Martin Gabel

Martin Gabel (June 19, 1911 – May 22, 1986) was a versatile American actor, director, and film producer whose career spanned nearly five decades, beginning in the early 1930s and concluding in 1980. Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Jewish immigrants Rebecca and Isaac Gabel, a jeweler, he grew up steeped in a cultural milieu that would later inform his nuanced performances on stage and screen. Gabel first emerged in the public eye as a radio personality, notably portraying newspaper reporter Neil Williams in the popular serial Easy Aces during the mid‑to‑late 1930s, and his resonant voice later anchored the historic May 8, 1945, CBS broadcast of Norman Corwin’s epic poem On a Note of Triumph, a program that commemorated the fall of Nazi Germany and was rebroadcast across multiple networks due to its overwhelming popularity. In 1937 he entered Orson Welles’s groundbreaking Mercury Theatre, playing Javert in the six‑part radio adaptation of Les Misérables and subsequently becoming a core member of the repertory company. On stage he earned critical acclaim for his portrayals of Cassius in Welles’s modern‑dress production of Caesar (1937) and the eponymous Danton in Danton’s Death (1938), showcasing his capacity for both classical and politically charged material. In 1947 Gabel directed his sole film, The Lost Moment, before returning to supporting roles in cinema, such as crime boss Tomas Rienzi in Deadline U.S.A. (1952) opposite Humphrey Bogart and a memorable mob figure in Frank Sinatra’s Lady in Cement (1968). His Broadway achievements culminated in a 1961 Tony Award for Best Featured Actor for Big Fish, Little Fish, and he later embodied Professor Moriarty in Baker Street (1965) and Stephen A. Douglas in The Rivalry. Gabel also appeared in Alfred Hitchcock’s Marnie (1964) and Billy Wilder’s The Front Page (1974). On a personal level, Gabel married television personality Arlene Francis in a private ceremony on May 14, 1946; the couple had a son, Peter, and remained together until his death. Suffering from cancer and paralysis in his final months, Gabel suffered a fatal heart attack on May 22, 1986, in his Manhattan apartment, with Francis at his side. His legacy endures as a testament to the breadth of mid‑century American performing arts.