Quinn Martin (born Irwin Martin Cohn; May 22, 1922 – September 5, 1987) was an American

television producer A television producer is a person who oversees one or more aspects of video production on a television program. Some producers take more of an executive role, in that they conceive new programs and pitch them to the television networks, but upon ...

. He had at least one television series running in prime time every year for 21 straight years (from 1959 to 1980). Martin is a member of the

Television Hall of Fame The Television Academy Hall of Fame honors individuals who have made extraordinary contributions to U.S. television. The hall of fame was founded by former Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS) president John H. Mitchell (1921–1988). ...

, having been inducted in 1997.

Early life

Born on May 22, 1922, in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, Martin was the second of two children. His father, Martin Goodman Cohn, was a film editor and producer at the studios of Metro Goldwyn Mayer; his mother was Anna Messing Cohn. He was of

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

descent. From the age of 4, he was raised in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

. He graduated from Fairfax High School, then served five years in the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, enlisting in the Signal Corps at Fort MacArthur in San Pedro, California on September 10, 1940, and achieving the rank of sergeant. He later changed his name to Quinn Martin. While attending the

University of California at Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of Californi ...

, Martin majored in English studies but did not graduate. Martin started his career in television as a

film editor Film editing is both a creative and a technical part of the post-production process of filmmaking. The term is derived from the traditional process of working with film which increasingly involves the use of digital technology. The film edit ...

also at MGM, joining his father and also worked as manager of post-production for various organizations, including Universal Studios (1950–1954), but by the mid 1950s had become an executive producer for Desilu Studios, founded by

Lucille Ball Lucille Désirée Ball (August 6, 1911 – April 26, 1989) was an American actress, comedienne and producer. She was nominated for 13 Primetime Emmy Awards, winning five times, and was the recipient of several other accolades, such as the Gold ...

(1911-1989) and Desi Arnaz (1917-1986) of the famous 1950s TV series '' I Love Lucy'' (ran 1951–1957). His first wife, Madelyn Pugh Davis, was one half of the writing team behind '' I Love Lucy''. In 1959, he produced for Desilu a two-part special that appeared in season 1 of the '' Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse'' an anthology TV series and later became a weekly television show on the CBS television network, with '' The Untouchables'', which would later win several Emmy Awards.

Quinn Martin Productions

In 1960, Martin established his own production company, QM Productions. It produced a string of successful television series during the 1960s and 1970s.

Quinn Martin Television Series

Besides producing sixteen one-hour

television network A television network or television broadcaster is a telecommunications network for distribution of television program content, where a central operation provides programming to many television stations or pay television providers. Until the mid ...

series, he also produced twenty "made-for-TV" movies, including '' House on Greenapple Road'' (1970), '' Incident in San Francisco'' (1971), ''Murder or Mercy'' (1974), ''The FBI Story: The FBI vs. Alvin Karpis, Public Enemy Number One'' (1974), '' Attack on Terror: The FBI vs. the Ku Klux Klan'' (1975), and '' Brink's: The Great Robbery'' (1976). Some TV movies, like '' Code Name: Diamond Head'' (1977), and '' The Hunted Lady'' (1977), were originally filmed as pilots for new television dramas which were never picked up by the networks. His only feature film was '' The Mephisto Waltz'' (1971), released by 20th Century Studios. In 1979, a group of investors purchased his wholly self-owned QM Productions and subsequently sold it to Taft Broadcasting. Later in that year, the company was reincorporated into Taft Entertainment Television, though the QM name and logo continued to be used on-screen and for copyright purposes until the last official production was broadcast in 1983.

Typical format of a QM program

Shows produced by the company were usually introduced by announcer Dick Wesson or

Hank Simms Hank Simms (May 25, 1923 – August 7, 2013) was a voice actor and announcer, best known for narrating the opening credits of Quinn Martin TV shows, including '' The F.B.I.'', ''Barnaby Jones'', ''Cannon'' and ''The Streets of San Francisco'' ...

reading the title of the series and saying, "A Quinn Martin Production." Images of the stars of the show, followed by the guest stars for that week, were shown and their names announced, followed by "Tonight's episode", and the name of the episode, with various to-black effects. In some series, such as '' The Fugitive'' and '' The Invaders'', its backstory that led to the plot of the series, narrated by the announcer or the star, was told before the show's guest stars were announced. While episodes were structured into the usual four "acts" and an "epilogue," each was explicitly labelled at the start of each segment with the show title and the act number (or "epilog" near the end of the program).

Later life

Martin worked as an adjunct professor at the University of California at San Diego's

Earl Warren College Earl Warren College is one of seven undergraduate colleges at the University of California, San Diego. Warren College has one of the largest student populations at UCSD, with over 4,000 undergraduate students, comprising about one fifth of the stud ...

, where he also endowed a professorial chair in drama. He also established a scholarship for theater arts and communications students at Santa Clara University Martin moved to Rancho Santa Fe, California, near

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United States ...

where he became president of the La Jolla Playhouse and the

Del Mar Fair Del, or nabla, is an operator used in mathematics (particularly in vector calculus) as a vector differential operator, usually represented by the nabla symbol ∇. When applied to a function defined on a one-dimensional domain, it denotes the ...

board of directors. He was involved with developing motion pictures for Warner Bros. with a new company named QM Communications.

Death

Martin died of a heart attack on September 5, 1987, in his home in Rancho Santa Fe,

References

*1930 Federal Census *Obituary: Quinn Martin. ''Atlanta Journal-Constitution''. 8 September 1987. *Obituary: Quinn Martin. ''San Francisco Chronicle''. 8 September 1987. *Obituary: Quinn Martin. ''South Florida Sun-Sentinel''. 8 September 1987. *Obituary: Quinn Martin. ''Washington Post''. 8 September 1987. * Social Security Death Index *U.S. Army Enlistment Records (, at enlistment)

External links

Find a Grave (includes photo)
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Martin, Quinn 1922 births 1987 deaths Television producers from New York City University of California, Berkeley alumni United States Army personnel of World War II American racehorse owners and breeders 20th-century American businesspeople Burials at Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery American people of Jewish descent United States Army soldiers