Today is NOT Martin Balsam’s birthday, but for some reason I’m thinking of him today. He was a terrific actor – a character actor, not a star, not a leading man, but an actor who seemed to deeply inhabit every role he played, so deeply that I still remember him from films I haven’t seen for decades. I especially enjoyed his performances in Little Big Man, 12 Angry Men, and my favorite Balsam role and one of my favorite films of all time, A Thousand Clowns, for which Balsam won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
Here's a clip from that film, consisting of two scenes between two brothers: Murray Burns, an unemployed comedy writer for television, played by Jason Robards; and his brother, Arnold Burns, a talent agent who represents Murray, played by Martin Balsam. This video clip is 10 minutes long, and it’s worth every minute of it.
