Martin E. Brooks was an actor best known for his role as Dr. Rudy Wells on the hit 1970s ABC television series The Six Million Dollar Man and its spin-off, The Bionic Woman.
Brooks played the scientist and primary overseer of the bionic aspects of Steve Austin, the lead character, played by Lee Majors. Brooks held the role in seasons three through five, and was preceded by Martin Balsam, who played the doctor in the pilot, and Alan Oppenheimer, who had the role in the first two seasons.
Brooks also appeared on the series Car 54, Where Are You?; General Hospital; Gunsmoke; The Fugitive; The Wild Wild West; The F.B.I.; Mission: Impossible; Mod Squad; Marcus Welby, M.D.; Double Identity; McMillan & Wife; The New Perry Mason; Planet of the Apes; Quincy M.E.; Dallas; Jessie; Cagney & Lacey; Benson; Hunter and Knots Landing.
He reprised his role as Dr. Wells in three television movies, 1987’s The Return of the Six-Million-Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman, 1989’s Bionic Showdown: The Six Million Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman and 1994’s Bionic Ever After?
Additionally, he appeared in the features The Man, with James Earl Jones and Martin Balsam; T-Force and his final credit, 1996’s Street Gun.
Martin E. Brooks was an actor best known for his role as Dr. Rudy Wells on the hit 1970s ABC television series The Six Million Dollar Man and its spin-off, The Bionic Woman.
Brooks played the scientist and primary overseer of the bionic aspects of Steve Austin, the lead character, played by Lee Majors. Brooks held the role in seasons three through five, and was preceded by Martin Balsam, who played the doctor in the pilot, and Alan Oppenheimer, who had the role in the first two seasons.
Brooks also appeared on the series Car 54, Where Are You?; General Hospital; Gunsmoke; The Fugitive; The Wild Wild West; The F.B.I.; Mission: Impossible; Mod Squad; Marcus Welby, M.D.; Double Identity; McMillan & Wife; The New Perry Mason; Planet of the Apes; Quincy M.E.; Dallas; Jessie; Cagney & Lacey; Benson; Hunter and Knots Landing.
He reprised his role as Dr. Wells in three television movies, 1987’s The Return of the Six-Million-Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman, 1989’s Bionic Showdown: The Six Million Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman and 1994’s Bionic Ever After?
Additionally, he appeared in the features The Man, with James Earl Jones and Martin Balsam; T-Force and his final credit, 1996’s Street Gun.
After high school, Brooks served in the U.S. Army, was a paratrooper with the 11th Airborne Division and was awarded a Purple Heart for incurring injuries during battle. After the war, he studied acting and was later invited by Lee Strasberg to join The Actors Studio.
He got his start on Broadway, with a role in John Steinbeck’s Burning Bright, for which he received a Theatre World Award and a Donaldson Award, and Arthur Miller’s adaptation of Ibsen’s Enemy of the People. He also co-starred with Brian Donlevy in a national tour of Saul Levitt’s The Andersonville Trial.
Brooks later taught at the Tracy Roberts Acting School, which he co-owned with Roberts. In 2014, he released an album, A Life Filled With Love, featuring songs he wrote and recorded in the 1960s and 1970s. He also wrote two novels, and his play Flo and Joe was optioned for a Broadway production.
Brooks died December 7, 2015, in Studio City, California. He was 90.
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