John McMartin (born November 18, 1929) is an American actor of stage, film and television.
McMartin was born in Warsaw, Indiana and raised in Minnesota. He attended college in Illinois and New York. He made his off-Broadway debut in Little Mary Sunshine in 1959, playing opposite Eileen Brennan. He won a Theatre World Award for his role as Corporal Billy Jester, and married one of the show's producers, Cynthia Baer, in 1960; they divorced in 1971. He has two daughters, Kathleen Alice and Susan Helen.
His first Broadway appearance was as Forrest Noble in The Conquering Hero, which was followed by Blood, Sweat and Stanley Poole. He created the part of Oscar, the cad, in Sweet Charity in 1966, opposite Gwen Verdon, garnering a Tony nomination, and played the role again on film opposite Shirley Maclaine.
He was cast in Stephen Sondheim's A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum in 1962, but his role was cut before the show opened. Years later he starred in Sondheim's hit, Follies, as "Benjamin Stone" alongside Alexis Smith, introducing the ballad "Too Many Mornings". The association has continued as he appeared in regional productions of A Little Night Music and the Broadway revival of Into the Woods.
Other Broadway roles include the Narrator in Happy New Year, Ben in A Little Family Business, Donner in Tom Stoppard's Artist Descending a Staircase, Cap'n Andy in Kern and Hammerstein's Show Boat, and Uncle Willie in Cole Porter's High Society. He had a starring role in the 1965 Broadway-bound Frank Loesser – Sam Spewack musical Pleasures and Palaces that closed following its Detroit run.
He was a leading member of the New Phoenix Repertory Company during their three Broadway seasons in the early 1970s, playing in Eugene O'Neill's The Great God Brown, Molière's Don Juan, Durrenmatt's The Visit, Chemin de Fer, Pirandello's The Rules of the Game, and Love for Love. He also played Anton Schell opposite Chita Rivera in Kander and Ebb's musical version of The Visit at the Goodman Theatre, and created the roles of J.V. "Major" Bouvier and Norman Vincent Peale in Grey Gardens.
