Strother Martin Short Biography

Strother Martin while famous for that line and many others, he was a springboard champion, taught swimming in the Navy during WWII, and missed the 1948 Olympic team by one place. He moved to Hollywood and among other things, was a swimming instructor to Charles Chaplin’s children. After meeting Sam Peckinpah he began to get roles like Cool Hand Luke (1967), Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), Slap Shot (1977), and The Wild Bunch (1969).

Strother Douglas Martin, Jr. (March 26, 1919 – August 1, 1980) was a character actor who often worked with John Wayne and Paul Newman. Many of his memorable western films were directed by John Ford and Sam Peckinpah. He is no doubt best known as the prison “captain” in Cool Hand Luke (1967), where he utters the famous line “What we’ve got here is failure to communicate.” This line is ranked number 11 on the American Film Institute list 100 Years…100 Movie Quotes.

As a youth, he was very good at swimming and diving. He placed first in the National Junior Springboard Diving Championship at the age of 17. During World War II he served as a swimming instructor for the Navy. Following the war, he was on the diving team at the University of Michigan. He tried to make it on to the Olympic team but placed third in the adult National Springboard Diving competition.

Martin eventually moved to Los Angeles, California, where he worked as a swimming instructor and as a swimming extra in films. He began getting bit parts and eventually worked extensively in television. Martin’s very distinctive, high-pitched voice and his ability to seem menacing lead him to roles in westerns such as The Horse Soldiers (1959) and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), both directed by John Ford and featuring John Wayne. His insane giggling is some of the most memorable parts of The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962). Martin was excellent in comedy, playing an incompetent “Indian agent” in McLintock! (1963), and as a hapless horse trader in True Grit (1969).

Other great roles include Cool Hand Luke (1967), Sam Peckinpah’s The Wild Bunch (1969), Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), and the previously mentioned True Grit (1969). After making a few duds Martin returned to comedy was Slap Shot (1977), opposite Paul Newman and in Cheech and Chong’s Up in Smoke (1978) as Arnold Stoner, the father of Tommy Chong’s character. Of course, my favorite role of his was as Poe, the morphine-addicted medical school drop-out in Hard Times (1975). His last acting job was on Saturday Night Live. Martin played the pedantic owner of a French Language camp for children – where he copied the prison captain from Cool Hand Luke (1967). His phrase was “What we have here is failure to communicate BI-LINGUALLY!”

Sadly he died shortly after the show was recorded. This man was a great talent and one day his total contribution will hopefully be remembered.

Reviewed Strother Martin Films

Strother Martin on iMDB