Comedy / Film & TV
Dick Martin
1922–2008 · comedian, television director
Co-host of Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, who grew up in Detroit after his family moved there in the early 1930s.
- Born
Battle Creek, Michigan- Died
Santa Monica, California
aged 86- Birth name
- Thomas Richard Martin
- Detroit years
- early 1930s–1940s
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Dick Martin was born in Battle Creek, Michigan, and grew up in Detroit after his family moved to the city in the early 1930s. As a teenager he contracted tuberculosis, which kept him out of military service in World War II and left him with breathing problems for the rest of his life. He found his way into comedy writing and nightclub work, and in 1952 he teamed up with Dan Rowan; Martin played the likable, girl-crazy dimwit to Rowan's straight man, and one signature bit had him as a drunk heckling a Shakespearean actor. In 1968 the pair launched Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In on NBC, a rapid-fire sketch show that reached number one within two months and made stars of Goldie Hawn and Detroit's own Lily Tomlin. Martin later became a sought-after sitcom director, handling 33 episodes of Newhart.
Highlights
- Co-host of Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In (1968–1973)
- Comedy team with Dan Rowan from 1952
- Directed 33 episodes of Newhart (1982–1990)
- Laugh-In helped launch Detroit-born Lily Tomlin