I was a Beatnik and a Hippie. In the 1960s we drove a Kombi van from Switzerland to India. Along the way we discovered Subud. Mardiah and I first came to Indonesian in 1971, but we didn't decide to buy a house here till three years ago. It's a lovely place to relax and enjoy life.

Of course the entertainment industry is littered with burn-outs and drop-outs. Staying the distance requires an ability to control the rat in the skull and having no fear of rejection. You have to be a hustler.

[on an early role he took that required experienced horsemanship] I'd never ridden before in my life, but I wasn't going to let on. Once on the set a nasty wrangler spotted my uncertainty and whacked the huge horse as soon as I mounted. It went galloping over a hill towards the camera while I hung on for dear life - totally terrified. The director said I was riding badly and the shot was unusable. I told him that I was playing an Irish character and that was the way the Irish rode. He accepted that and I got to keep the part.