Martin E. Brooks of ‘Six Million Dollar Man,’ ‘Bionic Woman,’ dies at 90

Martin E. Brooks, whose acting career included Broadway dramas and TV series, including “The Six Million Dollar Man” and “Dallas,” died Monday. He was 90.

Jon Landau, a film producer and friend of Brooks, said he died of natural causes after a brief hospitalization in Los Angeles. Brooks and Landau’s mother, Edie Landau, were childhood friends who became close companions two decades ago after she was widowed.

Brooks’ best-known role was as scientist Dr. Rudy Wells on the 1970s series “The Six Million Dollar Man” and its spinoff “The Bionic Woman.” The role of Wells had previously been played in the original series by Alan Oppenheimer.

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Brooks, who was born in New York on Nov. 30, 1925, also appeared in “The Philco Television Playhouse” in the 1950s, “Combat!” in the 1960s and “Knots Landing” in the 1990s. He also played Dr. Arthur Bradshaw on the ABC daytime serial “General Hospital.”

Landau said Brooks was proud of his stage work that included “An Enemy of the People” and “I Am a Camera,” as well as the actors with whom he appeared, including Julie Harris and Barbara Bel Geddes.

In 1985, a Los Angeles Times critic praised his bored bad-guy performance as chairman of the House Un-American Activities Committee in a local production of “Are You Now or Have You Ever Been” at the Back Alley: “Brooks beams his eyes over the audience as if searching for communists out there, too,” the critic said.

“Marty was the eternal optimist. He only looked at the good things in life,” Landau said.

Times staff contributed to this report.

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