5 Fascinating Facts About Ross Martin, Artemus Gordon from ‘The Wild Wild West’
With his square jaw and heavily-lidded eyes, actor Ross Martin looked more like a feature-film baddie or grizzled detective than the brainiac inventor he played on The Wild Wild West. Martin thought so too. Playing Artemus Gordon made the actor a household name during its 1965-1969 run, and earned him an Emmy nomination in its final season. Yet the highly cultured Martin turned the role down a whopping five times before he reluctantly agreed to give it a try — and he tried to quit three times during the show’s first season.
Only his admiration for his costar Robert Conrad, who quickly became his great friend, kept him aboard until The Wild Wild West found its footing.
Everett Collection
The CBS show blended two genres that were popular at the time — the Westerns that had saturated primetime TV, and secret-agent spy tales like the ones told in the budding James Bond movie franchise. Throw in a little Get Smart gadgetry and mind-bending storylines and you’ve got The Wild Wild West.
Conrad, fresh off of the detective series Hawaiian Eye, played debonair Secret Service agent James West who teams up with Martin’s Artemus Gordon to protect the nation and then President Ulysses S. Grant from villainous forces. Before this bold new assignment, West served as a former Civil War captain and Gordon, a master of dialects and disguise, which would come in handy in his new role.
The Poland-born, highly-educated Martin really did speak Polish, Yiddish and Russian before he even learned English and later became fluent in French, Spanish and Italian. That natural talent for languages and dialects made the actor a shoo-in for the role.
Happily, a few years into the series, Martin told TV Guide that once the writers found their footing, Artemus Gordon was a “show-off’s showcase.” He threw himself into his character’s quirks, sketching every detail of each new persona and working with the makeup team to get his look just right. Like Conrad, he sometimes did his own stunts during the series’ many slugfests.
Though it was still a ratings hit, The Wild Wild West fell victim to Congress’s renewed concern over violent content on TV after just four seasons. Martin continued to act up until his death from a heat-induced heart attack in 1981. But he never found a role quite like Artemus Gordon.
To celebrate 60 years since viewers first met Artemus Gordon, the brains behind Jim West’s brawn, here are a few more fun facts about the multitalented Martin.
1 Martin could have practiced law
Ross Martin, at home, May 21, 1966. ph: Zinn Arthur / TV Guide / courtesy Everett Collection
Martin graduated with top honors from the City of New York College, then headed for the National School of Law (now George Washington University), where he earned a law degree. But show business called, and Martin answered.
2 He was a popular radio star
Thanks to his talent for dialects, Martin could voice almost any character producers threw at him. That skill earned him roles across the dial, his own series called The Ross Martin Show and later made him a popular TV guest star before and after The Wild Wild West.
3 Martin played another suave sidekick before Artemus Gordon
From 1959 to 1960, Martin starred as the nefarious, Latin-accented Andamo, partner in a floating casino, on the Blake Edwards series Mr. Lucky. The series was an immediate hit, but its main sponsor, the soap-making Lever Brothers, found gambling and gangsters too risky a premise and demanded a major change to the story. The casino became a restaurant, but the company still backed out. CBS couldn’t find a backup, and the show disappeared after a single season.
4 Martin created his costumes for The Wild Wild West
Everett Collection
And he kept what they’d look like close to the vest. Or the ascot. Or the Stetson. Or the chef’s toque. According to Wesley Britton’s 2004 book, “Spy Television,” Martin’s costars rarely knew what they’d be getting until he appeared on set for the day.
Martin’s insistence on perfection almost landed him in hot water one day went he stopped by his house while still in costume.
“I went home one afternoon to pick up a script without bothering to change, and a half an hour later the Beverly Hills Police were at my door because a neighbor had reported a suspicious stranger lurking around Ross Martin’s house,” he recalled. “I had to peel off my beard to prove who I was.”
5 He and Robert Conrad were plotting a new series
More Wild Wild West ©CBS/courtesy Everett Collection
Because the costars had devoted themselves to their characters and the chemistry that made them stars, Martin and Conrad were reluctant to give them up. “Ross Martin and I worked 70 hours a week without letup,” Conrad told SFGate. “We rarely got our scripts in advance. When I look back, it’s like a bizarre dream we floated through.”
The pair reprised their roles in two campy TV movies, 1979’s The Wild Wild West Revisited and More Wild Wild West a year later. Another was in the offing when Martin died of a heart attack at age 61 in 1981. Conrad and Martin were also rumored to be plotting a new The Wild Wild West series at the time, though Conrad said Martin was actually set to appear as a businessman in a series Conrad produced.
In 1999, Warner Bros. released a campy feature film version of The Wild Wild West that dropped the “The” from the title and added a heaping dose of slapstick. Though Wild Wild West boasted an A-list cast, with Will Smith playing James West and Kevin Kline as Artemus Gordon, the finished product was so bad that even Smith’s mom reportedly told him, “You’ve done better, baby.”
If you’re ready for “The Night Of” the original West and Gordon, check out The Wild Wild West on PlutoTV or Apple TV+.
What was your favorite Artemus Prime disguise? Tell us in the comments below.
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TV Westerns of the 50's & 60's
September 2021
’50s and ’60s TV Westerns roundup, celebrating the shows and stars of their golden age.
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