Actor Martin Gabel Dies; Husband of Arlene Francis

NEW YORK — Tony Award-winning actor Martin Gabel, who starred on stages from Broadway to Hollywood, died in a hospital emergency room near the Park Avenue apartment he shared with his wife, Arlene Francis. He was 73.

Gabel was stricken with a heart attack in his apartment at the Ritz Towers on Thursday evening and was pronounced dead in the emergency room of New York Hospital.

Gabel, born in Philadelphia on June 19, 1912, made his Broadway debut in “Man Bites Dog” in 1933.

He won a Tony for best supporting actor for his 1961 performance in the Broadway play “Big Fish, Little Fish.” Other Broadway credits include “The Hidden River” and “Once More With Feeling,” both of which he co-produced, and “Baker Street.”

He also was an original member of Orson Welles’ Mercury Theatre.

Films credited to the actor, producer and director include “Fourteen Hours,” “The Thief,” “Lord Love a Duck,” “Divorce American Style,” “The Front Page” and “The First Deadly Sin.”

Gabel’s face was known to television viewers who watched his frequent appearances with his wife, Arlene Francis, on the weekly nighttime show “What’s My Line?”

They were married in 1946 and had one son, Peter.

Despite his many credits, Gabel appeared to have felt he lived in his celebrity wife’s shadow. “In ‘Who’s Who,’ you’ll find me in the Fs--married to Arlene Francis,” he once said.